Planting for the Future The Alamillos Are Creating an East County Getaway April 2006

by Fidel Alamillo
Photos by Russell Byrne

My forebears were generations of grape growers and bridge builders from Seville, Spain. They were large people with blue eyes and fair skin. The clan moved to Colorado in the 1700s chasing after the silver that had been discovered in that area. For a while they continued moving between mining operations in Colorado and Zacatecas, Mexico.

My family moved to California in the early 1900s because of the weather and also because the mining company they were working with moved them to this area. My maternal grandfather got into farming, while the other members of the family continued their mining activities, moving between operations in Colorado and California.

Our family left their mark on our county. Alamillo Springs in Dublin, for example, was named for us. People occasionally recognize from our name that we were grape growers from Spain. Some of our people are there to this day. Perhaps they still move every year down rows of grapes that our distant ancestors planted generations ago.

People of the Land
The centuries of farming and building developed an understanding among us for growing things and for developing the land. We know how to raise corn, beans, and watermelons. We were irrigating, farming, and growing crops before anyone imagined things like PG&E and government farm subsidies. We depended upon God’s favor. His hand sent sunshine and rain to bless us and to make our crops grow. Times of planting and harvesting were adventures the whole family participated in. As a small boy I remember helping bring the harvest home in the fall. I remember as a little child feeling unbounded joy in my heart while watching the fruit of the harvest fill the grain bins full to overflowing. I remember the joy of playing in my grandparent’s bins full of corn and beans.

I recently went with my son, Anthony, to Fresno to pick up a load of grapes. The experience was indescribable! I felt like I was part of a great wheel of life that has been turning through our family for uncounted decades. I had the wonderful blessing of watching my little 2-year-old grandchild, Alexander, walking across the top of the grapes just as I had as a child myself. I was so proud! The little guy is getting started right. Decades from now he will tell people that he took his earliest steps in the wine industry before he can remember. Fifty years from now he’ll still be telling people, “I’ve been involved in the wine industry since before my earliest memories.”

The land here in the Far East County is wonderful; the climate is superb! Brentwood soil can grow the world’s greatest corn! Now farmlands are being sold to developers. The old life based upon the land, seasons, and weather is going away. It is heart breaking to see homes and office buildings springing up on sites where grapes, beans, and fruit trees grew for more than a century. Where are the nice farms and wineries that have been in the area since the late 1800s? Once you pave over fertile land the orchards, vineyards, and fields are gone forever.

Don’t get me wrong, I’m no enemy of development. C&F Alamillo Steel played a big role in the bridges, freeways, and highways around the state. I’ve been personally involved in the business of making the rebar that fortifies the buildings and overpasses that have been built throughout much of the Bay area during the past three decades.

Development is good, or at least irresistible, but the processes of urbanization should have their limit. Some places should be undeveloped or developed only for agricultural uses. We need to keep our rural way of life alive, even if such a life must adapt to meet changing situations. The challenge facing us all is to update the processes and technology of farming in appropriate ways while maintaining the experience and nature of our country existence.

Bringing the Past into the Present for the Sake of the Future
We’ve been in the Camino Diablo property for six years. I bought it with the intention of recapturing my grandparents’ culture. I’m trying to keep the traditions of the land alive for the generations yet to come. We want people to enjoy the lifestyle that has vanished in so many places. I never expected to do this, since I spent my professional life working with steel, but now I’m getting back to my roots.

We are so delighted to be involved in the East County farming scene. Our Alamillo Vineyards are in the middle of the Bay Area’s last remaining major agricultural center. The rich fields and orchards of such places as San Jose, Fruitvale, and Oakland have all vanished beneath parking lots, donut shops, car washes, fast-food stands, and shopping malls. Hundreds of thousands of acres of prime topsoil have vanished beneath subdivisions and strip malls.

At Alamillo Vineyards we are trying to reverse the tidal wave of urbanization that has been sweeping over us for the past three decades. We are creating a classical winery in East County. We will bring to Brentwood the culture of my heritage. We’re planting crops in land that was fallow and replacing acres of brown weeds with rows upon marching rows of green and orderly vines.

We’re joining an agriculture tourism revolution that has the potential in a few years of creating an island of industry in this area that will be strong enough to stave off forever the waves of bulldozers and cement mixers belonging to the commercial and residential developers. We intend to be part of the growing effort to preserve our agricultural heritage and to conserve the countryside in a somewhat natural state. We want to develop a getaway where people will be able to spend at least a few hours experiencing nature and the products and processes of growing things.

In three years our grapes will be at first harvest and we’ll process them in our own onsite press. In keeping with the growing traditions of our distant past, as well as with the winds of current research, we’re creating pesticide-free crops. We are putting finishing touches on a shining new 4,000 square foot winery to showcase our product. The winery has rooms for tasting, plus smaller venues for celebrations and parties.

The winery will be overshadowed by a 7,500 square foot event center, spotlighting the press, a barrel room, and a cellar large enough to hold a thousand cases of wine. In addition, the event center will feature a large hall for weddings, holiday parties, and other large celebrations. We are building a gazebo beside the event center. The place will provide a lovely setting for photos. Celebrants will be able to ride in a horse-drawn carriage across a picturesque bridge over a bubbling stream.

In the meantime we are making Muscat wines, which was a favorite of early Spanish and Italian immigrants. Muscat is one of the most fragrant grapes and produces wine with the same aroma as the grape itself. Our sweet fortified Muscats have a classic rich, nose of dried fruits, raisins, and oranges. We conducted our first bottling in July. In addition we are also bottling Petite Syrah.

Camino Diablo Get Away
Our family heritage is completely dwarfed by the ancient character of our land. Our property is strewn with giant boulders studded with shells belonging to sea animals that died hundreds of millions of years ago, when the Bay Area was completely submerged beneath an immense inland sea. We are building walls, fences, and borders out of stones that were old before dinosaurs walked on our land.

Our ancient land provides a good location for us and our friends to enjoy timeless nature. The full moon rises every month above the hill right on the back of our property and shines so bright that you can sometimes read newspapers by its brilliance. We sit in the back of our property, sipping a glass of vino, and feel our connection with the earth that breathes like a living creature in the surrounding quietness.

The eagles flying around our property are welcome neighbors. They are happy with our presence because we are not harming their habitat. We’re planting green things, which are attracting little scrub jays that sing in the trees. Big birds and small are enjoying the changes coming to the neighborhood, just as we are enjoying the changes ourselves.

I want to have something on the premises that the kids can be involved in, as well as adults. I can picture grown-ups crowding around the tasting room while their kids are out with the plants. Children like to grow anything. They are fascinated by the act of sticking a piece of bamboo in the ground, watering it, and watching it grow.

Building Alamillo Vineyards is a big challenge. But I’ve always faced up to challenges in order to achieve goals for family and friends. That’s just how I am! I’m bringing to Brentwood the vision that I inherited from my parents and hope to pass on to my children. My grandparents passed it to us, and we’re trying to pass it on to our grandchildren.

One day we’re going to move off the scene of this world and younger generations will come in to take our place. We want to leave something behind for our children that they can leave for their children – something that will carry on after we are gone. The chain of our family’s destiny can be broken in one generation, so it is important for us who have the knowledge to forge their rightful link in the chain for those who will follow.

I believe that we have been put into this place to grow a good thing for our community. The Alamillo Vineyard project will reach far beyond our family. For example, we’re going to provide fun for underprivileged kids. We’ll bring them out here and teach them how to plant a tree or harvest a bunch of grapes. I’ll pass forward the lessons I learned from my parents and grandparents. I’m going to keep the circle of life turning that always renews itself even as it brings us back again to our origins.