Ken Deaver stoops his broad shoulders to uncork a bottle of Zinfandel, wearing his trade- mark denims and cowboy hat, and you soon learn that Ken knows his wines. And his grapes. As you look upon Deaver’s 300 acres you will see 140-year-old Zinfindel vines and eight acres of Mission vines, so called because they were brought from Mexico by the Jesuits and Franciscans. The Deaver mission vines were planted around 1854 by Ken Deaver's great grandfather John A. Davis.

Renwood is Destination Zin! Our wines start with separately fermented small lots of fruit, hand-picked from gnarled old head-trained vines dating back to the 19th century. These elderly vines produce a scant crop but the quality is excellent and exhibits the classic markers of Amador Zinfandel, dusty berry and spice. Renwood Winery produces limited production Zinfandel, Rhone and Italian varietal wines exclusively for our tasting room.

The Irving family immigrated to the United States from Nova Scotia. Grandfather John Irving worked in the Comstock Lode silver mines near Virginia City, Nevada before moving to Jackson, California to mine gold. In 1890, they acquired an 84 acre ranch east of Placerville. It was known as the four mile ranch because it straddled the main road east, formerly the route of the Pony Express. An existing house on the property was present at the time of their acquisition and is listed on the county tax rolls from 1885.After years of clean up and restoration, the ranch has become one of the show places in the Apple Hill area. The property has approximately 16 acres of wine grapes, as well as, peaches and eight varieties of apples farmed by a local retail fruit operation.

More than a few small wineries have started in a garage, but we may be the only Winery to begin that way, move on to bigger and better quarters, and still be in a garage. Founded in 1980 in a small garage on the outskirts of town, in 1982 the Winery moved to its present location, the historic Miners Foundry Garage, on Spring St in downtown Nevada City. Remarkably, the Winery is located less than two blocks from where the original Nevada City Winery stood over a century ago. The Winery was begun by Allan Haley, a Nevada County native with a European wine education and a dream of bringing winemaking back to our region. In 1880 there were over 300 acres of grapes in the County. In 1980 when the Winery opened there was one small vineyard, recently planted. Twenty years later there are again well over 300 acres of grapes and the wine industry is flourishing once more.