The Winery is located on the Old Creek Ranch. The Ranch is part of a Spanish 22,000 acre land grant awarded to Don Fernando Tico, dating back to the early history of California. In the late 1800's Antonio Riva of northern Italy purchased the ranch. He was a chef in Paris, London and later in San Francisco. He built a winery on the ranch at that time.
Today the original winery still stands and has been depicted as the logo and on the label of previous wines. At that time, wines were made without electricity and utilized gravity as a means to move the wine in the processing. Riva produced wine until about 1942, including the prohibition years. Wine purchasers would leave an order and money on the clothesline and would return later to pickup a jug of red wine left at the base of an oak tree.
The Winery now outsources grapes. They are involved with some of the premier growers, Branham Obsidian Vineyard (Napa), and from Santa Barbara County, Stolpman Vineyards, Sanford Benedict Vineyard, White Hawk Vineyard, Vogelzang Vineyard, McGinley Vineyard (formally Westerly), and Estelle Vineyard. In the meantime, today the ranch is an 850-acre cattle ranch with a winery, and fruit orchards.
