Our History

1850s Logging camp begins in Bonny Doon, which is named after The Banks O’Doon by Robert Burns, the Scottish poet famous for the song Auld Lang Syne

How Bonny Doon got it’s name

pre-1871 John B. Williams owns Pine Flat Ranch (the beginning of the Beauregard Ranch Vineyard)

1871, 6 years after Abraham Lincoln was assassinated, Fritz Quistorf purchases Pine Flat Ranch. Fritz is married to Maggie Burns, who happens to be related to Robert Burns

1875 Fritz Quistorf begins working the land

1880 – The Origin of the Santa Cruz Mountain Wine Industry by Michael R Holland

1887 Grapes are planted on the Quistorf Ranch

          View the Quistorf Ranch farming journal

1887 The Ben Lomond Wine Company makes wine in the Santa Cruz Mountains

          View the article about the Ben Lomond Wine Company

1906 New vineyard planted, listed as Carbonat, Zinifadell and Shavenoe grapes in the Quistorf family journal

1914-1918 During WWI women work in the Quistorf vineyard

1920 Clinton Quistorf takes over vineyard from his father Fritz

1920-1933 Prohibition: Grapes are sold in small amounts for home winemaking. Limited to 200 gallons/year

1940 UC Davis plants an experimental vineyard on the Quistorf Ranch

1940-1945 WWII leads to smaller sales of grapes to local wineries, including Locatelli and Bargetto in Santa Cruz and Wente in Livermore