Oakley's Oldest Vines Have Been on Famous Labels for Years. Now They Pour on Second Street.

Why would a winery in Sonoma or Paso Robles print the name of an Oakley vineyard on its label? A handful of well-known California producers have done it for years. The Historic Vineyard Society lists Bedrock, Turley, Ridge and Neyers as wineries working with Evangelho Vineyard, an Oakley site planted in the 1890s. Cline Cellars currently sells a 2023 Big Break Zinfandel made from century-old vines in what it calls extremely sandy soil.

Until this fall, nowhere in Oakley poured any of it. That changed when Favalora Vineyards Winery opened the city's first wine tasting room inside a downtown building that has stood since 1904. The address is 204 Second St. For the first time, the town has a place to taste its own grapes as wine.

The vineyard names that travel without the town

Oakley's reputation in wine circles rests on a short list of named vineyards. Most are documented by the Historic Vineyard Society, and several are farmed or bottled by the same few producers.

• Evangelho Vineyard. Planted in the 1890s. The Historic Vineyard Society describes 120-year-old, head-pruned, non-irrigated vines on their original roots. Bedrock Wine Co. calls it a field blend of Zinfandel, Carignane and Mourvèdre growing in 40-foot-deep beach sand.
• Mazzoni-Live Oak. Planted around 1885. Its old block covers roughly 2.5 acres of Zinfandel-led field blend, and about two-thirds of the original vines are still on their own roots. Cline, Trinitas and Three Wine Company are the associated producers.
• Pato Vineyard. Bedrock says it farms this 1905 planting on Oakley's Delhi sands and has made a vineyard-designated Pato wine since 2016.
• Mori Vineyard. A 1930s planting of own-rooted Zinfandel on Delhi sands. Bedrock farms it, and Bedrock and Turley both make wine from it.
• Del Barba. The Old Vine Registry gives an estimated planting year of 1923 and says the true date may be earlier. Its list of producers includes Turley, Bedrock, Neyers, Biale, Erggelet Brothers, Martha Stoumen and August Briggs.
• Planchon. A 6.65-acre remnant of a 40-acre homestead that Joseph Planchon planted in 1902, with old head-pruned Zinfandel still on its original rootstock.
• Big Break. The Historic Vineyard Society certifies this vineyard as a 1910s planting and names Cline as its winery. Cline says the name comes from a 1928 levee break that flooded the surrounding farmland.
• Oakley Road. Once & Future makes vineyard-designated Mataro and Zinfandel from this site and describes its 2022 wines as coming from 122-year-old vines.

One more site shows how varied these properties' stories are. The Historic Vineyard Society lists Joaquin José, an 1890s vineyard now owned by the State of California, as sitting inside the Dutch Slough salt marsh restoration project.

Why the sand matters more than the age

Many of Oakley's oldest vines still grow on their own roots, and the soil explains why. Once & Future says its Oakley Road vines grow unirrigated and own-rooted in Delta sands that inhibit phylloxera, a root louse that attacks grapevines. The Historic Vineyard Society puts the Delhi sandy loam under Mazzoni-Live Oak at more than 30 feet deep. Bedrock describes Evangelho's sand as 40 feet deep.

The same descriptions come up across these sources: head-pruned, dry-farmed, own-rooted, sandy. Cline's Big Break page uses almost all of them. Not every site fits the pattern. The Old Vine Registry notes that Del Barba's vines are not own-rooted. Still, the sandy ground along Oakley's roads explains why vines planted before the city existed are still producing wine that carries the city's name.

A reputation that skipped its own downtown

Frank Favalora, who runs the new tasting room, described the gap plainly at the ribbon cutting. "We have some great Carignane and Zinfandels that a lot of people throughout the wine industry know, but people around here really haven't heard of it because we don't have tasting rooms, don't have wineries," he told Contra Costa News.

In the same report, he said his goal is "to try to make the best wine I can from the grapes in Oakley." He added that he hopes the room marks the start of more wine-related investment in the city. Becky Bloomfield of the Contra Costa Winegrowers Association called the opening "an actual wonderful fruition of the display and the celebration of what Oakley's been doing for a very long time."

The winery says its first vines went in back in 1999, and its Livermore operation hosts quarterly openings for wine club members. The Oakley room is its first tasting room inside the city.

The building already belonged to everyone

The tasting room's address carries much of the town's civic history. As Contra Costa News recounted from the grand opening, one of Oakley's founders sold the property to the Congregational Church in 1903 for a $1 gold coin. The building went up in 1904 as one of Oakley's first churches and later became a library. In 1926 the Woman's Club bought it and kept it for roughly 75 years. After Oakley incorporated in 1999, it became the city's first City Hall. Once the current City Hall was built, residents came to call the old building the "White House."

The owner who bought the property in 2023 and led the restoration was identified at the opening only as Julie. She worked to preserve the building's original footprint. "I hope the building can be a place for the community to gather and honor a bit of its past and present," she said in that report. The City of Oakley provided grant assistance. Vice Mayor Aaron Meadows said, "This is what I and we have envisioned for downtown."

The East Contra Costa Historical Society keeps a display near the entrance, with exhibits expected to rotate throughout the year.

That display connects the wine back to the history behind the vineyards. The Zinfandel at Mazzoni-Live Oak went in around 1885, nearly two decades before the church on Second Street was built. Both come out of the same farming town, and the building now holds a piece of each.

Tasting it this November

The Oakley tasting room keeps a short weekly schedule:

The winery's events calendar lists a free evening with the band Gypsy Stone on Saturday, November 14, from 5:30 to 8:30 p.m., with no cover charge. The event's web link points to November 21, so confirm the date with the winery before you go.

A few other November dates on the calendar pair easily with the tasting room:

1. Friday, November 6. The City of Oakley's Friday Night Bites runs from 5 to 9 p.m. at Civic Center Park downtown. The Favalora room pours from 4 to 8 p.m. that evening. The East Bay Regional Park District has also scheduled a Birding by Kayak outing from the Big Break kayak launch that day.
2. Wednesday, November 11. The city's Veterans Day Ceremony runs from 11 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. at Civic Center Park, 3231 Main Street.
3. Wednesday through Sunday, except Thanksgiving. The Big Break Visitor Center at 69 Big Break Road is open from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. and closed on Thanksgiving Day. The park district currently has a blue-green algae danger advisory posted for Big Break, so check its alerts page before any water contact.

After November, the city calendar lists the Tree Lighting Ceremony for Thursday, December 3, from 4 to 7:30 p.m. at Civic Center Park.

If you've ever wondered about the vineyards you pass on your way through Oakley, I'm always happy to talk about the town's farming roots, its downtown and the people bringing both back to life. Christine Canales would love to hear which Oakley wine you try first. Let's Connect.