Web Winery
Since 1995

Ahlgren Vineyard

Boulder Creek, Santa Cruz Mountains. 1976 to 2016.

No longer tradingChecked Nov 15, 2026, source1

No longer trading

Ahlgren Vineyard closed in 2016, forty years after Dexter and Valerie Ahlgren bonded their cellar winery near Boulder Creek1. A community history of Santa Cruz Mountains wineries says they had put it up for sale in 2005 and closed it when no buyer came forward2. There is nowhere to visit and no wine to order.

The old ahlgrenvineyard.com address now belongs to someone else5.

About the winery

Ahlgren Vineyard was a small winery in the Santa Cruz Mountains near Boulder Creek, in the cellar beneath Dexter and Valerie Ahlgren's home1,3. The couple started making wine at their house in Sunnyvale, where Val's home fermenting showed Dexter, a civil engineer, that he was the winemaker of the family. In 1973 they began building a redwood house by hand on a mountain site, with the winery dug into the hill beneath it, and they bonded the winery in 19764.

The Ahlgrens bought grapes from chosen vineyards and named them on the label, such as the 1976 Bates' Ranch Cabernet Sauvignon from the Santa Cruz Mountains3. They made Semillon from 1979, as well as Chardonnay, Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot, Cabernet Franc and Zinfandel, by hand: reds fermented in small open-top vessels and punched down, and never filtered3. Production was about 2,500 cases a year3.

In 2000, after Dexter Ahlgren had a stroke, their daughter Beth took over as winemaker, the same community history says2.

Known for

  • Bates Ranch Cabernet Sauvignon
  • Semillon
  • single-vineyard red wines

From the archives

Pages Ahlgren Vineyard published on the original Web Winery, from December 1998.

  1. How the Ahlgrens became winemakers. The winery's own story of its founders: Val Ahlgren's home fermenting in Sunnyvale, Dexter's talent as winemaker, a garage turned into a winery, and the 1973 start on a hand-built redwood house in the Santa Cruz Mountains with the cellar beneath it, bonded in 1976. Wayback copy
  2. About Ahlgren Vineyard and its winemaking. Ahlgren Vineyard's own description of its history and methods: founded in 1976 beneath Dexter and Valerie Ahlgren's mountain home, focused on single-vineyard wines, Semillon and hand-made reds, with unfiltered wines and minimal sulfites. Wayback copy
  3. Ahlgren harvest photos, 1995. Photos from the 1995 harvest at Ahlgren Vineyard showed Dexter Ahlgren and family, including grandchildren Ryan and Mette, setting up the pneumatic press to press Semillon, with grapes arriving in small boxes. Wayback copy

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