Web Winery
Since 1995

Burrell School Vineyards & Winery

Los Gatos, Santa Cruz Mountains. A family winery at an 1890 schoolhouse on Summit Road.

OpenChecked Nov 15, 2026, source1

Visit burrellschool.com

About the winery

Burrell School Vineyards & Winery is a small family winery on Summit Road above Los Gatos, at about 1,600 feet in the Santa Cruz Mountains, built around a red schoolhouse from 18902. Lyman J. Burrell settled on the ridge in 1853 and planted grapes there the next year, and his family gave an acre for a school. The first schoolhouse burned in 1889; the present one was dedicated on July 4, 1890, and served the mountain community until 1950, according to the winery's 1998 page on Web Winery4.

Dave and Anne Moulton bought the land and the run-down schoolhouse in 19736, restored it as their home and rededicated it on its centennial in 19904. Dave, an electrical engineer in Silicon Valley, had been a home winemaker for decades; Anne, the vineyard manager, planted the Chardonnay in 1991 and 1992 and the Merlot in 19945. The winery was bonded in 19926 and opened to the public on August 5, 19957. Its labels showed the schoolhouse in an 1890 photograph taken by the teacher, Mrs. Arthur Sears4. Besides the estate grapes, the Moultons bought fruit in those years: their 1997 harvest report told of picking Zinfandel in Dry Creek Valley, Zinfandel from Amador County, and their first Santa Cruz Mountains Pinot Noir8.

The winery dates its vineyard from 1992 today, and describes all its wines as estate grown: Chardonnay, Merlot, Pinot Noir (added in 2002), Cabernet Franc, Cabernet Sauvignon and a Bordeaux-style blend called Valedictorian2. In 2022 a Good Times article described Dave Moulton as still making the wine and running the property3.

Known for

  • Estate Chardonnay
  • Pinot Noir
  • Merlot
  • Cabernet Franc
  • Valedictorian, a Bordeaux-style blend

In the press

From the archives

Pages Burrell School Vineyards & Winery published on the original Web Winery, from December 1998. Visiting details in them are long out of date.

Burrell School Vineyards logo: the name in script above an oval drawing of the old schoolhouse among trees.
Burrell School's logo on Web Winery, 1999.
  1. Dave and Anne Moulton, winemaker and vineyard manager. The winery's 1998 page on its owners: Dave Moulton, an electrical engineer and home winemaker of 28 years who had taken classes at UC Davis, and Anne Moulton, the vineyard manager, who planted 2,300 Chardonnay vines in 1991 and 1992 and 900 Merlot vines in 1994. Their daughters Elena and Marianne helped with the 1998 harvest. Wayback copy
  2. Harvest 1997: a record Chardonnay crop and the first estate Merlot. The Moultons' report on the 1997 harvest: a record 18 tons of estate Chardonnay in early September, the first fruit from the young estate Merlot vines (one barrel), Zinfandel picked in Dry Creek Valley and from Mario Biagi's vineyard in Amador County, and their first Santa Cruz Mountains Pinot Noir and Cabernet Franc from Mount Eden Road. Wayback copy
  3. Burrell School Vineyards home page and the schoolhouse history. The winery's home page in December 1998 introduced Dave and Anne Moulton's five acres of Chardonnay and Merlot at 1,560 feet, announced Pichon Partners LLC, a new red-wine vineyard above Lexington Reservoir, and told the history of Lyman J. Burrell and the 1890 schoolhouse the Moultons restored and rededicated in 1990. Wayback copy

Nearby in Santa Cruz Mountains