Hallcrest Vineyards, Felton

About the winery

Hallcrest Vineyards sits on a small hill above Felton, in the Santa Cruz Mountains. The Hall family named the place in the 1880s and used it as a retreat until 1941, when Chaffee Hall, a San Francisco business attorney, planted the first vineyard². The first vintage followed in 1946⁴. In Hall's day it was one of only three wineries in the Santa Cruz Mountains and the only one making varietal wines from its own vineyards, and it was best known for Cabernet Sauvignon and White Riesling².

After Hall retired, the property was run as Felton Empire. In 1987 John Schumacher and his family bought it and brought back the Hallcrest name²; the winery's 1998 history on Web Winery names John, his wife Lorraine and his sister Shirin as the buyers, with John, a UC Davis-trained winemaker, making the wine⁵. The Schumachers still own and run Hallcrest, making small lots of Santa Cruz Mountains wines².

Hallcrest is also the home of The Organic Wine Works, a label of wines from organically grown grapes made without added sulfites³. The winery says it set up the first vineyard certified by California Certified Organic Farmers on the Central Coast, and calls The Organic Wine Works the country's first certified organic wine made without sulfites³. The same page puts Hallcrest's production at just over 20,000 cases a year, a full range that includes Chardonnay, Cabernet Sauvignon, Pinot Noir and Syrah³.

Known for

Santa Cruz Mountains Pinot Noir
Cabernet Sauvignon
The Organic Wine Works (no added sulfites)

Recipes from Hallcrest

Main course
Salmon in Zinfandel Cream Sauce with Garden Herbs

First shared on Web Winery in 1998.

In the press

Publication not recorded, February 1999, “Sulfite production in wine fermentations: How much sulfite is produced by yeasts in grape must with no added sulfites?”, by Lyle C. Abrahamson
Press archive entry Wayback Machine copy
Santa Cruz Sentinel, January 23, 2000, “Wines before their time: area vintners among the first to go organic”, by Stett Holbrook
Press archive entry Wayback Machine copy
North Islander (Lifestyle), April 12, 2003, “Organic wines are often misunderstood”, by Doug Sloan
Press archive entry Wayback Machine copy
planitvancouver.com, February 10, 2004, “Here is a wine for those who can't take sulphur”, by John Schreiner
Press archive entry Wayback Machine copy

From the archives

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

Hallcrest's logo on Web Winery, 1999.

On Web Winery by December 1998
History of Hallcrest and the Schumachers. This page told Hallcrest's story from Chaffee Hall's 1941 founding to the Schumacher family's 1987 purchase and revival of the name, profiled winemaker John Schumacher, and introduced the Organic Wine Works line of unsulfited wines.
On Web Winery by December 1998
The Organic Wine Works label. The Organic Wine Works page explained that Hallcrest's second label was made from organically grown grapes and also processed organically without added sulfites, aimed at sulfite-sensitive drinkers, and certified by California Certified Organic Farmers.
On Web Winery by September 2003
Hallcrest staff profiles. The staff page introduced proprietors John and Lorraine Schumacher, who lived on site with their three children, and the team: winemaker Kenny, cellarmaster Giovanni, lab director Paul, tasting-room host Will, and the winery dogs.

Hallcrest Vineyards, 1998-2005: from the Web Winery archive

Nearby in Santa Cruz Mountains

Zayante Vineyards FeltonNot confirmed
Aptos Vineyard AptosOpen
Bargetto Winery SoquelOpen
Burrell School Vineyards & Winery Los GatosOpen

Hallcrest Vineyards