Welcome to Truscott Wines

Truscott Wines are dedicated to the Legend of Samuel Z. Truscott. The legend captures the history of California’s wine industry, and the spirit of those who founded and made the Golden State.

The Legend of Samuel Z. Truscott

In the summer of 1849, Truscott crossed the California Sierras looking for gold. He, along with a couple of other miners, found a claim in Eldorado County on the eastern side of the Sierras. The claim proved profitable and, after a couple of years, the partners sold it to other speculators for a tidy profit.

Taking his share Truscott spent a few months in the rough-and-tumble town that was Sacramento at that time. Not finding anything that interested him, he continued on to San Francisco, and immediately saw opportunities in the port-side town. Truscott invested his claim earnings into a business that delivered the locally-made Californian wines to area restaurants and residents. The delivery service consisted of a fleet of horse-drawn wagons that carried the wines in barrels and carboys. Business was good in the latter decades of the 1800's, and Truscott got to know the winemakers and learn about wine.

Enchanted with the local wines, Truscott headed north and learned winemaking from the Italian and Swiss immigrant winemakers, while working in the cellars of wineries in Sonoma County. Winemaking was hard but egalitarian work, and Truscott did everything from harvest and crushing, to bottling, alongside the masters from the old country.

In his later years, he resettled in Mendocino County, married, and bought land. He carried through his dream of planting and tending a vineyard that grew red wine grapes, such as carignane, grenache, alicante bouschet, petite sirah, and zinfandel, which he sold to small wineries. He never did sell a Truscott labeled wine, though it is said that friends and family enjoyed his "house red".

It is to Sam Truscott’s storied spirit that the Weibel Family dedicates their Mendocino County Zinfandel, honoring the founders of Californian wine.