From the Fields - Del Hanson

By Del Hanson, San Diego County vintner and manzanita grower

In January, we got permitted to build a winery and tasting room. Our hope is to open in the first quarter of 2025. Our farm is in Alpine, and the tasting room is going to be in Santee. For years, we tried to build it in the unincorporated area of San Diego County, but there were too many regulatory hurdles. That’s why we ended up not being able to put the tasting room at our farm.

We grow 2 acres of winegrapes and 15 acres of manzanita, which we also make wine from. I’ve been making manzanita wine for 10 years and fine-tuning the recipe over the last couple years. It’s comparable to sauvignon blanc, though our first release is going to be sweetened, so it tastes more like a sweet cider. There are some hobbyists making manzanita wine. But as far as I know, we’ll be the first and only commercial producers on the planet.

We did our first full harvest of the manzanita in September and October. Manzanita is a native Southwestern plant. It does not require any irrigation. The fruit can sit on the tree for months. We’re hoping we can save it in a cold room and use it when our winery opens.

You typically have to harvest grapes when the sugar level is right and be ready to process that grape within a day or two. Until the winery opens, we’re dropping all our grapes because it’s not worth it to harvest such a small quantity. We’re wrapping up our winter pruning.

Our biggest farming cost is labor. We’re on the far east side of San Diego County. The farm labor companies in San Diego don’t like coming out to us. I have a much easier time getting labor from the Imperial Valley. I end up paying two hours extra per day for travel time for each worker because they’re sitting in a car for two hours.