Los Angeles River Wine Company Revives the Lost Story of Viniculture in Southern California

Abe Schoener is realizing a very personal vision at his winery in downtown Los Angeles

David Rosoff is a wine writer, wine professional, restaurant consultant, and industry veteran. He’s opened, operated, and owned several notable restaurants (and authored many wine lists) across Los Angeles, including Campanile, Osteria Mozza, Chi Spacca, HiPPO, and Bar Moruno. He’s written for the Los Angeles Times, Wine & Spirits, and now, The Angel. Rosoff’s piece on Abe Schoener of Los Angeles River Wine Company marks the first story on The Angel written by a contributor. –Emily Wilson

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Photographs by Bono Melendrez

Abe Schoener at Los Angeles River Wine Company.

It may come as a revelation to most Angelenos that well into the middle of the last century, wine country was rooted as much in Southern California as in the north. Beginning in the San Gabriel Valley and expanding across county lines to San Bernardino, some of the state's most coveted wines were being produced on land where today sit the Huntington Museum, Santa Anita Racetrack, Amazon fulfillment centers, and countless master-planned communities.

Equally surprising might be that one of the most intriguing wineries in California today is located right here in downtown Los Angeles. An intrepid realtor may tag the home of Los Angeles River Wine Company as “Bestia adjacent,” but the reality is a somewhat less idealistic one, and an order of magnitude away from the sumptuous wine country expanses pictured in lifestyle magazines.

In 1997, Abe Schoener was a tenured professor on a year-long sabbatical from St. John’s College in Annapolis, Maryland. The implicit instruction from the university was to use the time for leisure and non-scholastic enrichment. To Schoener, a stout man with a wild wisp of white hair and a disarmingly genteel demeanor, that meant time in wine country pursuing his fledgling interest in grapevine physiology. He quickly secured an internship with Napa Valley’s legendary Stags Leap Wine Cellars, followed by a stint with visionary producer John Kongsgaard, who proposed that he extend his sabbatical an additional year and spend it working with him at Luna Vineyards. Coupled with the dissolution of his marriage and the support of St. John’s, Schoener could find no reason to object, though he fully anticipated a return to academia after year two. He relocated to Napa in what he believed would be a temporary capacity, a belief soon derailed by the seminal mentorship of Kongsgaard. Schoener’s leisurely interest in wine became a burning desire; he took up permanent residence in Napa, and winemaking became his vocation.  

As Schoener learned alongside Kongsgaard, he began to dabble in a little winemaking of his own, all the while wading through the laborious legalese required to launch a wine brand. By 2005 the process was complete, and he had wine to sell to the people under the label Scholium Project.

While building his brand, Schoener became fixated on the dichotomy of an urban winery nestled within the historical milieu of a big city. This spoke to him in a way that well-manicured vineyards and faux-Tuscan villas did not. On a trip to Los Angeles, a bike ride along the L.A. River into what was then a rather bleak stretch of downtown fomented the notion that his vision could blossom there, in the underbelly of a city where the architecture and historical narrative beckoned him in a powerful way. Thickening the plot was his seemingly preposterous desire to not only make wine in Los Angeles but to make it with grapes grown in its environs. But where could he possibly find quality wine grapes in Southern California? 

Fresh grape storage at the winery.

Bygone vineyards brim with potential

While getting his financial and organizational ducks in line, Schoener began scouting. Initial reconnaissance missions took him to uninspiring vineyards in Malibu and Ventura. Subsequent trips to Temecula and San Diego yielded nothing worth considering. It wasn’t until 2015 that the trail grew warmer. 

A wine writer friend, Jon Bonné, then of the San Francisco Chronicle, was aware of Schoener’s plan and had a lead in Rancho Cucamonga. Schoener flew down and joined Bonné for a visit to the Lopez Vineyard, where he was immediately struck by what he encountered. While most folks would have seen an intriguing relic with a surprising history, he saw incredible potential. Despite the desert-like climate and dubious location, the vines were in great shape. “What this suggested to me is that the vines were in balance at a relatively low crop load and that they were healthy 100 years into their lives. And given that, I thought for sure we can make really good wine from these vines,” Schoener recalls.

As it turns out, Rancho Cucamonga has an extremely rich history with wine grapes. A fertile industry that began one county west had blossomed in the Cucamonga Valley, peaking in the 1940s when 45,000 acres were planted and more than 50 wineries operated. A pillar of that movement was the Galleano family from Piedmont, Italy who own the Lopez vineyard. Although only a few wineries and less than 500 acres of vines remain in the region today, the Galleanos continue to grow grapes and make wine in the same place they have since the 1920s. They’ve been farming organically and without irrigation for decades. Throughout the years, a few winemakers from across California had purchased fruit from Lopez, but “nobody was proclaiming the exceptional quality of the vineyard, and nobody was giving the Galleanos credit for managing hundreds of acres of historical vineyards with immaculate training and pruning,” says Schoener. 

Firmly convinced and committed, he began pursuing the Galleanos in the hopes of striking a deal. But as several years of calls to Domenic Galleano, the grandson of Galleano founder Domenico Galleano, went unreturned, his excitement began to diminish. The warm trail was growing appreciably cooler until a chance dinner party encounter turned up a close friend of the younger Galleano, who offered to make a connection. He did, and the ethos of Los Angeles River Wine Company came into sharper relief. 

Another foundational component of this project is what Schoener refers to as “Scythian Nature.” The Scythians were a culturally rich, battle-savvy nomadic people of Iranian stock who ultimately established a powerful empire in what is now Crimea. In Schoener, their customs manifest as unquenchable curiosity and wanderlust, as well as a keen desire to gather those who share his thirst for wisdom. A fellow Scythian is renowned former sommelier turned winemaker Rajat Parr. “I think what attracted Raj [to Los Angeles Wine Company] was that it wasn't tied to an existing well-regarded appellation, that it was kind of an adventurous and open-minded venture,” says Schoener. Parr became a partner and spiritual advisor, equally committed to the search for additional vineyards that fit the model.

Schoener remained convinced that there were old vineyards to be found in the previously fruitless locales of San Diego and Temecula. A visit to an earnest but pedestrian Temecula producer didn’t reveal a grape source, but upon identifying themselves as Scythians seeking what others might consider flotsam, he scribbled down a phone number and launched Schoener and Parr in the direction of the next great feather in the Los Angeles River Wine Company cap: Lone Wolf Vineyard.

Situated within the swath of land belonging to the Pechanga tribe, just northeast of Carlsbad and Encinitas, Lone Wolf Vineyard has a long, albeit murky history. The supposition is that it was planted in the latter part of the 19th century and that it may or may not have contributed fruit for extracurriculars during Prohibition. For at least half a century, the vineyard lay fallow, working for the pleasure of the local wildlife.

Lone Wolf is owned by a tribal elder, Bob Munoa, and it was his number on the slip of paper. Munua agreed to grant access to Schoener and Parr, who found in Lone Wolf a treasure of intrigue, but also a set of circumstances and challenges unlike anything they had ever encountered. The vineyard is 1.93 acres of what looks like interconnected tumbleweeds; a sea of sinew with no discernible shape or center of energy. The Listan Prieto (also known as “Mission” or “País”) vines originally planted spontaneously spawned dozens of their own randomly occurring hybrids during the period of neglect. Any sense of order that may have previously existed had been disrupted, but in its place, a remarkable ecosystem had developed. And despite appearances, like at Lopez, the vines here were alive and, seemingly, well. 

“Something in particular that really testifies to how deeply healthy the vines are is that almost every big vine has a burrow underneath it. And so there's not just a kind of symbiosis between the plants that you might call weeds and the vines, but there's even a symbiosis between relatively large-sized mammals in the vineyard and the vines. We feel like the evidence in Lone Wolf seems to be that the weeds are, in some way that I don't yet understand, supporting the life of the vine rather than competing with it,” explains Schoener. 

This reasoning is antithetical to the way most conventional grape growers think. Both weeds and rodents would typically be treated as pests and eliminated, but to Schoener and Parr, this was next-level homeostasis. Given this happenstance harmony, the pair have done little to change the conditions at Lone Wolf. “We’re considering doing really delicate things, almost like having a fire that's burning well and making a decision not to fan it, but to make sure that there's no obstruction that keeps air from reaching it,” says Schoener. 

Having realized the winemaking history of greater Los Angeles, Schoener became enamored with the idea of respectfully preserving it through rejuvenation — with Lopez and Lone Wolf as his suppliers. “Once that possibility was in front of me, I became devoted to it and lost any interest in what you could call an encyclopedic attention to other California venues,” he says. “No way. Just these.”

Where brutality and hospitality converge

Grapes secured, Schoener needed a home for them. He returned to the scene of his fortuitous bike ride years earlier and found the ideal spot. “We're in the same kind of neighborhood [where] wine would have been made 120 years ago in Los Angeles, namely an industrial neighborhood, and a neighborhood where there would be artisanal work taking place right next door to something that's kind of brutal,” he says. “And so it feels to me like a really appropriate home.” 

Those who have visited turreted wineries with nifty underground caves, duck ponds, and horse paddocks might find Los Angeles River Wine Company a bit of a shock. It is organized chaos. It is determined disruption. It is claustrophobic. Its walls, lined with as many books of high intellectual value as barrels of wine, ooze with honesty and integrity.

But can truly good wine be made here? These uncommon contexts called to Schoener, but could they actually yield something delicious and commercially viable? He had taken a giant leap of faith, which surely could have turned terribly quixotic. 

“The first year that we made wine from Lopez, it was already way better than I had ever hoped for,” says Schoener. But it was not without challenges. The red wine stuck during fermentation, meaning the yeast had seemingly lost the battle, leaving behind unwanted residual sugar and an unfinished wine. In the spirit of Los Angeles River Wine Company, the proposed solution was to tape a Japanese beckoning cat to the barrel for good luck. Five days later, the fermentation finished. Needless to say, the barrels at the winery are now teaming with lucky cats.

Japanese beckoning cats provide good winemaking luck.

Alongside his steadfast assistant winemaker Kaeley Weinberger, each day at Los Angeles River Wine Company is an opportunity for Schoener, who is often bedecked in a Hose King hat (a nod to his favorite industrial retail store), to learn more about the microbial activity in both the vineyards and winery, and the impact it has on their wines.

“Between 2019 and 2022, the wines that we made from Lopez were only good. They weren't great, but they were good enough to feel totally confident about continuing. In ‘22, we made truly excellent rosé. And then, in 2023, we made the best red from Lopez that we've made yet. Maybe because of the growing conditions, I don't think we really did anything differently,” he says of their ascendant journey. Meanwhile, Lone Wolf grapes were “brilliant from the moment fermentation initiated” in 2019 up until stem-related microbial issues sprung up in 2021, which continues to be a concern. Still, Schoener and Weinberger are unwilling to compensate by altering their convictions.

In addition to the captivating winemaking behind the steel roll-ups at Los Angeles River Wine Company, another equally stimulating experience takes place. Schoener and Weinberger regularly host events they call 12 Seats, named for the number of seats around the single grand table that dominates the center of the winery’s main room. The wines in the bottle might not be what they are without the intellectual property that is 12 Seats. It is the fuel that informs the process in an unprecedented way.

Where 12 Seats takes place.

On these occasions, the room shapeshifts into what can best be described as a wine salon. The gatherings are diametrically opposed to the standard issue tasting or seminar and are instead a fertile ground for exploration in the spirit of curiosity. The typically ponderous wine-speak is dropped and replaced with conversation of a pleasantly cerebral nature, and a refreshingly diverse mix of wine enthusiasts drawn from various social media and winery mailing lists are compelled to discuss wine in an entirely new way. The discussion is often moderated by a guest winemaker and accompanied by small bites adorned with the olive oil that Schoener and Weinberger made last year.

12 Seats developed out of a desire to “offer tastings of our wine, just like any other winery would put up a tasting room,” explains Schoener, but to deviate from the usual sterile arrangement. “Two things seemed true to us from the beginning: that we were really not interested in regularly showing our own wine without the context of other wines that we admired or that influenced us and that we wanted to offer that experience in a calm way.” 

To watch the gentle but hulking figure that is Schoener approvingly and affectionately proctor the proceedings is to witness the satisfaction of a personal quest that has at once arrived and is just setting off. “I think if we get any credit for any kind of insight or innovation, it should be for bringing 12 Seats to the area. The winery, I feel, completely naturally belongs there, it’s 12 Seats that’s a bit of a surprise,” he says.