A little less than a year ago Jess Jackson's Artisans and Estates Vineyards & Wineries bought La Jota Vineyard Company on Howell Mountain, described as a historical winery.

A few weeks ago members of the staff learned about that history first-hand because they were given a thorough background on the winery's past by a granddaughter and a great-grandson of the founder.

It all started when a San Franciscan, Frederick Hess, who published a newspaper for the local German community, found a piece of property on Howell Mountain in the 1880s and purchased 327 acres from George Yount. He named it Rancho La Jota.

A farmhouse was built in 1878, and in 1898 Hess built a winery, which remains and is used in part for making today's La Jota wines. Documents showed that Hess sold some grapes to larger wineries in the valley, but most of the wines made there were for personal use.

A medal winner

One of them was good enough to win a bronze medal at the 1900 Paris Exhibition.

These were among the many facts discovered by Beatrice Hess Waterhouse, 85, of Sacramento, who is Frederick Hess' granddaughter, and David Hess, his great-grandson, of Lincoln, Neb. Waterhouse remembers coming to Rancho La Jota from her family's home in Redwood City every few weeks. She didn't work in the winery -- "I was too young, about 8," she said -- but she recalled that there were plenty of pistachio, olive and apple trees on the property. "I'll never forget that," she added.

After Hess died, he left the property to his children, and in 1920, one of his sons, William T. Hess Sr., David Hess' grandfather, bought out his siblings' interests -- for the princely sum of $6,000.

By 1954, William Hess Jr., who had inherited the property, began to develop Rancho La Jota, selling parcels of not less than five acres or more than 20 acres at a price of $2,000 per acre, and it was widely advertised in Bay Area newspapers. Apparently the efforts were not as successful as hoped, because a number of parcels remained unsold.

Although after Prohibition the winery ceased operating, the building remained intact and it sat there untouched until 1974 when it and the surrounding 41 acres of apple orchards were purchased by Bill and Joan Smith, who planted vineyards and restored the La Jota name. In 2001 Markham Vineyards took it over and just last October the winery and vineyards were acquired by Artisans & Estates.

Early history

But it was the earlier history that Bea Waterhouse and David Hess talked about when they visited La Jota.

They were accompanied by two of Bea's daughters -- Cathie Rojo of Folsom and Mary Daniels of Lake of the Pines -- and David's wife Virginia, and his son and daughter-in-law, Mark and Rebecca, of Dallas.

The entire trip was triggered by a phone call from Rebecca Hess, who contacted La Jota after learning that there was a La Jota brand of wine, and she wanted to buy a bottle for Mark's birthday. But Gordon Kallio, director of marketing for La Jota, told her that wine could not be shipped to Texas, and as the conversation continued, she told him of the family history. He invited them to come to La Jota, a date was arranged and David Hess and Waterhouse and the rest of the family arrived for the historical meeting. They brought some books that traced the family history back to 1753, along with information about the family's involvement in Rancho La Jota.

Quest led to Germany

The historical saga picked up steam when Waterhouse traveled to Germany in the mid-1980s to look for family information, and based on what she found there, spent considerable time in the Sacramento State University library and countless hours looking into other genealogy sources. "I had a list this long of places I tried," she said, holding her hands several inches apart.

David Hess acknowledged that Waterhouse had uncovered most of the information and said her brother helped, "and I verified a lot of it," he said. He scanned all the photographs and newspaper articles they collected, put all the information together in a set of notebooks and presented a set to Kallio.

Much of the information undoubtedly will find its way onto the La Jota history page on the winery's Web site.

Following a tour of the vineyard and explanation of the property as it is today by winemaker Chris Carpenter and vineyard manager Mariano Navarro, the family joined the staff at a luncheon in the winery's caves atop Howell Mountain.

As wines were being poured for the guests, Waterhouse was asked if she had ever tasted La Jota wine. "I don't drink," she said.