In 2014, UC Davis grape geneticists found that the city's oldest living vine, the Vina Madre on Olvera Street, was not the connection to the city's winemaking past as it had long been thought to be. In fact, it was a landscaping grape, used primarily for shade.

But there was something else that the scientists found: The grape was a 19th century hybrid, a cross between the main Spanish winemaking grape of the era and the local native grape. Through its native progenitor grape, the Vina Madre thus connects us to a deeper past -- that of the Indigenous people of the area.

Special guest Mario Blanco, who is a research scientist at Caltech, will join us and explain the science of this uniquely L.A. story!

Plant the Vine helps underserved Los Angeles youth grow vineyards of native and historic grapes in parts of the city where vineyards once grew. The vineyards serve as both outdoor classrooms where students learn to interpret local and world history and sites of memory that recall the Indigenous people who planted the first vineyards and turned Los Angeles into the epicenter of the first California wine industry.

But vineyards cost money to plant and maintain, as do the programs that we run through them.

Please donate what you can. Every little bit helps!

Caltech Wine Wednesday

Sipping with the Scientists