Ironstone Vineyards

The story of Ironstone Vineyards started in the hands of John Kautz, a young row crop farmer from Lodi who saw the future in growing wine grapes in Lodi. With 12 acres in 1948, John quickly built an excellent reputation as a premium wine grape supplier, amassing over 5,000 acres of grapes in Lodi and the Sierra Foothills and eventually becoming one of the top ten wine grape growers in California. 

In 1988, John, his wife Gail and their children dedicated themselves to the creation of a wine of their own. While still maintaining grape sales to top wineries around the world, they brought award-winning winemaker Steve Millier aboard to launch Kautz wines, which would evolve into Ironstone Vineyards, a wine brand dedicated to the production of exceptional wines of unparalleled quality, outstanding value and everyday approachability. 

The next big step for Ironstone was the creation of a “homesite,” a winery and visitors center that would exemplify the Kautz family commitment to excellence, and provide an environment that would reach beyond the world of winemaking to include the support all of the cultural arts. 

In 1989, using dynamite, pick axes and shovels, a crew of miners carved through limestone and Calaveras Schist Rock on Gail’s family ranch in Murphys, California and fashioned the site of Ironstone’s wine aging caverns, which in the beginning, also served as the facility’s first tasting room. Humble beginnings for what has now become California’s largest winery entertainment complex. 

Over the years, Ironstone Wines and the Ironstone Winery have each grown and become famous in their own way. Truly a family business, John, Gail and each of their four children - Stephen, Kurt, Jack, and Joan - remain actively involved in the growth of both the winery facility and the wine brand.

At Ironstone Vineyards, a healthy environment is important. By practicing Sustainable Viticulture, we are reducing water use, building healthy soil, and maintaining the surrounding wildlife habitat.

There is an old time expression that the best thing a farmer can leave on their field is their shadow. This means that the farmer should have so little environmental impact on their field that it is seems as merely their shadow passed over their land. For Ironstone Vineyards, this means being out in the field, managing the vineyards and observing the best way to leave the smallest impression on our land.

Sustainable Viticulture is a comprehensive time-honored approach to vineyard management that involves all aspects of grape growing. This includes human resources, soil management, pest management, habitat management, and the wine making process.

Each year our vineyards face variations in weather, climate and pests. Ironstone Vineyards has a number of Sustainable Viticulture practices in place to combat any hazards that might come into play.

The wine caverns were the first step in the creation of the Ironstone Vineyards Winery and destination facility in Murphys, California, and served as the facility's first Tasting Room. 

In 1989, the Kautz family assembled a crew of professional miners, which, from-day-to-day, often included as many as three generations from the same family. These included some of the “old timers” that had worked the early gold and gem mines. They blasted, picked, and shoveled their way through 10,000 square feet of limestone and schist rock to form the wine caverns. The project took ten months to complete and on many days the miners would only make two to three feet of progress. The rock was so hard and difficult, the miners often said it was like blasting through iron. Thus, we became “Ironstone Vineyards.” 

The caverns maintain a year-round temperature of 60 degrees farenheit no matter what the temperature is outside. Combined with the 70-percent humidity provided by the natural spring waterfall inside the caverns, the conditions are ideal for wine aging. The constant temperature prevents the barrels from expanding and contracting — thus leaking wine — and the humidity minimizes evaporation. 

The caverns hold a maximum of 1,500 French and American oak barrels which each hold sixty gallons of wine. The beautiful wooden doors that grace the entrance to the caverns and the breezeway, as well as the tasting room, are made from 100-year-old redwood fermentation tanks from the Di-Augustini Winery in Plymouth, California. Now know as Sobon Estates, it is one of the oldest commercial operating wineries in the state. 

In addition to wine aging in the caverns, the caverns themselves are also aging! Although they have been sprayed with 6 inches of gunnite to prevent erosion, the caverns age naturally creating stalactites, stalagmites, and other geological formations that are easy to spot as you tour through the caverns. 

Nestled against the Sierra Foothills, in the heart of California’s scenic Gold Rush Country, Ironstone Vineyards will surprise and delight you with a winery that places as much emphasis on the natural beauty and history of our surroundings, as we do on the quality of our wines. 

Tantalize your senses and explore our award-winning wines in our Tasting Room and Gourmet Delicatessen. Both rustic and elegant, its main features include a monumental 42-foot stone fireplace and historic oak bar. Take time to wind your way through The Heritage Museum and Jewelry Shoppe where fine jewelry and objects d’art are intertwined with a collection of gold rush treasures. Make sure not to miss our magnificent forty-four pound Crystalline Gold Leaf Specimen - the largest in the world!

This state-of-the-art wine production facility, built in the style of a 19th century gold stamp mill, has antiques and gold mining artifacts on display both inside and throughout the grounds. Just below the Tasting Room, you can find the artfully restored Alhambra Theatre Pipe Organ. Ironstone Vineyards also houses a Culinary Exhibition Center, an Outdoor Amphitheatre, Wine Aging Caverns, Meeting and Banquet Facilities, and fourteen acres of Spectacular Lakeside Gardens.

Ironstone is so much more than a winery. Family-owned and family-oriented, there is always something interesting happening including complimentary tours, cooking demonstrations, silent movies, holiday brunches, concerts, and gold panning for children of all ages.