Angeleno Wine Co. to open winery in Chinatown, with a tasting room to follow

Angeleno Wine Co. has received a permit to make wine in Los Angeles, with production expected to begin in the next week or so.

The winery is located at 1646 N. Spring St. in north Chinatown. A tasting room is expected to follow early next year.

Nearby San Antonio Winery opened in 1917, but the region has much longer roots when it comes to winemaking — as far back as the 1770s. Within a few decades, there was a thriving commercial winemaking hub centered in what is today downtown L.A.

As wine historian Thomas Pinney, author of “A History of Wine in America,” said: “For most of the 19th century, if you said California wine, you meant Los Angeles wine.”

Prohibition (which lasted from 1920 to 1933), urbanization and insect-borne diseases that killed vineyards led to the nearly total demise of wine-making in Los Angeles.

Angeleno Wine Co. hopes to change that. It will use locally harvested grapes from small vineyards to make its wine, with a focus on unique varietals.

For the last four years, the company has hand-picked its fruit from the Alonso Family Vineyard in Agua Dulce, driving north for production.

The company will now produce its naturally made wines (already sold throughout the state) at its new Chinatown home following a successful Kickstarter campaign that raised $36,200 to fund the buildout of the winery and tasting room. The winery is housed in a 1925 building made from brick recycled from L.A.’s first City Hall.

Angeleno Wine Co. is led by Jasper Dickson and Amy Luftig Viste. A second-generation winemaker, Dickson began working at Silverlake Wine shop in 2008.

The company currently has five wines listed on its website, including a rosé, a white blend and a Tannat. They range in price from $22 to $35.

1646 N. Spring St., Los Angeles, angelenowine.com.

andrea.chang@latimes.com

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