casa nuestra

Casa Nuestra is a Spanish name meaning “our house.” The name was originally given to the property by our predecessor, Tom Blackburn. He intended to use Casa Nuestra as a trade name for a commercial kennel of golden retrievers. The sign “Casa Nuestra” was proudly hanging on the Silverado Trail when we first came to look in 1975. Tom loved the Mexican-Spanish heritage of California, so he called his home Casa Nuestra, and he named the vineyard La Jolla Del Norte, or the jewel of the north.

These names are reminders of the fact that it was the Spanish padres who first introduced viticulture to California. In the future, when California’s status as a primary wine-growing region of the world has settled in for a century or two, it may seem odd that wineries went through a period of avoiding California identification by assuming French names.

Over the years, we have had many comical misspellings and misstatements of our name. Would you believe a shipment of goods came addressed to Catch An Oyster Winery? It is not, as sometimes suggested, “Cosa Nostra”, which is Italian for something else.