Jean-Louis Vignes
Jean-Louis Vignes (April 9, 1780 - January 17, 1862), or as he was known to his Mexican neighbors, "Don Luis del Aliso", was a French settler to the Los Angeles area during the Mexican era. He was the first commercial wine maker in California and one of the first men to import and plant European Vitis vinifera grapes in the state. A skilled cooper by trade and an adventurer and entrepreneur by choice, he arrived in the Sandwich Islands on July 6, 1827. After losing his business in Honolulu due to Queen Ka'ahumanu's edict banning alcohol production, he sailed to California and landed at Pueblo de Los Angeles in 1831. In 1850, Vignes was the largest wine producer in California.
Jean-Louis Vignes was born to Jean Vignes and Elizabeth Cato on April 9, 1780, in Béguey, a village downriver from Cadillac, Gironde near Bordeaux, France. He grew up with two brothers, Pierre and Pierre Esliens, and two sisters, both named Marie. The Vignes were artisans. They made barrels for the local wine industry, they raised their own wine, and they processed lees to manufacture wine lees ash, which was used to make fertilizer.
On 21 Pluviôse Year X, or February 10, 1802, Jean-Louis Vignes married Jeanne Simon, who was the daughter of Etienne Simon and Marie Laillou. They moved into the family house in Béguey which they acquired on December 30, 1816, along with its cellars and workshop, the vines, 3.2 acres (13,000 m2) of ploughable lands, and "the copper brandy still that contains three barrels." Jean-Louis Vignes paid 2,100 Francs "in good metallic currency". His signature on the contract was adorned with the three dots of the Freemasons.
Jean-Louis Vignes became a local public figure. He was often a witness to marriages and contracts. In 1820, he managed the census in Cadillac, and his name stood prominently at the top of the list. At the end of 1820, his mortgages exceeded 20,000 francs and he ran into financial difficulties. On April 25, 1826, he stopped paying his father the pension he owed, and all his properties were mortgaged. He may also have had political troubles. Indeed, in 1824 the new king was the ultra-royalist Charles X, who, in an attempt to erase the effects of the Revolution, gave all the public jobs to nobles, and all the citizens who had held public positions under the Republic were considered suspect. Father Alexis Bachelot, who would hear Vignes in confession much later, wrote in a private letter: "Vignes was driven to leave his country after troubles caused by his loyalty, misunderstood considerateness, and too much facility to be of help."
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