The Lafourcade Family and its Winery

The Lafourcade Family and its Winery. . In the early part of this century, John B. Lafourcade established an extensive and elaborate wine-making and grape-handling business in an era marked by failed attempts at such endeavors in the Rochester/Cucamonga area. The story of Lafourcade represents an important link in the early history of the Cucamonga Valley. Migrating at the age of 17 from La Houtan, France, the young man arrived in the Pomona Valley in the early 1900s. Lafourcade accepted the challenges posed by the hot, dry climate and embarked on his venture, purchasing 800 acres along old San Bernardino Road, known today as Foothill Boulevard. At first transporting water from the canyons above by wagon, in 1918 Lafourcade drilled the area's deepest well at 630 feet at the purported cost of $33,000. Embarking on an ambitious construction project between 1918 and 1922, Lafourcade had constructed on the north side of the road two bunk houses for his permanent labor force, wine manufacturing and storage buildings, company offices, a wagon repair shop, a box manufacturing shop/packing house, a gas station, and his family's home; on the south side, the company store., Lafourcade had married Josephine Lestiri (or Lastiri) from Pamplona, Spain, on June 20, 1903. Her many skills, including her command of languages and book keeping, made her an important partner. Together they had seven children, all but the last of whom was born on the Cucamonga Ranch. The passage of Prohibition combined with the effects of the Great Depression, spurred the demise of the Lafourcade enterprise, and the family left the area in the 1940s to focus on other entrepreneurial efforts in agriculture elsewhere in California and Arizona.