Winery Built in Russian River Valley
1970
Rod broke ground on an impressive, efficient new winery building near the original River West Vineyard first planted in 1904. He also planted the new River East Vineyard, (originally a large prune-plum orchard) to Chardonnay and Pinot Noir. The winery built in 1970 still plays an important part of our Russian River Valley winery, now serving as our tasting room and lower cellar.
Meanwhile, Tom Klein started his first year at Stanford in 1970, where he would begin his training in business that would eventually lead him on a circuitous route into the wine industry.
Rick Sayre accepted a harvest position at Simi Winery in Healdsburg and began making wine. Within three months, Rick was promoted to assistant winemaker and realized he’d found his calling. Over the next nine years, Rick worked with the likes of Zelma Long, Robert Stemmler, Mary Ann Graf and, most notably, Andre Tchelistcheff, who took Rick under his wing while on board as a consulting enologist.