Some Family Wineries in Sonoma County

There are many family-owned and operated wineries in the county. Most are pretty small. I will not be able to find and list all of them; these I am familiar with.

Why should you and I support family owned and operated wineries? They will tend to care more about the land, what goes in a bottle that might have their name on it, about the local families that make a living from the wine business, and, of course, the money goes to a family trying to make a living rather than a string of corporate managers that don't know how to spell m̶e̶l̶l̶o̶  m̶a̶l̶o̶l̶a̶k̶  malolactic.  :)

There are large companies that own multiple wineries calling themselves family-run, and they're not lying, but it's not the same as a ma and pa operation. There are ones that continue to have the word family in their name even though they've sold the business to a company and no longer run it. There are millionaire or billionaire owners, usually absentee, that also don't count, because you don't see many of them on a tractor.

The Bacigalupi family
No, I don't know why the kids are all wearing the same flannel shirt

Alexander Valley Vineyards - Hank and Linda Wetzel founded the winery now run by the kids. The wines sell for less than they should, but don't tell the family!

A. Rafanelli - The winery has passed from Alberto to Americo to David to Shelly Rafanelli with a history of spectacular Zinfandel.

Bacigalupi - The land was planted over 60 years ago and is still run by multiple generations of the family. A true family enterprise.

Balletto - John Balletto started a vegetable farm and changed over to grapes. You won't find a nicer family in the wine biz.

Davis -  Guy and Judy Davis started the winery and run it with their sons working in the cellar and vineyards. Their Syrah and Syrah blends are the stars.

Dutton Estate (not to be confused with Dutton-Goldfield) - Joe and Tracy Dutton come from farming backgrounds, grapes and apples. They run the winery along with their kids.

Gundlach Bundschu - Known for their historic vineyards that go waayy back, a descendant, Jim Bundschu, replanted the vineyard and had his first grape crush in 1973. It's now run by his kids. This is the largest, and oldest, winery on this list.

Harvest Moon - Randy comes from a grape-growing family and really has Russian River Valley fruit dialed in. He makes some interesting non-traditional sparkling wines. He's often in the tasting room, even during harvest season.

Hawkes - A familiar story in these parts; Stephen Hawkes bought a prune ranch and eventually changed over to wine grapes. His son is now the winemaker. You really have to read Jake Hawkes' bio on their website. LOL

Hawley - John and his two sons work hard on the family ranch to make some mighty fine wines.

Inman - Kathy makes some of the best Pinot Noir you'll find. You'll often see her husband doing the grunt work in the cellar.  :)

Little - Yes, it is a little winery, making only about 2,000 cases a year. Owned by Joan and Rich Little live on the property.

Mounts - Third generation prune and grape growers opened a winery several years ago (the prunes are long gone).  They introduced me to California Grenache.

Robledo - Owned by Mexican descendants who call their winery an American dream.

Sbragia - Several generations of family farming run in the family. Ed Sbragia made wine for Beringer and started his own winery. His son is now the winemaker. I'm sure Ed peeks in once in a while to see what he's up to.

Scherrer - Fred comes from a local grape growing family and spend years working for Tom Dehlinger (another local legend) before he and wife, Judi, set out on their own. A great guy with great wines.

Kathy Inman, serving up a barrel sample
I can't believe she's doing that while wearing white :)
image from milwaukeemag.com

My apologies to hundreds(!) of family owned and run wineries in the county that I missed.

Some of my favorite family-owned and operated wineries in Napa are Prager, Smith-Madrone and Storybook Mountain.