Meet the Growers Behind the Most Iconic Sonoma County Vineyards

Any winemaker worth their boots will tell you that great wines are made in the field. Meet some of the growers behind iconic local vineyards.


For the September/October 2024 issue of Sonoma Magazine, our wine team compiled 22 of Sonoma County’s most iconic vineyards, with recommendations of wines to try from each. To get a closer look beyond the vines, meet four winegrowers behind some of the renowned local vineyards.

Everardo Robledo

Hirsch Vineyards

This year will be the 36th harvest for viticulturist Everardo Robledo, who comes from a family of master grapegrowers in Napa and the Carneros. Alongside David Hirsch and David’s daughter, Jasmine Hirsch, Robledo has farmed this spot vine by vine, dialing in the right combination of cover crop and water and trellising to bring out the essence of place.

“We keep our own philosophy, the Hirsch philosophy. We never go for high yield, no. We have to follow our own way.”

Everardo Robledo grower at Hirsch Vineyard in Sonoma County
Everardo Robledo, viticulturist and grower at Hirsch Vineyards. (Kim Carroll/Sonoma Magazine)

Robledo and his wife raised four children in a redwood-shaded home adjacent to the vineyards that are his life’s work (the kids took one of the longest bus rides in the state to get to school, winding inland for nearly two hours — after a 20-minute drive down from the ridge to the bus stop). Robledo’s youngest son, 17-year-old Ricky, now works at Hirsch alongside his father.

“Sometimes I feel tired,” says Robledo. “But I have in my mind that we have to keep going, to continue to do what we have to do… Burt Williams told me if you have a problem in the vineyard, just think it through. It’s not the same problem every time. You can have a lot of experience, but you’re always learning.”

Steve Dutton

Dutton Ranch

Fifth-generation farmer Steve Dutton has a special bond with the Dutton Ranch vineyard; his dad planted it on the family ranch the same year he was born, in 1967. For more than 35 years, Dutton has farmed his “brother” vineyard, plus more than 60 additional Sonoma County sites. He attributes the vineyard’s distinctive character to its location on an eroded hillside in Green Valley.

Winegrower Steve Dutton, one of the growers at Dutton Ranch
Steve Dutton, co-owner of Dutton Family Ranch northwest of Sebastopol. (Courtesy of Dutton Family Ranch)

“The soil is typical Goldridge sandy loam,” he says, with a clay layer at the bottom. “The Chardonnay gets lots of green apple and high acidity.”

While some growers say they feel anxious at harvest time, Dutton looks forward to the season.

“It is the best time of year, by far, and the most exciting,” he says. “It’s satisfying to make a product that starts out in our field. Then I love to bring people back to the vineyard and say, ‘You’re drinking wine from this field right here.’ Wine is one of the few things that you can trace all the way back to the land.”

Katey Bacigalupi Row

Bacigalupi Vineyards

Katey Bacigalupi Row, one of the growers at Bacigalupi Vineyards
Katey Bacigalupi Row of Bacigalupi Vineyards near Healdsburg. (Courtesy Bacigalupi Vineyards)

Katey Bacigalupi Row grew up on her family’s Goddard Ranch, home to the “Paris Tasting” Chardonnay block that helped Chateau Montelena beat its French counterparts in the famous 1976 showdown. Now, as co-manager of Bacigalupi Vineyards with her twin sister Nicole Bacigalupi Dericco, she is involved with everything from daily growing operations to managing the Bacigalupi wine brand.

What makes Goddard Ranch special, she says, is its longevity. “You don’t get old vine Chardonnay very often,” says Row. “It’s not planted in the ideal setting — it’s in a rocky volcanic clay, so the vines struggle a lot.”

While emotions run high at harvest time, Row says it’s worth the effort to see the culmination of the year’s work. “It’s an incredible privilege to [be part of] what my parents and grandparents have worked for.”

Zureal Bernier

Bernier Zinyard

Sometimes, what defines a great vineyard isn’t what the grower does in the field, but what they don’t do.

Zureal Bernier, grower at Bernier Zinyard in Sonoma County
Zureal Bernier picks and process northern Italian red green garlic in the Dry Creek valley near Healdsburg March 23, 2023. (Chad Surmick / The Press Democrat)

“We’re not watering and we’re not fertigating. We are not coddling these vines,” says Bernier, who helped plant and develop Bernier Zinyard in Dry Creek Valley with his father, Paul, a longtime practitioner of dry-farming. “They express exactly what they are, which are vines growing from the land in almost a semi-wild manner.”

Born and raised on Bernier Farms, he says the most important thing he’s learned from his dad is to trust in nature.

“We are living in a changing climate, but these vines are strong and resilient,” says Bernier. “It’s easy to worry when it’s 100-plus degrees, but it doesn’t do me any good. It’s better to accept the season as it progresses.”