Four Generations of Foresight

by Heidi Cusick Dickerson

Past and present mix with timeless ease at Foursight Vineyards where four generations of the Charles family have lived and made their living in the middle of Boonville. From logging to grape growing each has built upon the love and the possibilities of their land. 

Bill and wife Nancy live in the house where Bill was born. Their daughter Kristy and her husband Joe Webb live in the house where Kristy and her two brothers were raised. Evan, Kristy and Joe’s young son, is the fifth generation to be raised on the ranch.

“The tasting room is built with all recycled lumber from our property,” says Nancy. 

“We dug them up and milled them,” adds Kristy, who does sales and marketing for the winery. Everyone in the family is part of the business management. Behind the new winery the old walnut, quince, loquat, wild plum and fig trees shade a pastoral picnic space where daughter Kristy and Joe got married. Many of these trees were planted by her grandparents in 1950; who owned and operated Charles Lumber Company on this site along with Kristy’s great -grandfather and grandparents who came to Anderson Valley in 1943 to work in the woods.

Slim, sandy haired, and personable, Nancy grew up in Oakland. A registered nurse, she worked in Ukiah after she and Bill moved back to Boonville. “Being in the vineyard is like coming back to your roots,” she says. “The kids went away, we planted the vineyard and these 13,163 vines are my babies. I’ve learned a little love works.” They now grow Sauvignon Blanc and Pinot Noir because they are the family’s favorite varietals.” Most of their grapes are sold to local wineries like Navarro and to Schramsberg in Napa Valley for their reserve Blanc de Noirs. 

The Charles’ own brand Foursight got its name from four generations with vision about how this land can support them. “Although we’re millennials and our parents are baby boomers,” says Kristy, “our attachment to the land has brought us full circle.”