The Story of Mendocino Wines
Mendocino Roots & Ridges 10 Years Later
by Torrey Douglass
Mendocino County doesn’t do anything by the book. It’s a county full of mavericks, eccentrics, visionaries—people who look at how things are usually done and think, “Ok, but what if we …?” The area is nothing if not unconventional, a tendency that is revealed all over the county, even in its long history of grape growing and winemaking.
It was quite a cast of characters who farmed the first grapes in Mendocino County. This history was captured in writer Heidi Cusick Dickerson’s book, Mendocino Roots & Ridges: Wine Notes from America’s Greenest Wine Region, published in 2012 by Mendocino County Museum. In it, Cusick Dickerson tells the story of the Italian families who settled along the benchlands of the Russian River in and near Redwood Valley in the 1890s and early 1900s, families who started iconic Mendocino County wineries like Barra, Testa, Graziano, and Parducci.
The late John Parducci was known locally as “Mr. Mendocino.” His inherited and dogged persistence in the industry began with his grandfather Adolph’s immigration from Tuscany to rural Ukiah, where he planted grapes just as Prohibition began. John helped his grandpa by accompanying those wine grapes by train to the East Coast for “altar” wine, and by constructing 20,000 gallon wine tanks from redwood. In his 80s, after selling the Parducci brand, John partnered with his own grandson, Rich, to start McNab Ridge Winery.
The late Charlie Barra was another local wine legend. Referred to as the “Godfather” of Mendocino grape growing, Charlie traced his Italian roots to his grandparents who came from the Piedmont in Italy, where both worked in vineyards. In 1945, while still in high school, Charlie leased a vineyard, convinced his principal to let him go to school half a day during harvest, then proceeded to sell his grapes and make three times more than the principal was paid! The next year, the bottom fell out of the grape market.
“I got a lesson in farming,” was the philosophy that drove Charlie and Barra winery and vineyards since then. Charlie and his wife, Martha, have always been devotees of organic grapes. One of Charlie’s favorite quips was “We grow grapes the same way we always did. Now they call it organic.”
Greg Graziano is among Mendocino County’s wine luminaries as well. He is known as the fellow who “never met a varietal he didn’t like,” especially if that varietal is Italian. His grandparents came from Italy in 1918, and they too, shipped their grapes back east. Today, Graziano sources grapes from his vineyards as well as small growers. “I love the family traditions of the old growers, and I find their prices to be fair, which allows me to price my wine fairly.”
Maria Testa Martinson, whose immigrant forebears established Testa Vineyards in 1912, decided to make wine from those vineyards in the old Italian style. Her benchmark wines are called simply Black and White, “just like [the wine] my Nonno made from the grapes he grew,” says Maria.
This group of industrious, ambitious grape growers and winemakers set the stage for the groundbreaking wine businesses Mendocino County is known for today. Since the publication of Mendocino Roots and Ridges, an additional thousand acres of grapes are grown organically in the region. In total, one third of all wine grapes grown in the county are organic, making Mendocino County the top producer of organic grapes in the state.
This should not be a surprise considering the area’s history of firsts in ecologically friendly grape and wine production. Mendocino County is home to Frey Vineyards, the first all organic, then Demeter Certified Biodynamic winery, and Bonterra, the world’s first carbon neutral winery. Every year, an increasing number of industry leaders from our county are recognized for organic grape growing and sustainable business and winery practices.
A key player who made Mendocino County synonymous with sustainability is Fetzer, who declared a zero waste policy in the 1990s for all used paper, cardboard, and metal. They also began composting grapes stems, seeds, and skins. Their 2006 solar installation was one of the industry’s largest solar panel arrays. Today, Masut, owned by third generation Fetzer family members Jake and Ben Fetzer, continues the organic practice for their estate grown Pinot Noir.
The region’s agricultural enterprises are hardly restricted to grape growing. Fruit, vegetables, and livestock are grown by farmers and ranchers throughout the county—including some wineries. A chapter entitled “Lamb Mowers, Turkeys and Other Vineyard Creatures” talks about Chance Creek Vineyards in Redwood Valley, where “owner-winemaker Lou Bock, bundled in a heavy coat and baseball cap, has been seen walking between his rows of sauvignon blanc surrounded by wooly ewes and a bevy of lambs” mowing weeds between the vines. Sheep are also in use at both Pennyroyal and Navarro Vineyards in Anderson Valley, and the chapter is illustrated with a photo of Pennyroyal proprietor, Sarah Bennett, with her sheep.
McFadden, a beautiful, solar powered, all-organic ranch in Potter Valley, produces a variety of wines, from sparkling to dessert, as well as garlic braids, herb blends, ranch grown beef, and holiday bay wreaths. At Terra Savia in Hopland, also a producer of sparkling wine, rose, and still wines, you’ll find an assortment of extraordinary Olivino olive oils (the lemon is not to be missed). The commercial olive press is in the modern industrial tasting room, where special meals take place throughout the year, hosted by proprietor Yvonne Hall and winemaker Jim Milone.
Since its publication in 2012, some of the wineries profiled in Mendocino Roots & Ridges have ceased operation, yet their stories endure and continue to be worth telling. Both the book’s author and its photographer moved to Mendocino County in the 1970s, and spent much of the intervening four decades writing about and photographing vintners, grape growers, and vineyards across the county. They have legit local bona fides as well. Tom Liden, originally from New York City, built his own house on a steep slope off Comptche-Ukiah Road. He worked as the Executive Director of the Mendocino County Vintners Association and pursued photography, reflecting gratitude when he shares, “I love the place where I live and that I am able to give back through my photographs.” In appreciation for Liden’s work, Mendocino County bestowed him with a “Lifetime Achievement Award for Visual Arts.
Since moving to the county, Cusick Dickerson operated several local businesses including a restaurant, deli, and catering. She taught cooking classes for the college and was the director of the college culinary arts program on the coast, all the while writing a food column for the coast papers and articles for many publications around the country. She even authored several cookbooks, including Soul & Spice: African Cooking in the Americas and The International Pantry Cookbook.
The pair’s appreciation for Mendocino County’s wine world comes through loud and clear in the pages of Mendocino Roots & Ridges, capturing the area’s off-the-beaten-path ethos, intriguing personalities, and trailblazing accomplishments. If you want fascinating tales and interesting insights into how local wine started and has evolved, you could do no better than picking up a copy for yourself.
Purchase Mendocino Roots and Ridges locally at Mendocino Book Company in Ukiah and Gallery Bookshop in Mendocino.
Torrey Douglass is a web and graphic designer living in Boonville. Her life’s joys include reading by the fire, cooking something delicious, and drinking good coffee with a friend.
Photo by Tom Liden