Philo Ridge Vineyards

Here is the story of Philo Ridge Winery came to be, as told by Fred Buonanno, Proprietor:

Situated up a 5.33 mile dirt road sits Philo Ridge Vineyards. This is where Fred R. Buonanno and Heather A. McKelvey decided to plant their roots, so to speak, and begin their venture into the wine business. We had looked at properties for over 4 years and had actually been in escrow twice before we found our slice of paradise. Looking at property on almost every weekend, internet searches, all to no avail. One Sunday evening we returned home and by chance Fred looked in the Sunday classified section of the SF Chronicle. There under the heading of Farms and Ranches was a five line ad for a FSBO, For sale by owner. It described a 40+ acre property with a vineyard and room to plant more. We called that evening and made arrangements to meet the next Saturday. We met Urs and Dolores the owners of the property about half way up the road. He said, “you're going to drive that car up the road”? So I replied very simply “if this car doesn’t make it up the road we aren’t buying." The car made it up the road, no problems, and after looking around the property for about an hour, we made an offer on the most beautiful piece of property we had seen in our four years of searching. We took possession of the property in August of 1999.

There were already 3 acres of Cabernet Sauvignon and Merlot planted just below the house. This is the vineyard that adorns our label. This vineyard was planted in 1976 by the original owner of the property Vernon Rose of Christine Woods Winery, the property was their original winery as well. There was an additional 7 acres of plantable terraced land just yards from the original vineyard.

Well we suddenly found ourselves in the wine business. It was quite thrilling and equally terrifying. Neither Heather nor I had ever actually farmed. We had read a great deal and we were well schooled in the wine aspect of the business but we were lacking in that get your hands in the dirt, practical experience. One of the first things that we did was convince Norman Kobler to be our vineyard manager. Norman has many many years of hands on knowledge about almost everything to do with putting something in the ground, watching it grow, and making wine. Norman planned and supervised the installation of our Pinot Noir and Pinot Gris vineyards in 2000 and has worked hard to continue our education.

We decided to become a bonded winery in 2001 and we released our first vintage, all 167 cases of 2001 Syrah and Cabernet Sauvignon in January of 2004. Our production is still under 1000 cases but we continue to ratchet up our production. Our goal is to make great wines that have complexity and exemplify the best their varietals have to offer your palate.

Pinot Noir will be our primary wine. We expect to get no more than 2 tons per acre. Given the heavy red clay the Pinot is planted on our expectations will likely be met and we are only interested in producing quality grapes for our wine. The rest of the wine will be Syrah, Zinfandel, Cabernet Sauvignon, Pinot Gris and blended wines.

Stay tuned, this journey is just beginning.