History
Ravenswood Winery was founded in 1976 by winemaker and President, Joel Peterson, and his partner, W. Reed Foster, a San Francisco business man, now the Chairman and CEO of Ravenswood. That first year’s crush produced enough juice to make 327 cases of Zinfandel. Released three years later, this big, stylish wine set a standard that succeeding vintages have followed.
Today Joel and Reed are assisted by Justin Faggioli as Ravenswoods Executive Vice President and Callie Konno as Chief Financial Officer. Together, the Management Team has successfully directed the talents of the unique individuals that make up the Ravenswood Family. Ravenswood has become a highly specialized winery in Sonoma, California, which annually produces in the neighborhood of 200,000 cases of exceptional wine. Almost three quarters of the production is Zinfandel, and the balance is evenly split between Merlot, Cabernet Sauvignon, a thousand or so cases of barrel-fermented Chardonnay (in one taster's words, "The reddest-tasting Chardonnay on the market"), and finally, small amounts of other miscellaneous reds and white wines. Almost half of this past year's production was Ravenswood's "starter" Zinfandel, the Vintners Blend, which has been a consistent gold medal winner over the years. This wine has been blended and bottled by our winemaker since 1983, using up to 40% of wine vinted by Ravenswood.
The resulting wines, whether vintners blend or single vineyard designates, are rich, complex, fully varietal, and well suited to aging. They will generally reach their peak in five to ten years, although most – particularly the Zinfandels – are drunk young and greedily by people who love big, gutsy, unapologetic wines.