By Virginie Boone

It’s hard to make it as a family winery for any length of time. To last 50 years is a true testament to survival skills, the ability to successfully make generational change and producing consistently great wines. Dehlinger Winery in the Russian River Valley has it all, which is why it is celebrating its 50th anniversary this year.

After earning a degree in biochemistry at UC Berkeley, then studying viticulture and enology at UC Davis, Tom Dehlinger was one of a wave of young winemakers who came to Sonoma County in the 1970s to take up winegrowing. Jobs at Beringer and Hanzell followed.

But the desire to plant a place of his own was strong. Starting with 14 acres of an old apple ranch on Vine Hill Road, he planted his first grapevines, becoming Dehlinger Winery in 1975, eight years before the Russian River Valley appellation came into being.

Soon thereafter, Tom met his wife Carole, and they started a family, Carole running customer relations and the property’s three-acre vegetable garden while raising four kids. Tom and Carole lived in the landmark eight-sided Octagon home (designed by his architect brother) on the vineyard in their early years.

Trial and error, hard work and blind luck were all involved in figuring out the potential of the land and the potential in the wines. But figure it out they did and before long Dehlinger became one of the highly respected names in Russian River Valley Pinot Noir, Chardonnay, Syrah (three acres of which were added in 1990) and even Cabernet Sauvignon (four and a half acres planted in 1982 and 1983), a rarity in the region.

Dehlinger now has 45 acres planted to wine grapes on its vineyard on Vine Hill Road and the reins have been passed to Carmen and Eva Dehlinger, who run both the vineyard and the winery, Eva as general manager and Carmen as director of sales and marketing. Eva studied viticulture and terroir at the University of Burgundy in Dijon, France before taking on her role at Dehlinger.

The heart of the operation of course has always been the site, a set of gently rolling hills 13miles from the Pacific Ocean where the fog sits through the morning until about midday, with Goldridge and Altamont soils feeding the vines. Tom’s original 1975 plantings were followed by 15 years of subsequent plantings; a second generation of plantings are being overseen by Eva and Carmen.

Dehlinger has long shone a light on the importance of its soils by delineating several of its wines by soil. There is an Altamont Syrah and a Goldridge Syrah, for example, and Altamont and Goldridge versions of Pinot Noir.

In 2017, Dehlinger added the adjacent Garbro Ranch to its estate holdings (called Stiling Vineyardat the time), where in 1989 the Pinot Noir vines had been grafted to cuttings of Swan clone Pinot Noir from the Dehlinger vineyard. It has 25 acres of Chardonnay and 10 of Pinot Noir in Goldridge soils. Dehlinger makes two bottlings of Garbro Ranch wines.

Garbro is named for the Garcia Brothers of the Garbro Fruit Company, who founded their fruit packing headquarters on the ranch in the 1920s, a large Gravenstein apple orchard at the time that also became known for growing berries.

In celebration of its 50 years, the family has posted a series of love letters to the winery on its website, where people have shared stories of the way Dehlinger wines have been a happy part of their lives – from finding lost love to putting down a 1991 bottle for a daughter’s 21st birthday, to remembrances of stopping by the tasting room and having Tom on hand to pour.

Here’s raising a glass to 50 years of Dehlinger and many more ahead.

Image by: Dehlinger Winery