Spann Vineyards

My love of wine was fostered by a move to Bordeaux with my family in 1975 where I explored the wines and cheeses of southwestern France. After returning to California to attend college I went to work in a small wine shop where my interest grew, then I opened my store in El Dorado County where we featured local wines. I sold the store to become an independent wine broker representing small high quality producers and then moved to Dry Creek Valley where I helped with the startup of Lake Sonoma Winery, working both in the vineyards and in wine production. An interest in Aviation then took me to New Mexico, but the wine business was in my blood. I planted a small vineyard for home winemaking and worked for a wine distributor in southern New Mexico before being recruited for the fine wine team of a large importing company. That job moved me to Dallas, Texas, where I met Peter, who charmed me with a keen sense of wine and an amazing wine cellar. We fell in love, and married on one condition: that we would ultimately move back to my beloved California. When we moved we decided to buy a vineyard and sell the grapes but when it came time to do so we decided we would take the plunge and make our own wines instead. While attending college in New Orleans in the early 1970s I took a job as a waiter in a French restaurant and became infatuated with classic French wines and food. My wines of preference were those from Bordeaux and the Rhone Valley. I pursued a career in the restaurant industry and served as manager and wine buyer for several restaurants before realizing that I belonged solely in the wine business. I ventured into wine retail, then into wholesale distribution and then started a wine marketing and sales company. These pursuits took me to my favorite wine regions of Europe to learn what the best properties did to make their wines special. These also led me to California during the wine renaissance of the late 1970s to meet the new small, artisan producers. After working crush at two different wineries I decided I wanted my own small winery someday to make unique wines to add to the wine world. In 2000 I finally moved to northern California to take a position with a wine importing company and the temptation was too great. We bought our vineyard in Glen Ellen and Spann Vineyards was born.