I met Joel Peterson, founder of Ravenswood Winery, in Sonoma in June 1986. He had established his zinfandel-based winery with partner Reed Foster 10 years earlier. They had little money, no vineyards, and for a winery, Peterson used whatever space he could find for his operation. 

What teller of fortunes could predict that some 25 years later, Ravenswood would have evolved from a few hundred cases of single vineyard zinfandels into the highest volume producer of high-quality zinfandel in the U.S., an achievement that in 2001 attracted a $150 million offer from Constellation Wine Brands?

Peterson’s interest in zinfandel had an early beginning.

Although a medical researcher by education, he had been tasting wine from a young age. His parents had formed a wine tasting group in Point Richmond in 1957, and in the 1960s held annual zinfandel tastings.

 “Zinfandel, even then, was considered California’s unique grape, and some of those early zins were pretty interesting,” Peterson said. 

None, he believed, displayed a recognizable approach to zinfandel as a premium red wine.

Through his father’s wine group, Peterson met winemaker Joseph Swan, a passionate zinfandel producer. Their conversations inspired Swan to invite Peterson to his winery in Sonoma for a weekend.

“I basically stayed,” said Peterson, who spent weekends and vacations learning Swan’s craft of fine wine winemaking and discovering his own passion (he would say obsession) for winemaking while keeping his day job as a medical researcher at Mount Zion Hospital.

When Peterson established his winery, he saw an exciting opportunity to set a distinctive “house style,” or protocol, for making zinfandel that would showcase its potential as a world-class wine. He believed that the European tradition of fermenting small lots of wine separately in open-top fermenters, hand-punching the cap, aging in French oak barrels and working with fruit having particular ripeness, flavor and tannin profiles expressive of their terroirs was “the best way of producing the highest quality and most interesting wines in the world.  It was, therefore, exactly the right way to make zinfandel.

 “And no one else was doing it,” said Peterson, except, perhaps, Swan, because this was the most expensive way of making wine. Zinfandel to most folks in the 1970s was little more than a hearty jug wine you could pick up for couple of dollars a gallon. So his decision to establish his winery on zinfandel produced in the expensive European tradition was something of a gamble, if a revolutionary one.

With help from many friends, Peterson began producing a few hundred cases of single-vineyard wines from top vineyards such as Dickerson in Napa and Old Hill in Sonoma counties. Despite successful sales, few overhead costs and a cash infusion from new partners acquired in 1979, revenues were insufficient to maintain the winery as a business. White zinfandel was the rage by then, but Peterson was adamant on that subject: “No Wimpy Wines” would ever pass from the doors of Ravenswood.

He had to figure out how to make a bottle of zinfandel  for less than $10 while maintaining his house style. That requirement led to Vintners’ Blend, a large volume, fruit-forward red zinfandel that was cheaper to make and eminently drinkable upon release — and that sold quickly. First production was 1,000 cases. His County Series zinfandels, which consist of blending fruit from multiple vineyards and developing the best wine for under $20 a bottle, followed soon after.

In 1986, Ravenswood’s output of his trademark No Wimpy Wines was 6,000 cases of Vintner’s Blend, and 6,000 cases of mostly other zinfandels.

Thanks to Vintners’ Blend, Ravenswood was making a profit, but Peterson kept his regular job as a medical laboratory scientist at Sonoma Hospital. It would not be until 1991 that he could draw a living salary from his wine operation. 

When Constellation Wine Brands purchased Ravenswood in 2001, production had reached 500,000 cases, 85 percent of which was zinfandel, and half of that Vintner’s Blend.

Peterson’s gamble on red zinfandel was paying off handsomely — in many ways.

Constellation was happy to keep Peterson on as Ravenswood’s director of winemaking, and as senior vice president. “Just keep doing what you’ve been doing and we will be happy,” Richard Sands, chairman of the board of Constellation, told him. 

Peterson was happy to stay. “I spent my life building this winery. I couldn’t imagine anyone else directing it, and still keeping it as Ravenswood, which meant continuing the Ravenswood tradition of producing high-quality red wines at affordable prices. That was important to me,” Peterson emphasized.

“You realize,” he added, “that we sold the winery not because I was ready to sell but because (the) partners I had taken on in 1979 were looking for an exit strategy.”

Under Constellation ownership, quantities for Vintners’ Blends and the County Appellation series have steadily increased, reaching a total production in 2009 of one million cases.

 “My core wine making principles of fermenting on native yeast and aging each vineyard lot separately in French oak are still used,” Peterson said. “Constellation’s overall size, however, leads to lower costs of production than when I was stand-alone. This has helped me maintain competitive prices without sacrificing quality.”

Peterson admits that Ravenswood’s large volume production of Vintners’ Blend under Constellation has taken him out of the specialty wine store category. He doesn’t mind, though, because his wines now are available to wine lovers throughout the U.S. and the world in locations where such consistently high quality zinfandels were previously unavailable. 

“Ravenswood’s small lots of single vineyard zinfandels are sill among the best in California. They get the same scores they always got,” he laughed. “Now I get to share these zinfandels in places I couldn’t before. As well, our under-$10-a-bottle high quality wines produced from California fruit have had a definite hand in putting wine on tables in the U.S. and beyond. ”

For Peterson, that’s a plus.

“Zinfandel is pretty wonderful. It’s a wine that impacts people. I’m amazed at the number of people who tell me, ‘The first red wine that turned me into a wine lover was your zinfandel.’ The grape — zinfandel; the place — California: They are inextricably intertwined,” he said. 

Peterson has also been able to afford his first vineyard (he named it Bedrock), in Sonoma Valley. Of the 120 acres in vines, 34 are head-trained, dry-farmed zinfandel dating to the 1880s.

Another plus.

In an odd twist, the boutique wine stores that formerly supported Ravenswood now embrace Peterson’s 28-year-old son, Morgan, and his Bedrock Wine Company. “Morgan’s young and just starting out,” Peterson said. “He’s now getting that specialty wine store and fine dining restaurant support.”

Morgan Peterson is following in his dad’s footsteps in many ways: His wine style, his choice of grape varieties, and that he, too, is getting a little help from his friends.

No indication yet if Peterson’s 10-year-old son, Galen, will follow in his older brother’s footsteps. He does like getting his hands dirty during crush, Peterson said.

“The Peterson tradition continues,” he concluded, with understandable pride.