Winery History - Interactive

1904 River West Vineyard planted

The history of Rodney Strong Vineyards has roots stretching back 100 years, an intertwined tale of families in pursuit of an abiding passion - wine.

It was 1904 when Sonoma County settlers planted what is now our Heritage River West Zinfandel vineyard, just behind the property that is now home to our winery. The next year, as those young vines began to be trained up stakes, Tom Klein's great-grandparents relocated from New York City with their three sons to San Francisco and a new life. Sadly, the historic earthquake and subsequent fires of 1906 would change the family forever, destroying all their possessions and taking the life of great-grandmother Mary Klein. The devastation left great-grandfather David Klein with the difficult decision of having to place his three sons in an orphanage.

The boys later served in the U.S. Navy during World War I and, after getting out, began working to establish a small business buying and selling beans at the busy seaport of Stockton, thus beginning an agricultural legacy that remains intact today. The success of Klein Brothers meant eventually acquiring land on which they would grow potatoes, almonds, tomatoes, asparagus, and more, but interestingly enough, never beans.

Winery founder, Rodney D. Strong, was born in 1927, in Camas, Wash., in the midst of the Prohibition - ironic for someone who would later become a pioneer in the wine industry. His first love, however, was dance, and by 15, Rod was practicing five hours a day, refining his skills with dance masters Martha Graham and George Balanchine at the American School of Ballet. The training led to a successful career, highlighted by four years dancing in Paris.

He returned to the U.S. in 1951 to dance and to teach, but his experience with French food and wine had sparked what would become his next passion.

In that same year, both Tom Klein and our longtime winemaker, Rick Sayre, were born into California agricultural families. Tom followed in his father's footsteps and pursued a Stanford education, knowing that the bean business awaited him. Meanwhile, Rick found himself running his family's prune-plum orchard in Windsor, Calif. And, though they each shared a strong desire to make a life in agriculture, neither of them fully embraced the idea of a lifetime in their family's chosen businesses.

In 1959, Rod retired from dance, married his dancing partner, Charlotte Ann Winson, and made plans to begin a new career in winemaking. When asked why, Rod explained, "I knew I couldn't be an old dancer, but I could be an old winemaker." The couple moved to Tiburon, Calif., where they purchased a century-old boarding house on the waterfront. In their early days, Rod would search for bulk wine to his liking, have it delivered to the cellar of the house, and blend and bottle it to his taste. The couple would then invite members of the nearby yacht club to come to tastings and purchase their wine.

Rod, though, yearned for a different kind of winemaking. In 1962, he purchased an old vineyard and winery building in Windsor, once known as the Monte Carlo Winery. There he crafted his first wines by asking questions, taking classes, making mistakes, and learning the craft.

By 1968, Rod had gotten good enough at making and selling wine that he was able to get a loan to buy land for vineyards. In those days, Sonoma County had dairies and fruit orchards, but very little in the way of grapes. Using the latest climate data from UC Davis, Rod purchased and planted several of the best vineyards we have today.

By 1970, Rod was breaking ground for a new winery building on land near the original River West vineyard first planted in 1904. The new River East vineyard, originally a large prune-plum orchard, Rod planted to chardonnay and pinot noir, and built an impressive, efficient winery building, which today houses our tasting room and lower cellar.

Meanwhile, Tom Klein started his first year at Stanford in 1970, and Rick Sayre accepted a harvest position at Simi winery in Healdsburg and began making wine. Within three months, Rick was promoted to assistant winemaker and realized he'd found his calling.

Over the next nine years, Rick worked with the likes of Zelma Long, Robert Stemmler, Mary Ann Graf, and most notably, Andre Tchelistcheff, who had been hired as consulting enologist, and took Rick under his wing.

Rodney Strong Vineyards introduces Alexander's Crown, Sonoma County's first single vineyard Cabernet Sauvignon.

With the release of this wine in 1977, Rod introduces the world to Chardonnay from Chalk Hill.

In 1979, when Rod Strong was looking for a fulltime person to take over winemaking, he placed a call to Rick. Rick began at Rodney Strong Vineyards that December.

Also in 1979, Tom finished his Stanford MBA and began working for McKinsey & Company, an international management consulting firm. His team at McKinsey was hired to evaluate the potential of a well-known Sonoma County winery. During this time, Tom met Rod Strong and Rick Sayre.

While enjoying a glass of wine at a Sonoma winery one afternoon, Tom had an epiphany. He realized that he loved the wine business. He also had a valuable degree in business that he wanted to put to good use, so why not combine his professional training and his personal passion? By 1989, he had convinced his family to purchase Rodney Strong Vineyards.

Both Tom and Rod realized that Rodney Strong Vineyards was a diamond in the rough, with the potential for truly great success. Over the next decade, the Klein family funded the purchase of fermentation tanks, state-of-the-art Bucher presses, a steady infusion of new oak barrels, an on-site case goods warehouse, custom barrel servicing equipment, a new crush pad and scale house, a conveyance system to perform whole-cluster pressing on white grapes, and a 100,000 square-foot, temperature-controlled barrel storage building.

The improvement was dramatic. Sales grew from 69,000 cases in 1989 to nearly 500,000 by the end of the decade, and many of the more popular wines were being sold on allocation only. But the Klein family, with Rod's legacy of vineyard ownership, didn't stop at the winery.

By the early 2000s they had acquired an additional seven vineyards totaling 606 acres in the Alexander Valley, Chalk Hill, and Russian River Valley appellations.

The vineyard acquisitions required careful stewardship and in 2001 the winery hired seasoned viticuturalist Doug McIlroy as Director of Winegrowing. Doug, like Rick, grew up in Sonoma County, working in his family's prune-plum orchard, which was eventually planted to grapes. Grape-growing became his passion, and Doug's dual university degrees in Viticulture and Economics served that passion well, both for his family's vineyard and for the various posts he held in the industry.

Along the way, the Kleins instituted a number of practices that have defined the winery in the 21st century. To protect the land and the environment, they increased their efforts in sustainable farming, became a Fish Friendly Farming grape-grower, and won multiple Green Business awards. They also installed one of the first large solar panel systems in the wine industry and became one of the first carbon neutral wineries in the world.

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- Awarded Fish Friendly Farming certification

- Winery within a winery completed, first crush

- Vintage, first release of Rockaway

Tom has also guided the winery's mission to produce small-lot wines that come from isolated parts of select vineyards, or "sweet spots," as Doug McIlroy calls them. To achieve this "winery within a winery," Doug tapped consultant Bob Steinhauer, a long-time viticulturalist with Beringer, to help in the vineyards, while Tom and Rick hired winemaker Gary Patzwald and consultant David Ramey to join the pursuit of crafting world-class wines.

Using small fermentation tanks and specialty equipment, the team has crafted small-lot wines including a trio of highly allocated single-vineyard cabernets: Alexander's Crown, Rockaway and Brothers' Ridge.

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- Winery's 50-year anniversary

- Rick Sayre's 30-year anniversary

- Klein Family's 20-year ownership anniversary

- Winery becomes carbon neutral

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Today, Rodney Strong Vineyards continues its history of innovation as one of California's most respected wineries, crafting delicious Sonoma County wines that reflect our passion and creativity. At the same time, we realize that the same ambition that brought us to this point will only take us to new heights in the future