Jeff Runquist

All of Jeff’s wines share a theme of fresh fruit reflective of
the varietal flavors inherent in the grapes. Jeff selects grapes
from vineyards that provide rich full flavors without loads of
astringent tannins.


Personally, Jeff prefers his wines to have zest and vibrant
flavors. “Once I release a new vintage I rarely return to the
previous year’s wine. My father likes that; it means more of the
older wines for him.”


Jeff produces wines from grapes grown throughout California. At
last count he was planning to crush over twenty different
varieties from nine different appellations for the 2013 vintage.
Most of these wines are produced in very small limited
quantities. However, there are four principle wines that the
winery strives to have available throughout the year and they
are: Petite Sirah, Zinfandel, Barbera, and Petit Verdot.


Jeff started his adventure in the wine industry in 1977 when he
interned with Seagrams at their Paul Masson Sherry Cellars in
Madera while studying enology at UC Davis. Upon graduating in
1980, he worked in the cellar at Montevina in Amador County’s
Shenandoah Valley and was promoted to winemaker in 1982. After a
three year stint at the Napa Valley Cooperative Winery from 1987
through 1990, Jeff became the winemaker for the J. Lohr winery in
San Jose. It was during his tenure at J. Lohr that it became
clear that he was going to have to make wine for himself.


In 1995 Jeff crushed ten tons of zinfandel from the Massoni Ranch
in Amador’s Shenandoah Valley and on April First 1997 he released
700 cases of that Zinfandel under his own label. In 1996 and 1997
Jeff made his wine at the Sycamore Creek Winery in Morgan Hill
and then from 1998 through the 2010 vintage at the McManis Family
Vineyard Winery in Ripon. In 2006 he finally returned to Amador
County having purchased a small five acre walnut orchard on
Shenandoah Road. In the spring of 2008 Jeff and Margie opened
their tasting room. Production facilities followed and Jeff was
able to crush the majority of their production in Amador in 2011.