His focus on quality in growing wine grapes helped lead to one of California's first vineyard-designated wines.
By Claire Noland June 28, 2009
Photo: Robert Young, seeing money in growing grapes, moved away from producing prunes in the 1960s to grow wine grapes. He helped produce some of California's first vineyard-designated wines.
Robert Young, a pioneering Sonoma County farmer who changed his crop from prunes to grapes and helped produce some of the first vineyard-designated wines in California, has died. He was 90.
Young died June 19 at Santa Rosa Memorial Hospital from complications of old age, said his daughter, Susan Sheehy.
A third-generation farmer from Geyserville in the Alexander Valley, he realized in the mid-1960s that he could make more money from wine grapes than from prunes, so he uprooted the trees and planted a vineyard, putting him at the leading edge of California's emerging wine industry. But it wasn't all about the profit.
No comments:
Post a Comment