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Evolution of a Winegrower Owners Jim and Anita Forchini first came to Sonoma County in 1963 from southern California where Jim had worked the past 3 years as a mechanical engineer writing contracts and executing procurements for NASA spacecraft programs. During 12 years of product development work in Sonoma County working in vacuum deposited thin films and cooling tower equipment, Jim began to developed an interest in viticulture as a result of making wine with friends. With this new interest, they invested in 1971 in a small 24 acre ranch in the Russian River Valley which had a mix of old vineyards and prunes. They became immersed in the renaissance of the Sonoma County wine industry that was upgrading from generic vineyards to premium varietals. After acquiring additional 20 acre vineyard property in Dry Creek Valley in 1973, Jim was approaching a career crossroads. Torn between the demands of private industry, a growing family, and operating 2 vineyards in addition to his demanding job, Jim made a career change in 1976 to devote more time to family and become a full time winegrower with the dream of someday building a winery. After Jim's career change they traded up to 67 acres in Dry Creek, maintained their 24 acres in the Russian River Valley and devoted full energy to the development of their vineyards where they achieved recognition as quality winegrowers. In 1996 the time was right to build their desired winery. Jim took several short courses at UC Davis and did a lot of self study. Their first year production of 426 cases of estate Zinfandel won a gold medal in a major wine competition. Over the next four years they increased winery production to 3000 cases. Today Forchini Vineyards & Winery makes six award winning estate grown, produced and bottled wines and remain family owned and operated. |
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