RICK^ WENNERTIM FISH
R
ichard Arrowood
is about as Sonoma
County as they come.
He was raised here,
and his family has
called the county home for genera-
tions. His mother and grandmother
both attended tiny Alexander Valley
school. It was just a technicality that
Arrowood wasn’t born in Sonoma—
his mother was on a shopping trip in
San Francisco when he surprised her.
He recalls riding as a child in the fami-
ly’s ’53 DeSoto to Sebastiani Winery,
where his dad refilled the Arrowoods’
empty wine jug.
In his 55 years of winemaking, Arro-
wood focused almost exclusively on
Sonoma. His Chardonnays at Chateau
St. Jean in the 1970s helped set the
standard for the category in California,
as his remarkable Johannisberg Ries-
ling did for late-harvest wines. Caber-
net Sauvignon became the star as he
set off on his own with Arrowood
Winery in the 1980s.
With his 75th birthday on the hori-
zon, Arrowood starts a new chapter. In
December 2019, he and his wife, Alis, sold Amapola Creek, the
Sonoma Valley winery they started in 2005, and now plan to
move out of Sonoma County for good. “We thought about it for
a while, and floated balloons a few times,” Arrowood says, add-
ing, “I’ll miss the winemaking, but I won’t miss the bureaucracy.”
The Arrowoods sold the 5,000-case winery facility and 20
acres of vineyards to neighbor Brion Wise, who made his fortune
in oil and gas before starting B. Wise winery in 2002. “I didn’t
want to sell to some big corporation,” says Arrowood, who has
some experience in that area. “The fit is good.”
Arrowood is more excited about the future than sentimental
about the past, or so it seemed when we met for lunch in So-
noma recently. Raised in Santa Rosa, he earned degrees in
chemistry and fermentation science in college, and in 1965
asked family friend Adolf Heck, then the owner of Korbel
Cellars, for a summer job in the winery laboratory.
On his first day of work, Arrowood realized that there had
been a misunderstanding. Heck thought Arrowood had said
“lavatory,” and the young man cleaned toilets for a few days be-
fore he was transferred to the bottling line, and then to the labo-
ratory. He laughs at the memory. Later, he worked in the cellarsof Italian Swiss Colony in Geyserville,
once the best-known winery in So-
noma, and then Rodney Strong; the
two jobs honed his craft and his
knowledge of the best vineyards.
Arrowood first made his mark as the
founding winemaker of Chateau St.
Jean in 1974. “Those were the halcyon
days of the business,” he said of the in-
dustry in the ’70s and ’80s. “The com-
petition wasn’t as keen as it is today.”
Richard to most people, Arrowood’s
old friends call him Dick. In the 25
years I’ve known him and enjoyed his
wines, I’ve seldom been disappointed.
On the rare occasion that a review was
less than flattering, we cordially agreed
to disagree. In retrospect, he was prob-
ably right.
Five years ago, to mark 50 years in
the business, Arrowood staged a vin-
tage retrospective. I was impressed. His
Chateau St. Jean Cabernet Sauvignon
Sonoma Valley Glen Ellen Vineyards
1977 and Chateau St. Jean Cabernet
Sauvignon Sonoma Valley Laurel Glen
Vineyards 1975 were incredibly youth-
ful, and the Arrowood Cabernet Sau-
vignon Sonoma County Réserve Spéciale 1997 was stunning.
By 2000, he was ready to move on from Arrowood Winery. The
Mondavi family was on a buying spree when it paid $45 million
for Arrowood. For nearly five years, the Arrowoods were treated
like part of the Mondavi family. Then in 2004, Constellation
bought Mondavi and things got complicated. Legacy Estates
Group bought Arrowood and then went bankrupt eight months
later. Finally, in 2006, Jackson Family bought the winery.
The Arrowoods own a home in Montana where Dick hunts
and fly-fishes, and have recently bought a house in Utah. The
decision to leave Sonoma County is not entirely a surprise to
those who know Arrowood. With a strong independent streak,
he’s a straight shooter who doesn’t suffer anyone telling him how
to run his winery, and the industry is increasingly demanding in
terms of local, state and federal regulations. I got the sense that
he was simply and finally fed up. “It breaks my heart,” he said. “I
love this area.”
Arrowood left his mark on Sonoma and its wines. He was per-
haps the county’s first star winemaker. I’ll miss picking his brain
about the old days and, of course, his great wines.
Senior editor Tim Fish has been with Wine Spectator since 2001.Arrowood’s Adiós
Dick Arrowood has been a
leader in Sonoma winemaking
for 55 years. Now he’s
leaving the biz for good.
MAY 31, 2020 • WINE SPECTATOR 37WS053120_columnsRev.indd 37 3/18/20 10:19 AM