Davis Bynum Chardonnay Russian River Valley 2016

The Russian River today is almost synonymous with the best Pinot and Chardonnay in the country but it wasn’t always so. When David Bynum and wife Dorothy first purchased their 83-acre ranch in 1971 – the area was mostly overrun with high-producing varieties of cheap Merlot grown in prolific quantities. 

But Bynum and team had a different vision. He wanted to create the best wines possible, not what would be easy to sell on the bulk market. So in 1973 he single-handedly set in motion a new standard in RRV single vineyard Pinot & Chardonnay to this day by bottling the first one ever. About that very first vintage – Davis was coy, it was “really good, surprisingly good” he said. 

His pioneering spirit didn’t stop there and he eventually built a winemaking dream team to help support his vision. First he hired Gary Farrell to head up the continued improvement of his single-vineyard Pinot Program. Not only did Gary stop at nothing to bring Davis Bynum wines to the absolute forefront of quality, as you probably know by now, he did ok when he hung up his own shingle. 

When Gary left, Davis and company filled his large footsteps with a winemaking icon in David Ramey whose hands are all over today’s single-vineyard Chardonnay stunner.