DeLoach Vineyards

The Free Bacchus Story

Cecil DeLoach was a San Francisco firefighter for seventeen years. In 1970 he and his wife Christine, both with advanced degrees in anthropology and no background in farming, bought the Barbieri Ranch in the Olivet Road district of the Russian River Valley. They opened DeLoach Vineyards in 1975 and, by the family’s account, were among the first to put the Russian River Valley name on their labels.

In 2003, with the winery in Chapter 11, the Burgundy négociant Boisset bought it for $17.5 million. The founders kept about 450 acres of vineyard, some of their old-vine Zinfandel among it, and the family later opened a new winery, Hook & Ladder, down the road.

Boisset began in the ground. It pulled up the estate vineyard, left the land under cover crops to rebuild the soil, and bought fruit from other growers while it waited. The estate was replanted in 2006, certified organic by CCOF in July 2008, and certified Biodynamic by Demeter in December 2009 together with a one-acre garden. The first estate wines from the converted vineyard came with the 2010 vintage.

It pays to be precise about what is certified. Demeter certifies the 20-acre estate, 17 acres of it vineyard, so the Biodynamic claim belongs to the Estate wines. The organic certificate is held by Boisset for 156 acres across its California properties and names the DeLoach Estate wines, and from the 2023 vintage the Russian River Valley Pinot Noir and Chardonnay are made from certified organic grapes too. The inexpensive California wines are on neither certificate.