Simi Winery is a winery in California in the United States.

History

The winery was founded in

San Francisco, California San Francisco (; Spanish for "Saint Francis"), officially the City and County of San Francisco, is the commercial, financial, and cultural center of Northern California. The city proper is the fourth most populous in California and 17th ...

in 1876 by two Italian brothers, Giuseppe and Pietro Simi, who had immigrated to the United States during the California Gold Rush. They moved operations to

Healdsburg, California Healdsburg is a city located in Sonoma County, in California's Wine Country. At the 2010 census, the city had a population of 11,254. Owing to its three most important wine-producing regions (the Russian River, Dry Creek, and Alexander Val ...

in 1881, paying $2,250 in gold coins to buy a winery on Front Street. The winery was run by Giuseppe Simi's daughter,

Isabelle Simi Isabel is a female name of Spanish origin. Isabelle is a name that is similar, but it is of French origin. It originates as the medieval Spanish form of ''Elizabeth (given name), Elisabeth'' (ultimately Hebrew ''Elisheba, Elisheva''), Arising in ...

, beginning 1904. After marrying a local banker, Isabelle continued to make wine during

Prohibition Prohibition is the act or practice of forbidding something by law; more particularly the term refers to the banning of the manufacture, storage (whether in barrels or in bottles), transportation, sale, possession, and consumption of alcoholic ...

from 1920 until 1933, which she stored in the winery's stone cellars. One of the few California wineries to survive Prohibition, Simi was forced to sell most of its vineyards to survive, but was also one of the few companies to have wine available when sales were again legal. Simi opened its first tasting room in 1934. Isabel Simi sold the winery to grower Russell Green in 1970 but continued working there. In 1973 Maryann Graf, the first woman to graduate from an American university with a degree in oenology, joined Simi. In 1979 winemaking was taken over by Zelma Long, one of California's most prominent winemakers, who modernized and brought the winery to national prominence. The winery was sold in 1981 to Moët-Hennessy, which in turn became part of LVMH Moët Hennessy. Beginning 1982 the winery began to re-acquire its own vineyards. Long, who continued after the Hennessy sale, eventually became President and CEO. LVMH sold the winery for approximately US$50 million in 1999 to Canandaigua Brands, a division of

Constellation Brands Constellation Brands, Inc., a Fortune 500 company, is an American producer and marketer of beer, wine, and spirits. Constellation is the largest beer import company in the US, measured by sales, and has the third-largest market share (7.4 percen ...

. It is now owned by Icon Estates, Constellation's luxury wine subsidiary.

Production

Simi owns of vineyards in

Alexander Valley The Alexander Valley ( Wappo: Unutsawaholmanoma, "Toyon Bush Berry Place") is a Californian American Viticultural Area (AVA) just north of Healdsburg in Sonoma County. It is home to many wineries and vineyards, as well as the city of Cloverdal ...

, planted in

Bordeaux Bordeaux ( , ; Gascon oc, Bordèu ; eu, Bordele; it, Bordò; es, Burdeos) is a port city on the river Garonne in the Gironde department, Southwestern France. It is the capital of the Nouvelle-Aquitaine region, as well as the prefecture ...

varietal wines, and the "Goldfields Vineyard" in Russian River Valley, planted to

Chardonnay Chardonnay (, , ) is a green-skinned grape variety used in the production of white wine. The variety originated in the Burgundy wine region of eastern France, but is now grown wherever wine is produced, from England to New Zealand. For new ...

clones.

References

{{coord, 38.64413, N, 122.87239, W, display=title Healdsburg, California History of Sonoma County, California Wineries in Sonoma County 1876 establishments in California

History

Production

See also

References