Winemaker David Ramey to get Sonoma County Vintners’s 1st lifetime achievement award

David Ramey, owner and winemaker at Ramey Wine Cellars in Healdsburg, has been selected by Sonoma County Vintners to receive its first lifetime achievement award.

“We wanted to honor an individual who has made a significant impact in our wine community, pioneered new techniques with groundbreaking work, elevated Sonoma County and put Sonoma County wines on the world stage,” said Sonoma County Vintners Executive Director Michael Haney. “David Ramey is the perfect person to be our first ever Lifetime Achievement Award recipient. We appreciate his commitment to the Sonoma County wine region and our local community.”

Ramey, who made his first chardonnay in Sonoma County in 1972, is credited by the trade association pioneering whole-cluster pressing of white grapes; the use of oxidized juice in making white wine; sur lie aging of white wines in barrel; malolactic fermentation of Chardonnay; native yeast fermentations; and bottling without filtration.

After earning a graduate degree from the University of California at Davis, and working in the wine industry in France, Ramey helped establish several including, Matanzas Creek, Chalk Hill, Dominus Estate (owned by Christian Moueix, of Pétrus) and most recently, Rudd Estate. Ramey Wine Cellars, which David owned with his wife, Carla, was founded in 1996, the group stated.

He will receive the honor at the group’s Sonoma County Barrel Auction on May 6 at MacMurray Estate Vineyards. The proceeds from the event, with American AgCredit as presenting sponsor, support marketing programs and initiatives of the vintners organization.