By 1975, Dan Duckhorn’s grapevine nursery and vineyard consulting business had done its job a little too well.
For five years his company had propagated more than a million grapevines and managed vineyards across the valley. But the growers who once leaned on him were finding their footing, and the work was thinning out. He and Margaret had spent those same years reading, tasting, and traveling, and they had formed a real point of view on wine. The open question was what to do with it.
There were ten acres on Lodi Lane, along the Silverado Trail, with a cluster of old greenhouses on the property. Dan put it plainly:
“Why don’t we just buy it and see if we can make wine ourselves and get in the business?”
That question became Duckhorn Vineyards.
What followed was, in Dan’s own words, a shoestring. A small shed held the barrels. Three stainless-steel tanks sat outside under an oak tree. That was the winery. Each vintage taught them something the last one hadn’t, and slowly the wines came into focus.
Fifty years later, Duckhorn is a different place. The vineyards are planted, the cellar has grown, and decades of work stand behind every bottle. What has not changed is the instinct that started it: a willingness to try something before you are certain it will work.
That same instinct is how Duckhorn still moves forward. The next fifty years will be built the way the first ten acres were, by asking the question and seeing where it leads.
Why don’t we give it a go?
