Family behind award-winning Wilson Artisan Wineries never intended to build an empire

When Diane Wilson was 12 years old, she made coq au vin for her family, inspired by watching the late Julia Child on “The French Chef.”

“I can’t imagine what the kitchen looked like after I was done cooking,” the winemaker said with a broad smile. “It was ambitious of me.”

Five decades later, the vintner with blue eyes and an easy smile is still aiming high. Now 63, Wilson recently won one of three sweepstakes awards at the Sonoma County Harvest Fair Wine Competition, with her Wilson Winery, 2021 Zinfandel Reserve, Dry Creek Valley, Sonoma County ($38).

“I didn’t expect to win,” Wilson said. “Winners these days always seem to be pinot, pinot, pinot.”

It was the seventh time Wilson snagged that top award at the competition with one of the several labels she owns.

The winemaker and her husband, Ken Wilson, built their portfolio of 11 brands with well-timed acquisitions and a vigorous work ethic, the same stamina Wilson displays when she runs marathons.

For her, life has always been a race against time. Wilson begins most days with a 6- to 10-mile run, sometimes on the trails around Mount Tamalpais in Marin County. Then she’s off to Healdsburg’s Wilson Winery, which she calls the “mothership” of the enterprise. Other wineries in the Wilson portfolio are located in Healdsburg, Kenwood and Hopland.

In between pampering and bottling grapes, the winemaker has managed every aspect of the business over the years, from inventory to production and, in the early days, even payroll.

“Being an ultra marathon runner is a perfect encapsulation of Diane’s determination,” Ken said. “You can’t make it 50-plus miles without having a healthy dose of determination.”

Wilson said she never intended to build a wine empire, yet today she and Ken own a slew of labels that regularly garner awards. The 11 labels they have amassed range in production from 2,500 to 25,000 cases a year.

Today the co-vintners of Wilson Artisan Wineries are to the Sonoma County wine industry what Mark and Terri Stark are to the restaurant business with their eight popular eateries. Both couples have created a powerful family-owned enterprise that evolved over decades.

For the Wilsons, it all began with the purchase of two Dry Creek Valley vineyards. They snapped up Warm Springs Ranch in 1979 and Smith Orchard in the mid-1980s, initiating a buying spree.

“Ken was really the force behind it,” Wilson said. “He had a dream in the late ’70s and early ’80s to plant vineyards and at some point have a winery.”

Today their holdings in Sonoma County and Mendocino County have mushroomed. In addition to the Wilson brand, other labels the vintners own are Pezzi King, Matrix, Coyote Sonoma, deLorimier, Greenwood Ridge, Jaxon Keys, Mazzocco Sonoma, Rockpile, Soda Rock and St. Anne’s Crossing.

“Ken likes to collect things and he never likes to sell them,” Wilson said, referring to vineyards, wine brands, wineries and cars.

Ken’s car collection features classic British and American pre-war cars, including a 1931 DeSoto, a 1934 Chevy Master and a 1959 Jaguar XK 150.

“If Ken didn’t live with me,” Wilson said with a laugh, “he’d probably be a hoarder.”

The empire

The Wilsons didn’t plan to buy multiple brands. Instead, their path of acquiring bottled real estate unfolded through a series of twists and turns.

Like most multi-label vintners, they began with one winery. They founded Wilson Winery in 1993. In 1994, the Wilsons married and launched their first vintage.

The first expansion came in 2005, when the couple purchased nearby Mazzocco Winery.

At the time, the Wilsons had been selling a portion of their fruit to Rodney Strong Vineyards. But when that Healdsburg winery began developing its own vineyards, the Wilsons expected some of their grape contracts to be phased out. The Mazzocco acquisition was timely — it gave them more production space at a moment when the Wilsons expected to have a surplus of grapes.

Further expansion was often based on what came up for sale, as if the couple were snapping up properties in a game of Monopoly.

“When deLorimier came on the market, we bought it in 2008,” Wilson explained. “Jaxon Keys came on the market in 2009. ... Ken was enjoying the fun of expanding and creating brands.”

Over the years, the Wilson empire has met with challenges, including violations of environmental law. In 2016, Ken Wilson agreed to pay $56,000 for an illegal burn on his vineyard on Shiloh Road in Windsor that violated air-quality regulations.

The Wilsons have been legally conflict-free since 2016, due to more staff oversight and detailed supervision, according to Wilson Artisan Wineries’ CFO Jon Pelleriti.

Another setback was when the Wilsons lost their Soda Rock Winery in the Kincade Fire of 2019. The Healdsburg winery burned to the ground and Wilson said at time, while surveying a heap of twisted metal, “the whole thing is surreal ... but we always have to move forward one way or another.”

The historic 150-year-old property was once a hub of activity as Alexander Valley’s post office and general store. Today, tastings are held in the historic 100-year-old barn that survived the fire.

“We haven’t rebuilt the winery,” Wilson said recently. “It’s such a big task trying to start from scratch.”

Regardless, the Soda Rock label, stripped of its winery, is still in the Wilsons’ lineup. Mazzocco Winery is now producing Soda Rock’s 5,000 cases a year.

From the vineyard to the cellar, the Wilson enterprise relies on a trio of winemakers: Wilson, Chris Barrett and Antoine Favero.

Two of Wilson’s three children are involved in the family business, as well. Victoria Wilson, 35, assists in winemaking, while Sawyer Wilson, 32, is the manager of Matrix Winery.

“It does help, working within a group,” Wilson said. “We can borrow, share and coordinate. We can divvy up vineyards and make our own version of that vineyard.”

Selling directly to consumers is 90% of the Wilsons’ business model.

“Even though we’re bigger in scope, I feel like we’re still run more like a small family company,” Wilson said. “We keep a lot of employees for many years because people move between (our) wineries. We’ve had vineyard workers work for us and now children of these vineyard workers work for us.”

The sweepstakes winner

Winning the top red wine award in this year’s Harvest Fair competition at the Sonoma County Fairgrounds was particularly gratifying, Wilson said, because zinfandel is the Wilson Winery’s flagship wine.

“Zinfandel is a fun grape to work with,” she said. “Pinots and cabs practically make themselves. But zins are erratic and unpredictable and to me, zins have the ‘yum’ factor.”

Wine first piqued Wilson’s interest when she was about 8 years old and took a road trip to Napa Valley with her father, Bob Nolan. But by the time Wilson was old enough for college, she set her sights on becoming an orthopedic surgeon.

Yet after meeting Ken in her 20s, Wilson grew curious about viticulture. She earned a degree in biochemistry in 1985 from Sonoma State University and supplemented her education by taking classes at UC Davis and tirelessly reading books on enology.

What he admires most about his wife, Ken said, is that she’s both hard-working and modest.

“Diane doesn’t have any interest in being a star,” he said.

Crediting “attention to detail” rather than winemaking prowess, Wilson said the observant excel in winemaking.

“Not every barrel is equal,” Wilson said. “I put my nose in every barrel, and I also taste every one before blending.”

But, Wilson added, the grapes have a strong say in the matter.

“You can put your style on it,” Wilson said. “But the grapes will give you what they give you. You can’t manufacture it. Wine is part farming. You’re at the mercy of Mother Nature.”

You can reach wine writer Peg Melnik at 707-521-5310 or peg.melnik@pressdemocrat.com. On Twitter @pegmelnik.