Healdsburg vintner Bruce Perry, remembered as one of the original ‘garagistas,’ dies at 80

Bruce Perry, a vintner who was one of the original “garagistas,” initially making wine out his garage, died Feb. 8. He was 80.

Perry, the co-founder of Healdsburg’s Papapietro Perry Winery, convinced Ben Papapietro to go into commercial winemaking after they began their venture as home winemakers in the 1980s.

“Bruce was the idea guy,” Papapietro said. “He wrote his business plan on a cocktail napkin and sold the idea to me. He had how much we’d pay for grapes, how much we’d sell the wine and how we’d make a profit. It all seemed to make sense.”

Perry, born in 1941 in San Francisco, met Papapietro in the mid-1960s while working in the circulation department at the San Francisco Newspaper Agency. The wine aficionados began attending wine lectures and tastings in San Francisco. Papapietro started his home winemaking odyssey in 1980, and Perry joined his friend five years later.

“In my garage I had nine barrels of pinot noir and two barrels of chardonnay and in Bruce’s garage we had six to 10 barrels of zinfandel,” Papapietro said.

“Bruce loved it so much he wanted to get into the business, but I was happy to just be a bootlegger,” he joked. “I told him if he could find us a place to make wine without having to buy equipment, I was all for it.”

Perry secured Windsor Oaks, now Notre Vue in Windsor, and the duo launched their brand in 1998 with 75 cases of pinot noir.

Perry retired from the circulation department in 1999 and in 2001 he and his wife, Renae, moved from the Little Hollywood District of San Francisco to Healdsburg.

“As winemakers we carried on a tradition,” Papapietro said. “Both our grandparents were home winemakers. It skipped a generation. Our parents, after World War II, weren’t interested in making wine. America was drinking cocktails then.”

Today the winery produces more than 8,000 cases of pinot noir, a rose of pinot noir, zinfandel and chardonnay. In 2005, Papapietro and Perry moved operations into their own winery at Timber Crest Farms, 4791 Dry Creek Road.

“Bruce was happy to have a second career,” Renae Perry said. “The newspaper job was to make money, but the wine business was a love and passion. We created this whole world we get to live in. We get to make wine and share the fruits of our labor. We get to live in a beautiful place and our families get to work with us.”

When Perry wasn’t working at the winery, he enjoyed New Orleans jazz, traveling many times to the New Orleans Jazz Festival. But it’s his generosity, Renae said, that family, friends and industry insiders will remember most about her husband.

“He incubated other wineries,” she said. “He helped others launch careers. He basically wanted to give all his wine away if he could.”

Papapietro agreed. “He’d give the store away if we didn’t watch him.”

Perry handled the equipment, vineyard management and worked with growers before retiring about eight years ago. Papapietro continues to be the winemaker.

“It was Bruce’s dream to own a winery and he made those of us around him believe we could do it, then together we made it happen,” Renae said. “The life we were able to build was so much more than we ever imagined and brought him so much joy.”

Perry is survived by his wife; brother Alan Perry; sister Karen Agosta; three children, Jeanette Perry Thorson, Michael Perry and Diane Perry Smith; and two granddaughters, Sarah Thorson and Rachael Thorson.

A celebration of Perry's life will be held Sunday, March 20 from 3-6 p.m. at Villa Chanticleer in Healdsburg. In lieu of flowers, the family asks to make donations in Perry’s name to the New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Foundation at jazzandheritage.org.

Wine writer Peg Melnik can be reached at peg.melnik@pressdemocrat.com or 707-521-5310.