The Meeker Vineyard is celebrating 40 years in Sonoma County’s Dry Creek Valley, and to celebrate, we’ll be pouring wines from four different decades at our Library Tasting event next month. Second generation winemaker and COO, Lucas Meeker, invites you to share in our historical tasting event.
Meeker Vineyard Library Tasting
Saturday, August 19, 1:00pm – 5:00pm – Media, Trade, and Wine Club members
Location: 5 Fitch Street, Suite B; Healdsburg, CA 95448
- 1980s- Zinfandel and Cabernet Sauvignon
- 1990s- Cabernet, Merlot and Meeker’s Four Kings Red Blend
- 2000s- Carignane and Barberian
- 2010s- Grenache, Merlot, Cabernet Franc, and Four Kings Red Blend
Please RSVP for this tasting by emailing jeff@meekerwine.com, or calling the tasting room at 707-431-2148.
About The Meeker Vineyard:
The Meeker family takes pride in an unconventional attitude towards wine. As the matriarch, Molly, would love to tell you with a smile, “we take nothing seriously but the wine itself.”
Charles and Molly Meeker bought their first vineyard at the end of West Dry Creek Road in Sonoma County’s Dry Creek Valley in 1977. The man responsible for inviting Charlie to visit the area for the first time was Jerry Lambert of Lambert Bridge Winery. Jerry later introduced Charlie to a local real estate broker/winemaker, Americo Rafanelli, aka A. Rafanelli, who helped negotiate the purchase of a 98-acre farm. It included five acres of old vine zinfandel, a prune orchard, and some additional vineyard that had been abandoned during prohibition. This property would become The Meeker Vineyard in early 1977. In 1984, Charlie and Molly established their winery on the vineyard site with Charlie as the winemaker. In its early years, the winery specialized in Zinfandel, Cabernet Sauvignon, and Chardonnay.
The winery’s first red wine release, a 1984 Zinfandel, was an instant success, winning eight wine competition medals and becoming the third most awarded Zin in the country that year. Thereafter, among other awards, the 1985 Meeker Zin was a Wine Spectator “Best Buy”, the 1986 Zin was a “Spectator Selection”, and the 1990 Zin was included among the Wine Spectator’s “100 Best Wines of the World”. And Zinfandel wasn’t the winery’s only success – for example, the Wine Spectator gave a score of 91 to one of Charlie’s early Chardonnays.
Today the Meeker Vineyard continues to operate as a family operation. Second generation winemaker, Lucas Meeker, the youngest of Molly & Charlie’s children, joined the winery full time in 2007 after graduating from Colgate University. Starting off scrubbing tanks and washing glasses, he’s worked his way up to COO and Head Winemaker. He also does all of the label design and runs the winery day-to-day. Molly is President and in charge of marketing and accounting. Charlie is CEO and Co-Winemaker, and a fixture in our Geyserville tasting room (21035 Geyserville Ave), where he is known for sharing stories about his experiences in the wine business and his career as a Hollywood lawyer and executive.