Dutcher Crossing Winery

Brothers’ Reserve Zinfandel — A flagship small-lot Zinfandel from Dry Creek hillside fruit.

Proprietor’s Reserve — A reserve red built from estate fruit and grapes chosen across Dry Creek Valley.

Cabernet Sauvignon–Syrah — A blend in the category founding winemaker Kerry Damskey helped pioneer.

Estate Chardonnay, Dijon Clone 809 — From a rare floral clone planted on the estate.

Dutcher Crossing farms more than seventy-five acres of estate vineyard at the north end of Dry Creek Valley and bottles over thirty wines, most in small lots.

Dutcher Crossing takes its name from the spot at the north end of Dry Creek Valley where Dutcher Creek runs into Dry Creek. Bruce Nevins and Jim Stevens — the partners behind Perrier’s North American launch — founded it in 2005 and planned to sell after a decade. They sold sooner: Debra Mathy, a Wisconsin schoolteacher who had wanted a winery since a high-school trip to France, approached them at an industry event in 2007 and made an offer they took. The penny-farthing bicycle on the label was her father’s last gift, given months before he died and just before the sale closed.

Mathy has grown the estate from thirty-five acres to about seventy-five and the range from five wines to more than thirty, working with winemaker Nick Briggs, who took the head role in 2017 after learning the cellar under founding winemaker Kerry Damskey. Vineyard-facing tables sit under a pergola and a covered breezeway, with a pétanque court out back, and Mathy often runs a pedicab tour through the rows herself. Zinfandel is the house benchmark; much of the rest changes vintage to vintage as the team chases fruit across Dry Creek, Russian River, and beyond.

Nick Briggs joined Dutcher Crossing in 2012 and learned the cellar under founding winemaker Kerry Damskey before taking over as head winemaker in 2017. He works in a minimalist register — small-lot, single-vineyard bottlings drawn from grower partners across Dry Creek, Russian River, and beyond — using vessels that range from concrete tanks to large wooden vats. His guiding belief is that good wine starts with good fruit and benefits from a light hand after that.

Debra Mathy grew up in Wisconsin and built a career in education before buying Dutcher Crossing in 2007, fulfilling a dream she had carried since a high-school trip to France. Her father, a Wisconsin businessman, had helped her search for a winery; he died a few months before the sale closed, and the penny-farthing bicycle on the label — his last gift to her — became the winery’s emblem. She has since expanded the estate from thirty-five acres to about seventy-five and grown the range from five wines to more than thirty.