FRICK Winery

FRICK is, in the owner’s own phrase, ‘7.77 acres and a man.’ Bill Frick and his wife Judith Gannon founded it in 1976, funding the whole venture by selling their 1957 Chevy, and planted a steep hillside on a dead-end road in the highland corner of Dry Creek Valley. In an appellation that runs on Zinfandel, they chose to make only Rhône wines, and Bill still does, working alone, by hand, at roughly eight hundred cases a year. Judith died in 2002; he kept going.

He makes thirteen or so wines from seven Rhône varieties (Syrah and Viognier, but also the rarely seen Cinsaut, Counoise, and Carignane), crushing, fermenting, and bottling everything himself on the property. The tasting room is small and unpretentious; Bill pours, and the wine sometimes comes in a plain juice glass. Groups are capped at four, and the road in is quiet enough that hawks and foxes outnumber visitors. A reservation is appreciated, though he is known to open on a closed day for a good reason.