Papapietro Perry Winery

Single-Vineyard Russian River Pinot Noir — As many as ten vineyard- and clone-designate bottlings a vintage, the house specialty.

777 and Pommard Clone Pinots — Clonal selections vinified separately across sites.

Zinfandel — A small-lot counterpoint to the Pinot.

Rosé of Pinot Noir — A popular free-run pink.

Around eight thousand cases a year, each lot kept separate by vineyard and clone from harvest to punch-down.

Papapietro Perry sits on Dry Creek Road, in the old Timber Crest Farms collective, but its heart is Russian River Pinot Noir. The winery grew out of a friendship between Ben Papapietro and Bruce Perry, two men who worked the circulation desk at the San Francisco newspapers and made wine in a garage on the side. Ben had learned the craft in the 1970s helping Burt Williams — of Williams Selyem — make garage wine and working his harvests; he and Bruce made wine together for thirteen years before going commercial in 1998 with seventy-five cases. They now make around eight thousand.

The house is built on single-vineyard Pinot Noir — as many as ten bottlings in a vintage, each vineyard and clone kept separate through fermentation and aging — with a little Zinfandel and Chardonnay alongside. It remains two families: Ben and Yolanda Papapietro, Bruce and Renae Perry, with Renae as CEO. Bruce Perry died in 2022, a year short of the twenty-fifth anniversary. Tastings are on the patio, seated with a cheese pairing or standing at the bar. The wines are made, as they say, from harvest to punch-down by hand.

Ben Papapietro grew up in San Francisco with Italian roots and a grandfather who made red wine in the basement. He had no formal training — he learned by helping Burt Williams of Williams Selyem make garage wine in the 1970s and working his harvests. He and his newspaper colleague Bruce Perry made wine together for thirteen years before going commercial in 1998, and Ben has been the winery’s winemaker ever since.

Renae Perry is CEO and co-owner of Papapietro Perry, which she and her husband Bruce built with Ben and Yolanda Papapietro from a seventy-five-case first release into an eight-thousand-case Pinot house. She has led sales and marketing from the start. Bruce Perry died in 2022, a year short of the winery’s twenty-fifth anniversary; Renae carries the business forward.