Raymond Burr Vineyards

Cabernet Franc — Bold and structured, the winery’s signature red.

Cabernet Sauvignon — From the vineyard’s original 1986 plantings.

Vermentino — The 2024 bottling won the sweepstakes award at the 2025 Sonoma County Harvest Fair.

Rosé of Zinfandel — A crisp, dry pink.

Small-production and available only direct through the winery.

Raymond Burr Vineyards sits on the western bench of Dry Creek Valley, at the manzanita-covered foot of Bradford Mountain, on fifty acres the actor Raymond Burr and his partner Robert Benevides bought in the 1970s and cleared of prune orchards. Burr — television’s Perry Mason and Ironside — and Benevides had met on the Perry Mason set in the mid-1950s and shared a passion for orchids and, later, vines. They planted Cabernet in 1986. Burr died in 1993, before the first wines were released; Benevides named the winery for him and has run it ever since.

The wines are estate-grown and sold only at the winery, made since 2006 by Phyllis Zouzounis — a Dry Creek veteran who started at Dry Creek Vineyard in 1980 and co-founded her own label, Deux Amis. The bottling to know is the bold Cabernet Franc, though the 2024 Vermentino took the sweepstakes award at the 2025 Sonoma County Harvest Fair. Tastings are seated and unhurried, no buses, dogs welcome. The Perry Mason black-and-white episodes play on a screen in the tasting room.

Phyllis Zouzounis is a Dry Creek Valley veteran who began her career at Dry Creek Vineyard in 1980, spent fifteen years there, then became winemaker and general manager at nearby Mazzocco. In 1987 she co-founded her own label, Deux Amis, known for its Zinfandels. Hired at Raymond Burr in 2006, she walked the vineyard for two weeks before taking the job, and has made the estate wines since.

Robert Benevides was Raymond Burr’s life and business partner; the two met on the Perry Mason set in the mid-1950s. Together they bought the fifty-acre Dry Creek property in the 1970s, replaced its prune orchards with vineyard and an orchid nursery, and planted Cabernet in 1986. After Burr died in 1993, before the first wines were released, Benevides named the winery in his honor and has run it ever since.