Zepaltas Wines 8 Items

Ryan Zepaltas passion for wine snowballed over time. Ryan grew up in Wisconsin drinking beer and couldn’t recall wine ever being a part of his family culture. All the adults in his life would sip on Manhattan’s, Old Fashioneds and drink local beers. The first time he ever noticed wine was when he was dining with his next-door neighbor. The retired teacher, Mr. Sutherland, would keep a jug of Carlo Rossi Burgundy on the floor at the head of the table where he sat.

Fast forward to summer 1998 in the Russian River Valley. Ryan had just moved to Sebastopol to live with his aunt and uncle. He made friends with Mike Mendenhall, the then cellar master at La Crema, who would later offer him a job.

He gradually found the winemaking process and the work more interesting. He stayed on for a couple of harvests but soon found out about harvest jobs in other countries. It was working harvest at Villa Maria under Michelle Richardson where Ryan truly discovered his passion for wine. When he returned back to the states, he worked all over Sonoma County doing whatever cellar work was available. Eventually, he would hear about a harvest opportunity at Siduri. He interviewed with Adam and Dianna Lee and has been at Siduri ever since.

Ryan has made a ton of great wines with Siduri and has had a blast the whole time (and still does to this day). He decided that one day he was going to make his own wines in the style that he envisioned and would start his own project on the side… thus, Zepaltas Wines was born.