SONOMA COUNTY BARREL AUCTION HONOREES
Each year, the Sonoma County Barrel Auction (SoCoBA) Honorees are selected as Icons who have shaped the heritage and history of Sonoma County winemaking and Innovators to honor forward-thinking visionaries in our wine community. A Lifetime Achievement Award recipient was first recognized at SoCoBA 2022.
Join us in celebrating the contributions and achievements of your fellow wine industry leaders.
Lifetime Achievement, Icons & Innovators
Lifetime Achievement Award: Lifetime Achievement Award recipients have made a significant impact in the wine community, pioneered new techniques with groundbreaking work, elevated Sonoma County and put Sonoma County wines on the world stage.
Icons: Sonoma County Icons are individuals who have had a significant impact on the evolution, development and perpetuation of Sonoma County wine and have helped raise the global perception for Sonoma County wines.
Innovators: Sonoma County Innovators are visionaries, who are introducing new methods, ideas or products. They provide fresh insight and new ways of thinking about wine and Sonoma County that help shape the future of our wine region and industry.
2024 Lifetime Achievement Award
Zelma Long
Enologist, Winemaker, Consultant and Author for more than 50 Years
A prolific enologist, winemaker, consultant and author, Zelma Long is one of the forerunners of California wine and was the first woman to assume leadership of a Californian winery, Simi Winery in Sonoma County. She founded the American Vineyard Foundation to help finance research in enology and viticulture, as well as the American Viticulture and Enology Research Network (AVERN). Zelma was also the founding president of Alexander Valley Winegrowers and a founding member of the North Coast Viticultural Research Group.
Zelma has received numerous awards and accolades over the course of her career, including the James Beard Hall of Fame and James Beard Wine Professional of the Year. She was named California Wine Pioneer by Wine Spectator and inducted into the Culinary Institute of America’s Vintner’s Hall of Fame. In 2009 the American Society of Enology and Viticulture selected her for the ASEV Award of Merit.
She has also received the Outstanding Alumni Award from the University of California, Davis. Zelma has written and contributed to numerous books and publications focused on wine, winemaking and the science of growing grapes.
Zelma has been involved in winemaking and viticulture projects around the world for the past 50 years and serves as a mentor to aspiring viticulturalists and winemakers. In the course of her career, she has consulted in countries and regions as diverse as Israel, Germany, the Rhone Valley, the Pacific Northwest and South Africa. She established Zelphi Wines with her husband Dr. Phillip Freese and they have, over 25 years, founded and established as winemaking partner and winegrowing partner Vilafonté Wine Estate in South Africa, named Best Wine Producer in the International Wine and Spirits Competition in 2021.
2024 Icon
Marimar Torres
Founder & President of Marimar Estate Vineyards & Winery
Marimar Torres has been involved in the wine business all her life. Born in Barcelona, Spain, she is fluent in six languages and holds a degree in Business & Economics from the University of Barcelona. She is also a graduate of the Stanford Executive Program and studied enology and viticulture for a year at the University of California at Davis. Prior to her involvement in the California operation, Marimar traveled extensively promoting Torres wines, first in Spain as the company’s export director and later in North America, when California became her home in 1975. At that time, shipments of Torres wines to the U.S. totaled 15,000 cases; ten years later they reached 150,000.
In 1986, Marimar began planting the Don Miguel Vineyard, a 56-acre property in a cool microclimate in the Green Valley of the Russian River Valley ideally suited to Chardonnay and Pinot Noir. Today the property encompasses 81 acres, planted with Chardonnay, Pinot Noir, and the Spanish varieties Albariño, Tempranillo and more recently, Godello. Also planted to Pinot Noir are 20 acres of a 180-acre property in West Sonoma County, between Freestone and Occidental. In 1992, a 15,000-case winery was built and the estate’s first Pinot Noir was produced. Recently, her daughter, Cristina Torres, has taken over the day-to-day winery operations as General Manager while Marimar continues to be an enthusiastic ambassador for her unique wines and cookbooks, which highlight Spanish cuisine.
2024 Innovator
George Christie
Founder and CEO of Wine Industry Network and Partner of Saini Vineyards
George Christie, a New Jersey native, settled in Sonoma County in 1991 and quickly realized that the wine industry was where he wanted to concentrate his efforts.
Since then, he has been involved in nearly every aspect of the industry, from winery management, vineyard operations and grower relations to distributor management and national marketing campaigns. George has held board positions with the Russian River Wine Road, Winegrowers of Dry Creek Valley, Sonoma County Vintners, Sonoma State Wine Business Institute, and WineAmerica.
In 2008, George and his wife Tami partnered with the Saini Family, fifth-generation Sonoma County grape growers, to create Saini Vineyards.
In 2009, Wine Industry Network (WIN) began as an online directory. It has evolved over the years into a leading B2B marketing and media company and primary business resource for the North American wine industry.
WIN works with over 600 industry vendors and produces the North Coast Wine Industry Expo (WIN Expo), the Wine Sales Symposium and educational webinars. WIN also produces the Wine Industry Advisor, an online news publication, the Afternoon Brief, a daily wine business newsletter with over 38,000 subscribers, and WIN Jobs, an industry employment resource.
2023 Lifetime Achievement Award
Tom Klein, Proprietor
Rodney Strong Vineyards
Following completion of his MBA at Stanford University and travelling through the great wine regions of the world, Tom became a management consultant for Rodney Strong Vineyards in the early 1980s. The opportunity to work with Rod Strong, one of Sonoma County’s wine pioneers, along with his love for fine wines, led the Klein family to purchase Rodney Strong Vineyards in 1989. Tom’s feet were firmly in the soil of Sonoma County for good.
Tom’s accomplishments at Rodney Strong Vineyards are astonishing. His third generation farming family’s significant and ongoing investments in vineyards, including the breathtaking Cooley Ranch Vineyard high above Lake Sonoma, planted but a decade ago and already hailed as one of the greatest vineyards in Sonoma County, have created the kind of wines Rod Strong himself could only have dreamed about. Under Tom’s direction Rodney Strong became an early leader in philanthropy and sustainability. Investments in sustainable farming, solar energy (Rodney Strong Vineyards has one of the largest solar arrays of any winery in California), becoming the first carbon-neutral winery in Sonoma County, and innovative winemaking have produced world-class wines while simultaneously improving the environment and supporting the community.
2023 SoCoBA Icons
Lee Sr. and Carolyn Martinelli, Owners
Martinelli Winery
Lee Sr. and Carolyn Martinelli are both Sonoma County natives who met while attending Santa Rosa Junior College and have spent many years since farming the land that has been in Lee’s family for generations. Carolyn grew up on the far Sonoma coast helping her father raise sheep for wool. Lee Martinelli Sr. is the patriarch of Martinelli Winery and the sole farmer of Jackass Hill, home to the same vines that were first planted by his grandfather over 100 years ago and known for having the steepest non-terraced vines in Sonoma County. After 47 years, Lee Sr. has passed many of his responsibilities on to his children, the fourth generation; however, he has no plans to retire and pass on the responsibility of farming Jackass Hill anytime soon. He still enjoys finishing up a day’s work in the vineyard and opening a bottle of wine when the day is done.
2023 SoCoBA Innovator
Theresa Heredia, Director of Winemaking
Gary Farrell Vineyards & Winery
Theresa Heredia has received numerous accolades by focusing on site-specific wines. She joined Gary Farrell Winery in 2012 and under her winemaking leadership, the Gary Farrell 2015 Russian River Selection Chardonnay took the top spot as #1 Wine, Top 100 Wines of 2017 from Wine Enthusiast. Gary Farrell has been named Winery of the Year twice, a Top 100 Winery by Wine & Spirits, and a Top 50 Sonoma Producer by Wine Spectator. Theresa was also a 2020 Winemaker of the Year Nominee from Wine Enthusiast.
As a Sonoma County Innovator, Theresa has been a champion for diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) not only at Gary Farrell Winery, but within the entire wine industry. The winery has implemented a wide-ranging diversity pledge to create a diverse workforce and support those underrepresented in the wine industry.
2022 SoCoBA Honorees
2022 Lifetime Achievement Award
David Ramey, Ramey Wine Cellars
Sonoma County Vintners will bestow its very first Lifetime Achievement Award to legendary winemaker David Ramey as part of the Sonoma County Barrel Auction (SoCoBA) on Friday, May 6, 2022.
“We wanted to honor an individual who has made a significant impact in our wine community, pioneered new techniques with groundbreaking work, elevated Sonoma County and put Sonoma County wines on the world stage,” said Sonoma County Vintners Executive Director Michael Haney. “David Ramey is the perfect person to be our first ever Lifetime Achievement Award recipient. We appreciate his commitment to the Sonoma County wine region and our local community.”
“I am honored to be considered and selected for this award,” said David Ramey. “I was lucky enough to start making Chardonnay in Sonoma County in 1978. It’s very gratifying to still be making wine here all these years later.”
Past Sonoma County Barrel Auction Honorees
2020 Icons & Innovators
Icons & Innovators were announced in early 2020, prior to moving to an online format. Honorees were highlighted in the online programming.
Steve MacRostie, MacRostie Winery & Vineyards (Icon)
Marcello Monticelli, Gallo Family Wines (Icon)
Jordan Kivelstadt, Kivelstadt Cellars (Innovator)
2019 Icons & Innovators
Rod Berglund, Joseph Swan Vineyards (Icon)
Margot Van Staaveren, Chateau St. Jean (Icon)
The Duncan Family, Silver Oak Cellars, Alexander Valley (Innovator)
Ron Rubin, Ron Rubin Winery (Innovator)
2018 Sonoma County Barrel Auction Icons
Honorees included those who rose to the challenge in response to the 2017 North Coast fires.
2017 Icons
Jim Bundschu, Gundlach Bundschu Winery
Jim Pedroncelli, Pedroncelli Winery
Angelo Sangiacomo, Sangiacomo Family Vineyards
2016 Icons
Helen Bacigalupi, Bacigalupi Vineyards
Tom Klein, Rodney Strong Vineyards
David Americo Rafanelli, A. Rafanelli Winery
Tom Rochioli, Rochioli Vineyards
2015 Icons
John Balletto
Jean-Charles Boisset
Tom Dehlinger
Joe Dutton
Paul Hobbs
Zelma Long
Lee & Carolyn Martinelli
Joel Peterson
David Ramey
Joe Rochioli Jr.
The Sangiacomo Family
Ed & Ted Seghesio
Dave Stare
Burt Williams
Merry Edwards
Dave Rafanelli
BARREL AUCTION VIDEOS
Watch the videos below to learn more about the Sonoma County Barrel Auction and the Sonoma County Icons celebrated in 2016, 2017 and 2019.
2016 Sonoma County Icons
2017 Sonoma County Icons
2019 Sonoma County Icons + Innovators
