Darryl Miller from Dehlinger Winery is back on California Wine Country today with Steve Jaxon and Dan Berger. He has been on the show before, the last time was this episode, last summer.

This is the 50th anniversary of Dehlinger Winery. Darryl has known the family for forty years. Tom Dehlinger was a biochemist and got the wine bug. He studied wine at Davis and worked with some local wineries. Then, bought a property on the corner of Vine Hill Road and Guerneville Road in 1972. He and his brother built an octagonal house in the middle of the property which is iconic. They crushed their first grapes in 1975.

Dan Berger started writing about wine at that time and tasted his first Dehlinger wines in 1979. They were among the first to plant grapes in the area which would later become Pinot Noir and Chardoheaven. The other local pioneers were the Rocchioli and Martinelli vineyards, not far from there. The vineyard is a rolling hill property with two types of soil, Altamont, a red iron based clay, and Goldridge, a gray sandy loam. The sections of the vineyard with different soils produce different results in the wine. This is why they produce some wines from each section and soil type.

The 40th Winesong Weekend Celebration is Sept. 5-6, 2025. Click the Winesong 40th logo for details.

Dan Berger has brought a bottle of his Bahl Fratty Riesling It is a 2023 that just got a Gold Medal at the American Fine Wine Competition in Miami. The grapes are from Cole Ranch in Mendocino County, near Booneville. Bahl Fratty means Good Drink in Boontling, the local lingo. Dan’s goal was to make the wine as dry as possible. The 2022 was also a gold medal winner.

Darryl went to college in Humbolt State then moved to Seattle and worked as a waiter. He met someone who suggested he could sell wine and he did end up selling a lot of wine. The business took him to San Francisco, Hawaii and Tahoe. Eventually he ended up in Sonoma County, the same year as Dan, in 1981. He started his own company as a broker and sold some very famous wines like Taft Street, Davis Bynum and Iron Horse. Then in 1995 he sold his company to the Henry Wine Group and continued to work with them. Darryl is one of the judges at Dan Berger’s annual wine competition.

There are different ways to know good wine but what’s really important is what you like. -Darryl Miller

California Wine Country is brought to you by Rodney Strong Vineyards and Davis Bynum Wines.

Dehlinger makes about 8,000 cases of wine per year, but they grow enough grapes for 40,000. Many famous wineries get grapes from them, whose names are not to be made public. The rest of the show is the tasting of the wines Darryl has brought.

First  is the 2021 Goldridge Pinot Noir. Round, rich and juicy, Dan says silky with a crisp finish. The next one is also a Pinot Noir, from the Altamont soil section, that has more structure because it also gets some whole cluster fermentation. Darryl calls the Altamont tighter, stronger with more minerality. Visit the website for details.