PapaPietro-Perry.com
Title
Papapietro-Perry — Russian River Valley, Sonoma Coast Wine
Description
Papapietro Perry’s foundation is a long friendship among work colleagues with common interests and a driving passion to make fine wine.
Ben Papapietro and Bruce Perry met during their careers with the San Francisco Newspaper Agency, publisher of the San Francisco Chronicle and Examiner. As their friendship developed, they discovered they both came from families where Grandpa’s homemade wine was as common on the dinner table as vegetables from Mom’s garden. Their interest in wine spilled into another friendship at work, this time with Burt Williams, a pressman and co-founder of Williams Selyem Winery.
In the ‘70s, Ben helped Bert make garragista wine in Bert's garage in Sonoma County. After Williams Selyem was started, Ben and Bruce helped out each year at harvest—and were seriously bitten by the wine bug. In 1980, Ben began producing his own garragista wines and Bruce joined him a few years later. Inspired by his love of French Burgundies, Ben began making Pinot Noir, diligently seeking high-quality grapes to produce his favorite varietal. By 1990, Ben was purchasing Pinot Noir grapes from some of the most highly-regarded Pinot producers in the Russian River Valley. After several years of hearing friends and family praise their homemade wines, in 1998 Ben and Bruce took the plunge and produced their first commercially available Pinot Noir. Although the first release was only 75 cases, it marked the launch of Papapietro Perry Winery.
