Our Story

Frank and Ronita
Owners Frank and Ronita Egger

Frank (St Ignatius College Prep, Class of 1956; USF & SRJC) and Ronita Sundin Egger (Montgomery High School, Class of 1959; College of Marin) stand at the Manor bus stop in Fairfax, CA. This old “train” station sign was restored and placed on the Manor bus stop by the Town during the first of Frank’s 7 terms as mayor of Fairfax. Note the sign’s language, “To Cazadero 65.53 miles and to San Francisco 18.72 miles”.

The Egger family traveled from San Francisco by ferry to Sausalito and then by train up through Marin and Fairfax in 1918. The North Western Pacific line stopped at Manor Station to allow passengers to get off and buy refreshments at the Manor Grocery on its way to Cazadero (Via Pt. Reyes Station up along Tomales Bay to Tomales and then into Sonoma County, Valley Ford to Occidental, Monte Rio, Duncans Mills and into Cazadero).

One hundred and five years later, Frank and Ronita live in Fairfax and own the Cazadero Winery. The winery’s home office is located in Fairfax and the winery facility where Cazadero Wine is produced is at Healdsburg Custom Crush, 25 Healdsburg Avenue in Healdsburg.

Cazadero is where the Egger family summered from 1918 on and planted the Egger family vineyard in 1922. The Egger family ranch in Cazadero is long gone, lost by the family at the end of the Depression. Five generations of Eggers have summered in Cazadero with a number of them staying at the old Egger cabin on Bei Road.

Our Family-historic Cazadero wine grape growing roots from the 1920’s.

Original Vineyard
Original Egger Family Vineyard, Blue Jay Hill, Cazadero CA Circa -1922

Eugene Egger, grandfather of Cazadero Winery Founder, Frank Egger, immigrated to Bernal Heights in San Francisco from Bozen, South Tyrol, now Bolzano, Northern Italy at the turn of the century. Frank’s grandmother Anna’s family, from Merano, Alto Adige, grew grapes in the old country. The Egger family first planted a vineyard on their Cazadero property up on Blue Jay off of Fort Ross Road out past Fine’s Mill in the Ward Creek headwaters in 1922. Unfortunately, the Egger family lost its Cazadero ranch after the Great Depression, unable to pay the back taxes.

The Bei Family grows its grapes about 1& 1/2 miles South, as the crow flies, from the original Egger vineyard.

Andrew Bei, John Bei’s grandfather, immigrated from Tuscany, Italy after the turn of the century and purchased the original Bei Ranch in Cazadero in the 1920s and planted a small vineyard at the end of Bei Road. Grandson John planted the “new” vineyard in the early 1990’s on a north/south facing ridge where the Bei Family has farmed for 90 years. The hand selected grapes for our award winning vintages are grown by John Bei (unfortunately John left this world in June this year-1940-2013-way too early. Ciao, Ciao Johnny Bei, RIP.). The “off the grid” family ranch and small but exquisite ridge-top vineyard lies half way between Cazadero and Russian Gulch above Jenner. The Bei Ranch Vineyard sits at 1,600 foot elevation with the Pole Mountain Fire Lookout in the background.

Cazadero’s Chardonnays, Cabernet Sauvignons & Pinot Noirs are all natural, native wild yeast only and no chemicals or additives other than a bit of Sulfur, under 100 ppm. We foot stomp our Cabernet Sauvignons, use a partial whole cluster fermentation and then age in 100% French Oak barrels. Our Chardonnay is barrel fermented in French Oak.  Both our Cabernet Sauvignons and Pinot Noirs are unfined and unfiltered. Cazadero is not a formula wine, it changes every year depending on the growing season.