Phinney and Friends

Dave Phinney has plenty of interests beyond wine. He expresses them through a multitude of business ventures united by his creative drive. With a lot of the projects, he explains, “there’s either a personal connection to me, or somebody does work that I admire.”

Each project seems to springboard him to another. After spending so much time in Vallejo and developing Mare Island there, he ended up owning the Vallejo Admirals, an independent professional baseball team. A plot of his land needed some walnut trees cleared—now he’s aging the wood to put into a high-end shotgun project. Another piece of land led to raising cattle—he’s feeding them grape pomace, to see how it can affect the taste of the meat, and looking into artisanal leather crafting. Read about more collaborations, including a premium seltzer and Bourbon-barrel aged tea, that let Phinney’s creativity shine.