Our Story
Lindsay & Greg have shared a love for wine since they first met in 2001 in Glasgow, Scotland. Marrying and moving to Lindsay’s native California, they embarked on their winemaking journey 2011. Starting in their garage in Berkeley, they used bins for fermenters, a hand-crank Marchisio wine press, and a Portuguese floor corker to produce their wines.
In 2016, they had the opportunity to move to Sonoma Wine County, with the dream of one day starting a small winery. 14 months later they lost their home, and much of their small vineyard, to the 2017 wildfires. Throwing caution to the wind, they realized their dream and released their first vintage of Hamilton Family Wines in 2019. In 2021, they opened their tasting room in Kenwood, CA, which has been warmly received.
One of our winemaking philosophies is to start with great fruit and try not to get in the way. That means no added chemicals or adjuncts, or heavy-handed manipulation of the wine.
– Lindsay Hamilton
Greg Hamilton
Proprietor
I fell in love with wine in my first real job, working for a wine merchant back in Scotland. When I next fell in love, with a vivacious, adventurous, and beautiful Californian girl, I brought my passion to the U.S. — managing a winery tasting room in Southern California at 23. Then life took me on a circuitous journey through careers in sales and marketing unrelated to wine. But the passion never left, and I’m thrilled to be living the dream of starting Hamilton Family Wines, with that beautiful Californian girl, my wife and mother of my two beautiful children, Lindsay, by my side.
Lindsay Hamilton
Proprietor
My first wine tasting experience was as a student at UCSC, on a tour at a now forgotten Gilroy winery. Enamored with the experience, I spent $35 on a bottle red wine, which was a lot of money for a starving student in the early 2000s. But, I shared that bottle with a cute boy from Scotland, and, well, you can see how that worked out. Several years later, we made our first garage wine in Berkeley. The wine was terrible, but the dream was born. Having had the incredible good fortune to make the move to the heart of the beautiful Sonoma Valley, our mission for Hamilton Family wines is simple, to make wines that we love and that showcase this amazing place.
Jess Wade
Consulting Winemaker
We’re incredibly lucky to work with Jess’ unique talents. A Sonoma native, he’s part of the terroir he carefully crafts into our wines. A strong believer, as are we, in allowing the fruit, the vines, the roots, the earth, and everything else in the vineyard to express themselves, no one works harder at making natural and minimal-intervention wines.
About Our Vineyards
We all know you can’t make great wine without great grapes, which is why we work with several growers to secure the best fruit for each specific varietal. Whether it’s a cooler-climate spot for our Sauvignon Blanc and Pinot Noir, or a warmer spot for our Cabernet Sauvignon, we carefully select the right site. Working closely with growers, we have a lot of say in how things are managed so we can achieve our desired results. And, for the first time since we launched, all of our fruit will come from organically-managed vineyards (although not all of them are certified). This is something Lindsay and I are passionate about but was harder to achieve than we realized in the beginning. We put the vineyard name and/or the appellation on each bottle to give you an idea of from where each was sourced.
In addition, we directly manage two vineyards; Hamilton Family vineyard at our home in Kenwood, and McGraw vineyard in nearby Glen Ellen. Both are farmed organically, McGraw vineyard for the first time since it was planted about 20 years ago. Hamilton Family vineyard is just over 1.5 acres, currently planted to Grenache. Much of the vineyard was badly damaged as a result of the 2017 wildfires that also took our home. Replanted in 2018, until now we have used 100% of the fruit for our rosé. This year, however, we hope to crop enough for both our rosé and a Grenache Noir. McGraw vineyard is planted to 100% premium quality Cabernet Sauvignon. Situated to get the last of the day’s light, it’s also elevated slightly to stay above the cooler night air that settles along the valley floor.
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