Roudon-Smith Winery

In 1978 a newly expanded winery that would accommodate their 10,000 case production goal was completed near Scotts Valley, designed and built by engineers Roudon and Smith. The goal was (and still is) to maintain a size of operation that can be sustained and hand-operated by the Roudon Smith workforce itself. As the original owners entered semi-retirement, production was ramped down to 2,000 cases annually. Finally the winery was sold in 2003 as they went fully into retirement. In 2006 Al Drewke bought half the winery and took over leadership of its “renaissance”. Al has almost 30 years’ experience in increasing senior management levels within the electronics industry as well as being a graduate of Bordeaux Business School’s Wine MBA program. One of the first additions he made to the winery was the hiring of Brandon Armitage as winemaker. He comes to Roudon Smith after successful stints in Colorado, New Zealand, and Oregon and brings a strong background in both viticulture and winemaking with a particular desire to make world-class Pinot Noir. With this new team the winery started to grow production capping out at roughly 5000 cases in the 2008 crush as the recession hit. With the recession the distributor for the winery dropped us which led to some very challenging years as we worked through financial and inventory challenges. This led to a break-up in the partnership as Al took full ownership of the winery in 2011 and moved it from Scotts Valley to Watsonville. With Brandon’s decision to focus solely on Pinot Noir in 2012 winemaking was transitioned from him to Mikael Wargin who continues crafting our wines today. The winery has just relocated and now makes our wine at a facility located in San Carlos. We have recently opened our tasting room in downtown Saratoga at 14572A Big Basin Way!