Meeker Vineyards

Meeker Vineyards — an American wine story

Charles and Molly Meeker bought their first vineyard at the end of West Dry Creek Road in Sonoma County’s Dry Creek Valley in 1977. In 1984, Charlie and Molly established their winery — The Meeker Vineyard — with Charlie as the winemaker. In its early years, the winery specialized in Zinfandel, Cabernet Sauvignon, and Chardonnay.

The winery’s first red wine release, a 1984 Zinfandel, was an instant success, winning eight wine competition medals and becoming the third most awarded Zin in the country that year. After that, among other awards, the 1985 Meeker Zin was a Wine Spectator “Best Buy,” the 1986 Zin was a “Spectator Selection,” and the 1990 Zin was included among the Wine Spectator’s “100 Best Wines of the World”. During this period, Charlie was also honored to present a Meeker Zinfandel at one of the famous Windows on the World wine dinners in New York. And Zinfandel wasn’t the winery’s only success – for example, the Spectator gave a 91 to one of Charlie’s early Chardonnays. Subsequent vintages include Sparkling Wine, Verdelho, Pinot Noir, Late Harvest styles, Merlot, Grenach, GSM Carignane, Dolcetto, Syrah, Petite Sirah, and Cabernet Sauvigon.

All this while Charlie was working full time in Los Angeles in the motion picture business (first as an attorney, then as a film producer, and later as a studio executive), so his winemaking career was confined to weekend and holiday trips (many, many trips!) to Dry Creek Valley. Finally, in 1990 when Charlie became President of Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, this two-career life became too much, and the Meekers hired a full-time winemaker for the winery.

The Meeker family takes pride in an unconventional attitude towards wine. As Molly would love to tell you with a smile: “We take nothing seriously but the wine itself.”

The Meeker Vineyard is a proud partner of Priority Wine Pass, where you not only get to discover the best wineries within your ‘wine tasting near me’ results but also save on wine tasting fees (so you can buy more wine, of course!). They have been around since 2012 and are the largest wine passport program of its kind and offer a full-time concierge that will help plan your trip around the types of wine you prefer once your pass is bought.