History
Winemakers
Dermot Bourke Winemaker & Proprietor
Dermot was born in San Francisco and grew up in Larkspur where he graduated from Redwood High School. Dermot followed his fathers’ footsteps into the construction industry where he trained as an apprentice carpenter. Dermot’s father also created homemade wine down in the basement of their home. The memory of his father concocting crazy ferments probably helped propel his drive to make wine of his own.
Dermot met Darice in the construction industry and they eventually married and settled in Forestville. Dermot decided it would be a good idea to buy some land and plant a vineyard because after all home was in the middle of a pinot noir hot spot. So in 1997 he negotiated the purchase of a nice piece of Sonoma county Russian River land. It was planted to Pinot Noir clones the next year. Dermot’s mother Louise Bourke blessed the vineyard with Holy water obtained from the Old Country. The first harvest was in 2000 there wasn’t much fruit but he decided to try his hand at fermenting his own grapes. After studying and practicing winemaking and farming during the following years Dermot decided we should get serious about locating a property where we could follow our dream and launch a winery.
After exhaustive searching a suitable winery site was found and it was located in Forestville. These days Dermot is either at work doing construction, in the winery or out in the vineyard.
Darice Bourke, Winemaker & Proprietor
Darice was born in Southern California but soon moved north, to Forestville. She graduated from Petaluma High School. While living in Forestville, she spent her childhood summers at Simi Winery because that’s where mom (Terry Candrian) and grandpa (Jack Loffmark former V.P.) worked. Darice was able to meet some inspirational people at Simi winery Andre Tschelistcheff, Mary Ann Graff, and Isabel Simi to name a few. Darice decided to become a plumber in the construction industry where she met Dermot. During her career she worked at numerous wineries, commercial buildings, and restaurants. Working as a plumber can come in very handy when you need to build your own winery or fix a leak in the vineyard.
In 2000 Darice became pregnant with their daughter Diana and after her birth hung up her tool belt and picked up a wine glass. Dermot and Darice were also blessed with the birth of their son Donovan in 2005. Darice manages the finances and overall business operations as well as winemaking decisions. She was encouraged greatly by her mother, her father David Doty, and grandfather Jack Loffmark, who have remarkable palates and are full fledged wine and food aficionados.
