Arts & Entertainment

It's a 'Who Dunnit' Dispute at Landmark Vineyards

Wine connoisseurs, customers and even U.S. Presidents disagree on who founded the popular Kenwood winery

Landmark Vineyards is making headlines again, just after its : historians, proprietors - heck, even U.S. Presidents - can't seem to agree over who founded the successful Kenwood winery, according to the Santa Rosa Press Democrat.

According to Mike and Mary Colhoun, Landmark's most recent owners, the winery was founded by Damaris Deere Ford, Mike's mother, in 1974.

This history is clearly recounted on the winery's website, where it recounts its 1974 founding.

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However post-sale Bill Marby, who worked as Landmark's winemaker until 1993 when he sold his interest in the company to the Colhoun family, is wondering why his family isn't credited in the Colhoun's accounts.

Media accounts in the 1970s and 1980s assign ownership to Marby; as does his own recollections: “We crushed every grape to get the winery started and off the ground,” Mabry told the Press Democrat. 

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According to Marby, his family purchased the original property using money from a group of investors, including Damaris Deere Ford and her two sisters as limited partners.

The original winery in Windsor now houses the Hembree House Cultural Center, which showcases a display of Landmark's founding by the Marby family.

Even presidents don't seem to agree: the Obama administration cited the winery's connection to John Deere, a ancestor of the Ford family, when he served Landmark's Chardonnay at the 2010 White House holiday party; Ronald Reagan also served Landmark chardonnay, crediting it to the Mabry family.

Though the Calhoun family says they only take credit for crafting the modern success of Landmark, Marby told the Press Democrat that he sees his lack of credit as having deeper implications:

“It seems pretty important to them to wipe us off the face of the earth for marketing reasons,” Mabry said.

"Mary Colhoun said it was a historic fact that her mother-in-law was an original investor in the winery and her family’s later success with the wine brand entitled her to be called a founder."

“They can say all they want, but the truth of the matter is the winery had no success until we took the winery over in 1993,” Colhoun said. “The success of our brand, and the reason our winery was sold for a terrific price, is because of what happened from 1993 going forward.”

Read more about the dispute here.


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