Forman Vineyard

Richard (Ric) W. Forman currently owns and operates Forman Vineyard, his career in the wine industry spans through a 55 year history.

By 1969 Ric had received a BS and MS from the Department of Food Science at UCD where he specialized in the fermentation sciences.  During the harvest of 1967 and 1968, while still in school, he assisted in the harvest at Stony Hill and Robert Mondavi.  Upon graduation he was hired to be the founding winemaker of Sterling Vineyards, a yet undeveloped property.  In the developing years of Sterling Vineyards much time was spent in Europe studying the traditional methods practiced there.  In time a fusion of Ric’s technical training with the traditional methods of Europe brought new insights for his new wines at Sterling Vineyards and later the new ideas found much appeal in the then rapidly developing California wine industry.

After a 10 year commitment at Sterling Ric was offered and he accepted a partnership role with Peter Newton, former owner of Sterling, to building Newton Vineyards.  In 1983, then 4 years into the Newton project, Ric left the partnership to begin a longtime dream to be a sole proprietor.  

He located a beautiful hillside property at the base of Howell Mountain and began the development of Forman Vineyard.  Ric also did some consulting during the early years of Forman Vineyard.  Clients included Villa Mt. Eden, Inglenook, Woltner, Charles Shaw and Kendall Jackson.

On his perfect vineyard sight Ric planted Bordeaux varieties and built a traditional European style winery with deep caves.  In time further properties were acquired; one, a partnership with Reg Oliver in Rutherford which supplies Chardonnay and another, Thorvilos, a partnership with David Abreu which supplies Cabernet.

Forman Vineyard has now operated for 38 years and has developed a reputation for producing elegant Bordeaux styled red wine and a uniquely graceful Chardonnay.