Organic, Biodynamic Frey’s 3 Generations of Women Working in Wine Plus 3 Wines Paired With Crab Rangoons (Recipe!) + Blue Cheese Burgers

“When we say that we are pioneers in organics, we’re not just paying lip service to our pioneer status. We’re actually situating ourselves as the fundamental players that brought organics into the wine industry,” says Molly Frey in conversation with her mother Katrina Frey, her sister Eliza, and Derek Dahlen vineyard manager. Organic and biodynamic pioneers Frey Vineyards Ranch became a bonded winery forty five years ago yesterday March 24— making them Mendocino’s winery number twelve. This year, they’re opening up their new winery facilities and making more plans for a green future with their extended family.

Today, multiple generations of Frey women live on the ranch and work with the winery including 100 year old matriarch Beba Frey, her daughter in law marketing maven executive director aka CEO Katrina Frey who married Beba’s son winemaker Jonathan Frey, their daughters Molly Frey who handles social media, and Eliza Frey who is on the winemaking team. Many more of Beba’s extended family are involved in all aspects of their operation on the slopes of Redwood Valley, in Mendocino County, California.

In 1962, Paul and Beba Frey, two doctors from New York, bought a 95 acre ranch in Mendocino. In 1967, the couple and their 12 children planted vineyards farmed organically. In the 1970s, the family started making their own wine. In 2017, the Redwood Complex Fire destroyed their historic redwood office buildings, their winery with its new bottling line, twelve of fourteen family homes, and killing many of their four legged family.