Zichichi Family Vineyard

Zichichi Family Vineyard carries one of the Dry Creek Valley's most genuinely rooted Italian-American heritage stories. Charlie Zichichi's great-grandfather — an Italian immigrant who came to Sonoma County in the early 20th century — farmed the West Dry Creek Road hillside land beginning in 1907. For generations, the family grew grapes as farmers rather than as winery owners, selling their fruit to larger producers and maintaining the benchland property as working agricultural land.

Charlie established the family winery label in 2006, finally bottling the fruit of his great-grandfather's original planting under the Zichichi family name. The estate's old-vine Zinfandel — from vines that date back to the earliest heritage plantings on the property — is the most historically significant wine: a direct connection to the Italian immigrant farming culture that established the Dry Creek Valley's wine identity over a century ago.

The weekend walk-in tasting experience at the West Dry Creek Road estate — dogs welcomed, families comfortable, picnic grounds available with valley and hillside views — captures the authentic agricultural warmth that the valley's Italian heritage originally embodied before commercial wine tourism transformed its character.