Joseph Swan Vineyards

Joe Swan's own Pinot Noir selection is now a registered clone at UC Davis, and Rod Berglund has made the wine off it since 1988. Thirty dollars gets you six wines on a patio over the vineyard.3 2

Why go

Joe Swan was an airline pilot when he bought this, and a WPA-paid artist and an army air corps flying instructor before that.1 In 1967 he paid $43,000 for thirteen acres with a two-storey house, a cellar, some fruit trees and the remains of an 1880s vineyard, and the neighbours were furious because he had just moved everybody's property taxes.1 He made a 1968 Zinfandel off it and the cellar is down to its last bottle or two.1 He proved Russian River Pinot Noir could age, and he cultivated the selection that carries his name, which UC Davis Foundation Plant Services now holds as a registered clone.3

The clone came out of a row that was nearly thrown away. Swan went to UC Davis's Oakville station with André Tchelistcheff in 1968 to look at Pinot Noir, and one selection stood out; it had come from the Martin Ray Liberty vineyard, where three vines had been flagged and watched for three years. Nobody else wanted low-yielding Pinot Noir then, and the Oakville row was ripped out. Swan had already taken cuttings. When Francis Mahoney ran a UC Davis evaluation block years later he labelled Swan's row Swan clone, and it made the best wines in the trial and came last for crop size.1 Berglund still prefers it to the cleaned-up virus-free version, Clone 97, and thinks the variability is the point: the heritage material probably came off more than one vine.1

Berglund got here sideways. He grew up in Petaluma across the street from the Lombardis, learned food and wine in their outdoor cantina, served in the Navy, and had his wine epiphany from a 1959 Chateau de Rayne-Vigneau Sauternes somebody handed him in a box.3 Swan talked him into making wine after Berglund blind-rated Swan's bottles highest in a competitive tasting.3 He married Swan's daughter Lynn in 1986, took over production in 1988 when Swan fell ill, and inherited the winery when Swan died in 1989.3 The day Swan died, half the mailing list went with him.3 Two other Sonoma names got their start in this cellar, Ravenswood and Dehlinger.1 Berglund on how the trade read him early on: 50% of the people thought I was a mad genius, the other 50% of people thought I was plain mad. There was zero middle ground.1

Order this / avoid

Order: the two Grenache Blancs side by side. They make one straight and skin-ferment the other into an orange wine, and Mobley says they pour the pair against each other.2
Order: the single-vineyard Pinot Noir comparison, made in what Mobley calls an elegant, finessed style.2
Order: a bottle of the Zinfandel even if it is not poured. Mobley's advice, and her reason is that this has always been one of the standout producers of balanced Sonoma Zin.2
Order: whatever the oldest thing open is. Jamie Goode found a house that releases many of its wines with a few years of bottle age already on them, so the bottle in front of you is further along than its neighbours.1
Avoid: the barrel room in a T-shirt. The winery warns it is chilly in there and tells you to dress for it.4

What locals & experts say

Esther Mobley, San Francisco Chronicle, Top Sonoma County Wineries 2025: Joseph Swan is as old-school as it gets in Sonoma County, and anyone who's grown tired of formal, overpriced tasting rooms will find Joseph Swan to be a breath of fresh air. An exceedingly fair $30 fee gets you a flight of six wines.2
Rod Berglund, on how to stop (Press Democrat, 7 November 2023): But I don't want to be one of those people who hits 40 home runs and hangs on forever until their knees give out and they become a joke. The toughest part is that I don't want Joe's legacy to go away. On buyers: When you sell to those kind of people, the name becomes nothing.3
Jamie Goode, Wineanorak (23 October 2024), after tasting the range with Berglund: Rod Berglund is one of the most respected winemakers in the Russian River Valley, and for the last 37 years he's been the custodian of Joseph Swan, which under his stewardship has become one of the iconic wineries in Sonoma.1
Tony Lombardi, who owns Lombardi Wines and grew up across the street from Berglund: They age much better — they're like a time capsule. We recently opened a 1985 zinfandel and it was amazing.3

Good to know

Saturdays and Sundays only, late morning to mid-afternoon, and everyone must be 21.4
Do not book. Mobley reports the winery no longer accepts reservations, so you walk in.2
The driveway is on Trenton Road, not on Laguna Road where the address points. Stay left and look for the green farm house.4
Club members and up to three guests taste free.4
Most of what they sell is bought fruit. Estate fruit is about 30% of production and the home vineyard is roughly 85% Pinot Noir, with Syrah, the original Chardonnay planting and a little of the original Cabernet beside it.1

Verdict

must-visit — Esther Mobley puts $30 on a flight that runs a neon-magenta Syrah rosé, two Grenache Blancs poured against each other with one made as an orange wine, a light Valdiguie and a comparison of single-vineyard Pinots, and she calls this one of the standout producers of balanced Sonoma Zinfandel. Rod Berglund came to it off a 1959 Sauternes somebody handed him in a box and a blind tasting Swan set him, and he married into the family before he inherited the cellar. He is in his seventies, has said publicly he is weighing how to hand it on, and will not sell to a buyer who would gut the name. Saturdays and Sundays only, 21 and over, and the driveway is on Trenton Road.

Joseph Swan Vineyards.