SIMI

Giuseppe and Pietro Simi emigrated from Tuscany in the 1840s, looking to make their fortune panning for gold in California – but soon switched to making wine. From their base in Healdsburg, the brothers made their first vintage under the Montepulciano Cellars name in 1876. Business took off, but an outbreak of flu sadly saw the brothers die suddenly, just a few weeks apart. Giuseppe’s daughter Isabelle took over in 1904, then just 18 years old. 

The young woman rapidly proved herself, and when Prohibition arrived she negotiated a contract to make sacramental wine. She continued making wine, stowing away bottles in the property’s extensive cellar. She was forced to sell the vineyards, but was ready to open when the 18th Amendment was repealed in 1933, with a stock of mature wines ready for market. She reopened the business under the SIMI name, swinging open the doors to her tasting room in 1934. 

Isabelle Simi officially retired in 1970, selling the business to a local grape-grower, but remained involved in the business for at least a decade, until her death in 1981. LVMH bought the winery in 1981, then with the legendary Zelma Long (previously of Robert Mondavi) installed as winemaker, and soon started buying vineyards. Constellation (which owns Robert Mondavi, Opus One and more) took over the winery in 1999. 

Today, the property owns 160 hectares of Cabernet Sauvignon in Alexander Valley and 40 hectares of Chardonnay in the Russian River Valley. They buy in additional fruit from Sonoma, Mendocino and Napa, to craft their range of Cabernet, Chardonnay, Sauvignon Blanc, Merlot and Pinot Noir 

The wines continue to be made in the cellar built by the Simi brothers in 1890, with Lisa Evich SIMI’s Director of Winemaking since 2022.