Winemaker Interview Series – Brian Pruett – Dry Creek Vineyard – Feb 2026

On Wednesday, February 25, 2026, we interviewed Brian Pruett. Brian is the winemaker at Dry Creek Vineyard. We covered eight wines during the visit. We started with Chenin Blanc and a single vineyard Sauvignon Blanc, both from the 2024 vintage. Then we tried three single-vineyard and one historic-field-blend Zinfandel from the 2022 vintage. As you will recall, we really liked 2022 as a Zinfandel vintage. Finally, we wrapped up with their 2021 Red Blend and their flagship Cabernet Sauvignon from the 2022 vintage. It was a great tasting and a lot of fun. In this post, you can learn what we learned about Brian and the history of the winery and read our reviews of all of these impressive wines.

Before we get to the wines, I thought I would share some tidbits that Brian shared in the interview.

• Tell us a little bit about the Dry Creek Vineyard winery history?
  • It is family owned and was started by David Stare in 1972. Today it is run by the second generation. Kim Stare.
  • Founder David Stare was born in Massachusetts, and he completed his degree in Civil Engineering at MIT and his MBA at Northwestern, before he moved to Germany.
  • While living in Europe, he visited many of the wineries and started to develop an interest in wine.
  • He returned to Boston in the spring of 1969 firmly bitten by the wine bug and enrolled in a wine appreciation class.
  • In 1970 he and his family traveled to France. He loved the Loire Valley. He was then inspired to make a dry-styled Sauvignon Blanc.
  • After returning from the trip, he read an article in the Wall Street Journal about what a great future California had for making world-class wines. After a trip to California, he packed up his wife and kids and moved to California.
  • Upon his arrival, he began taking winemaking classes at UC Davis as a graduate student.
  • At the same time, he began to look for land for a vineyard. The Dry Creek reminded him of the Loire Valley.
    • He found and purchased a run-down rundown 55-acre prune orchard (ripped it out) and planted grapes.
    • Sauvignon Blanc was what he planted even though it was not recommended by the locals.
  • When did Kim Stare Wallace get involved?
    • Kim literally was raised among the vines in Dry Creek Valley.
    • As a teen, Kim worked in the office, cellar, and on the bottling line. She also accompanied her parents on countless sales trips, business dinners, and wine tastings.
    • After college, she had no intention of working at the winery. She was going into the fashion industry!
    • Well, that did not last too long. Her father eventually convinced her to come back to the winery as Director of Marketing in 1986. She has now been there for 40 years. (Plus, childhood)
      • One of Kim’s great ideas was to put the sailboats on the labels. It was a radical idea at the time. Now the winey is certainly recognized by that concept and idea.
      • The inspiration for this was the family vacationed in Maine and was into sailing.
    • Kim’s husband, Don Wallace, joined the winery managing ranch operations in 1990.
      • Don’s role is that he worked to upgrade the vineyards and develop new vineyards.
    • Together they had a vision of producing wines that were not too high in alcohol, delivered high value, were food friendly, and were offered at a fair price.
  • The Brian Pruett Story
    • Brian grew up in Northern California.
    • He went to Cal Poly in San Luis Obispo where he earned his degree in agricultural business with a minor in wine and viticulture.
    • He worked his first harvest at Justin.
    • He spent the next two years of harvest seasons traveling between California’s Central Coast and Marlborough, New Zealand. (He worked at Kim Crawford while he was in NZ.)
    • He eventually landed at Peachy Canyon where he was the Assistant Winemaker and Director of Production for 3 years.
    • From there he moved north to take an Assistant Winemaker position at Ledson Winery.
    • Finally in March of 2017, Brian joined Dry Creek Vineyard as Assistant Winemaker to work with Director of Winemaking Tim Bell. Brian was later promoted to Associate Winemaker and eventually promoted to Winemaker.
    • Brian’s winemaking philosophy is that wine is made at the crossroads of art and science. 50%/50%.
  • Vineyard and Wine Tidbits
    • The Dry Creek Valley is about 15 to 20 miles from the Pacific Ocean.
      • It has very diverse soil types.
    • The Chenin Blanc
      • Inspired by the Loire Valley
      • The grapes come from the Wilson Ranch in Clarksburg. It is actually a single vineyard wine.
      • It needs a warmer site. That said it gets a cool breeze in the evening balancing things nicely.
      • They pay a premium to have it farmed the way they want it.
    • The Sauvignon Blancs
      • The Fumé Blanc was first wine they made.
        • It was different than Mondavi’s Fumé.
        • Dave made it fresh with a stainless approach.
        • It comes from Sonoma County
        • It is more citrus focused. They manage that with more shade.
        • The last few vintages have really stepped up the quality.
          • Brian noted they are more dialed into certain blocks, changed yeast strains and reduced the air contact with the wine. All have been beneficial to the results.
      • The Dry Creek Valley Sauvignon Blanc
        • Gets more sun, so it is more tropical than the Fumé.
        • It also gets some barrel (15-18%)
          • Either neutral French, Acacia, or Chestnut.
      • The “Taylor’s Vineyard” Sauvignon Blanc.
        • • It is on West Dry Creek Road. They used to own it.
          • 100% Musqué Clone. It does better with more sunlight.
          • 100% Stainless.
    • Heritage Zinfandel Clone
      • Created by them in the late 1080’s.
      • They have the identical clone in all the single vineyards we covered.
    • Somers Ranch was planted in 1995-1996.
      • It always has plump fruit.
    • Wallace Ranch is at the winery. “Estate”
    • Farmhouse
      • Always harvested later and towards the end of harvest.
      • Brian lives in the farmhouse at the vineyard.
    • Historic Blocks
      • Grapes are sourced from DCV2, Forcini, Teldeschi, and Somers.
    • Old Vine Zinfandel
      • All vines are 50 years old or older.
    • Mariner wine is left bank inspired and focused.
    • Endeavor Vineyard
      • They bought this vineyard.
      • Don was on a plane, saw the land below, and then drove over to it. It was a goat pasture.
      • He made a deal to buy it.
      • It is big bowl shaped with a pond at the bottom.
      • The only water source for irrigation is the pond.
      • The Petit Verdot in the wine comes from the same vineyard.

Below is a summary of the wine offerings from Dry Creek Vineyard that we covered with Brian. The links below are to our full reviews. If you are interested in ordering and trying these wines, you will find some of these wines via your favorite fine wine shop or on top quality wines lists. You can also purchase these wines on the Dry Creek Vineyard website.

1) Dry Creek Vineyard 2024 Chenin Blanc “Dry” (Clarksburg) $19 (KWGTP 91)
2) Dry Creek Vineyard 2024 Sauvignon Blanc “Taylor’s Vineyard” (Dry Creek Valley) $35 (KWGTP 92.5)
3) Dry Creek Vineyard 2022 Zinfandel “Somers Ranch” (Dry Creek Valley) $50 (KWGTP 93)
4) Dry Creek Vineyard 2022 Zinfandel “Wallace Ranch” (Dry Creek Valley) $48 (KWGTP 92.5)
5) Dry Creek Vineyard 2022 Zinfandel “Farmhouse DCV 8 Vineyard” (Russian River) $48 (KWGTP 93.5)
6) Dry Creek Vineyard 2022 Zinfandel “Historic Blocks” (Dry Creek Valley) $58 (KWGTP 93.5)
7) Dry Creek Vineyard 2021 Red Blend “The Mariner” (Dry Creek Valley) $52 (KWGTP 93.5)
8) Dry Creek Vineyard 2022 Cabernet Sauvignon “Endeavour” (Dry Creek Valley) $105 (KWGTP 94)

Additional Dry Creek Vineyard Wines Covered In Other Tastings

9) Dry Creek Vineyard 2023 Sparkling Wine “Chenin Blanc Cremant” (Clarksburg) $50 (KWGTP 92)
10) Dry Creek Vineyard 2024 Sauvignon Blanc “Fumé Blanc” (Sonoma County) $21 (KWGTP 90)
11) Dry Creek Vineyard 2024 Sauvignon Blanc “Dry Creek Valley” (DCV) $26 (KWGTP 91)
12) Dry Creek Vineyard 2021 Red Blend “SeaQuelle Meritage” (DCV) $55 (KWGTP 92)
13) Dry Creek Vineyard 2022 Cabernet Sauvignon “Hillside & Benchland” $35 (KWGTP 92.5)

You can find reviews of past and future Kosta Browne wines that we cover on the Dry Creek Vineyard KWG winery page on our website. We hope you enjoy these terrific wines as much as we did. Cheers! – Ken