J. Rickards Winery a dream come true for its owner

Jim Rickards grew up wanting to be a farmer, and at age 11, he applied for a Homestead Act land grant, a law that allowed citizens to claim 160 acres of public land to live and farm. The application was denied and he was told to reapply when he turned 18.

Rickards, 79, spent his first three years after high school helping with autopsies in a hospital laboratory before traveling to Vietnam.

“I volunteered for the Hospital Corps, then I volunteered for combat training before serving a two-year tour with the Marine Corps in Vietnam,” he said.

After returning to the United States in 1969, Rickards began a 50-year career as a critical care nurse in Sonoma County and his farming dream also began to take shape. He bought a cow, moved to Petaluma and began leasing property to raise cattle until the 1976 drought forced him to sell.

That same year, he found a 60-acre ranch with an old vineyard on Chianti Road in Cloverdale.

Asked how he could afford the property at the time, Rickards said: “I couldn’t. It was a property in difficulty because it supposedly had no water. Only after I found water and dug a well did it become viable for farming and, later, for grapes.”

For years he tended the property’s Zinfandel vines beginning in 1908 and planted new vines himself.

He also built his family home on the property.

Rickards and his wife, Eliza, already established as one of the area’s leading grape producers, opened J. Rickards Winery in 2005.

Today, the family winery makes 16 red wines and six white wines, costing between $30 and $64, that have won numerous awards, including seven of this year’s Sonoma County Harvest Fair.

Read about other local business owners who have unexpected backgrounds. here.