J. Rickards Winery is a dream come true for its owner

Jim Rickards grew up wanting to be a farmer, so at age 11 he applied for a land grant under the Homestead Act, which allowed citizens to apply for 160 acres of public land to live and farm. The application was rejected and he was told to reapply when he turned 18.

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

“I volunteered for the Hospital Corps and then volunteered for combat training before serving two years in the Marine Corps in Vietnam,” he said.

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

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

When asked how he could afford to buy the property at the time, Rickards replied: “I couldn’t afford it. The facility was in difficulty because it allegedly had no water. Only when I found water and dug a well was it suitable for farming and later for growing grapes.

He cared for the Zinfandel vines over the years since 1908 and planted the new vines himself.

He also built a family home on this property.

Rickards and his wife Eliza had already established themselves as one of the area’s leading grape growers J. Rickards Winery in 2005.

Today, the family-owned winery produces 16 red wines and six white wines ranging from $30 to $64 that have won numerous awards, including seven from this year’s Sonoma County Harvest Fair.

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