Cecil O. De Loach Jr. (born September 14, 1938, Montgomery, Alabama) is a California grape-grower and winemaker in the Russian River Valley AVA who has contributed to the reputation and notoriety of Sonoma County viticulture. Personal history Prior to his name-making career in viniculture, De Loach was a United States Marine Corps sharpshooter, a race-track photographer at Golden Gate Fields, a private pilot, and received a degree in Anthropology from San Francisco State University. During his childhood he was raised in Macon, GA where he attended Lanier High School, an all-boys military school. His family subsequently moved to San Francisco in 1945. He graduated from Lincoln High School in San Francisco's Sunset District in 1956. Wine career De Loach began growing grapes in 1970 when he purchased the 24-acre Barbieri Ranch at 2150 Olivet Road in Santa Rosa, CA for approximately $60,000. The Barbieri Ranch had been planted by Itilo Barbieri in 1905. De Loach purchased the old Zinfandel vineyard from Itilo's son Louis. In 1973 he purchased his second vineyard property, 17 acres located at 1791 Olivet Road, to which he planted Pinot noir, Chardonnay, Zinfandel and Gewurztraminer. The site also comprised approximately five acres of 1940s-era mixed-grape vineyards (mostly Palomino and Golden Chasselas), an orchard of approximately 5 acres (Gravenstein apples, figs, Santa Rosa plums, peaches, French prunes, pears, walnuts), and a small sheep-shearing barn. This site became what is now De Loach Vineyards. These early De Loach plantings combined modern ecologically sound techniques with existing local farming methods including the planting of tilth- and nutrient-producing native cover crops, rotating-row tillage, drip irrigation, micro-frost protection, permanent cover farming, and the integration of beneficial birds, animals and biological components which eventually became known as sustainable farming. De Loach's wife Christine helped draft the first California Code of Sustainable Winegrowing in 1999. De Loach Vineyards was the first farming operation in Sonoma County to be certified by Fish Friendly Farming, in 2000. In 1975 De Loach made his first commercial wine, approximately 1000 cases of Zinfandel from the Barbieri Ranch, in a rented industrial space on the west side of Santa Rosa. While selling this wine he sought permits for a permanent winery to be built at his new vineyard on Olivet Road. The first phase of the three-phase construction was completed in 1979. In addition to Zinfandel, that year the winery produced its first Chardonnay, Pinot noir, Gewurztraminer, White-Zinfandel