Rodney Strong

Rodney Strong was an American professional dancer and vintner whose career spanned the performing arts and the wine industry. He appeared on Broadway in 1946, with credits including Toplitzky of Notre Dame. Strong later transitioned from dancing to winemaking, becoming a pioneering figure in Sonoma County viticulture.

In 1959, Strong and his wife Charlotte Ann Winson relocated to Northern California, where they acquired a century-old boarding house and began producing wine. The operation became the thirteenth bonded winery in Sonoma County. Three years later, in 1962, Strong purchased a turn-of-the-century winery and vineyard in Windsor, Sonoma County, which included 159 acres of mixed grape varieties. By 1965, he had replanted that vineyard with Chardonnay vines, making it the first Chardonnay planting in what would later be designated the Chalk Hill American Viticultural Area.

Strong continued to identify and develop prime growing regions throughout Sonoma County. In 1968, he planted Pinot Noir in the Russian River Valley, a region then better known for dairies and fruit orchards than for viticulture. His decision was informed by climate data from UC Davis, which guided his purchase of the River East Vineyard. In 1974, he released the first Alexander Valley single-vineyard Cabernet Sauvignon, sourced from his Alexander's Crown vineyard near Jimtown, a full decade before Alexander Valley received its own AVA designation. In 1977, he released the first Chardonnay bearing a Chalk Hill label, introducing that appellation to the broader wine market five years before it achieved AVA status.

Rick Sayre joined the Rodney Strong winemaking team in 1979. In 1989, the Klein family, a fourth-generation California farming family, purchased Rodney Strong Vineyards. Tom Klein became president of Klein Family Vintners and Rodney Strong Vineyards in 1991, directing investment in winemaking equipment and production capacity, including fermentation tanks, Bucher presses, new oak barrels, a crush pad, and a 100,000-square-foot temperature-controlled barrel storage facility.

The winery farms 14 estate vineyards across Sonoma County, with holdings in Alexander Valley, Russian River Valley, Chalk Hill, Sonoma Coast, and Dry Creek Valley. Rodney Strong Vineyards was recognized as American Winery of the Year in 2013 by Wine Enthusiast Magazine. The operation was the first carbon-neutral winery in Sonoma County and installed solar panels on its barrel room roof in 2003, at the time the largest winery solar array in the world. The vineyards hold Fish Friendly Farming certification and are certified sustainable by the California Sustainable Winegrowing Alliance.