Our Story
Rick Davis, Proprietor & Winemaker
A life-long interest in fine food and artisan craft led, Proprietor and Winemaker, Rick Davis to the wine industry. With graduate work in soil sciences and his first experience as a cellar-hand for Rivendell Winery, a small winery in New Paltz, NY, he quickly learned the trade and excelled to Winemaker. In order to pursue this newfound passion, his move to Sonoma County, CA left him in the perfect place to master winemaking and focus on Pinot Noir.
Rick has spent 20 years improving his process through experiences with Flowers Winery under Winemaker, Greg LaFollette, and as Consulting Winemaker with Londer Vineyards (2005-2011), Halleck Vineyards, La Czar Vineyards, and Alcina Cellars and developed Calstar Cellars, his own label, as an extension of these relationships.
He specializes in cool climate varietals like Pinot Noir and Chardonnay, and has worked with many of the top producers on the Sonoma Coast. Rick’s passion is to produce high quality, food-friendly wines that can be shared at every table knowing the bounty of the vine. What is Calstar?
We are often asked about our brand name “Calstar” and for all of you who are wondering I’m not a Cal (UC Berkeley) grad, nor is the brand named after the State of California. Calstar Cellars is named after Callie and Star, two of my wife’s studio cats (she is a ceramics artist) who were around when I was started the label in 1999. That year, after bottling wine that we stored in our back yard under a tree, both cats, but Star in particular, also selected this as the best place to hang out and watch birds while soaking up warmth. One afternoon while Lynn and I were trying to come up with a brand name and watching the cats hang out we came up with the alliterative (and memorable) name of Calstar Cellars.
Our relationship to animals is wondrous thing and we do hope that our wines find as ready a home in your hearts as these two neighborhood cats found in ours.