Robert Rex

Robert Rex is a true “Renaissance” man with a strong entrepreneurial bent. Besides possessing a great palate and talent for winemaking he is an accomplished chef, graphic designer, woodworker, and has the ability to figure out and fix seemingly anything. Robert celebrates his 51st consecutive vintage making wine with the harvest of 20023. He started in his garage in Berkeley as a home winemaker. When it comes to making fine wine. Robert says, “Winemaking is 60% cooking and 40% chemistrys. Perhaps it’s also his perfectionism, scientific methods and attention to detail. In 1982 Robert and PJ Rex moved to Kenwood, in the heart of Sonoma Valley, to turn their hobby and their passion into a profession.

Robert put himself through at least one year of college working on cars, particularly Italian sportscars. PJ was driving a 1974 Alfa spider, which she still owns and he is still works on. As a thank-you gift one Christmas, PJ gave Robert a winemaking kit. She knew he was a good cook and a chemist, and would be at winemaking. She was right; his first wine, a 1972 Amador County Zinfandel, won the “Best of Show” at the California State Fair in 1974.

 A native of Iowa, Robert grew up in L.A., moving to Berkeley in 1961 to study Chemistry at the University of California. At Cal, Robert joined a wine tasting club where he discovered his love for fine wines. He became a partner in Berkeley’s first commercial winery in 1976, where he met several of his mentors, including Andre Tchelistcheff, the father of the modern California wine industry. Winemaking remained an avocation until 1982 when P.J. and Robert escaped their city jobs to follow their dream of owning a wnery in the Sonoma Valley. They have lived at their beautiful hilltop retreat, Deerfield Ranch, the birthplace of the Deerfield Ranch Winery, for 41 years.

While honing his winemaking craft, Robert planted vineyards, brokered grapes between growers, wineries and home winemakers. He helped develop the first oak barrel adjuncts, and a variety of procedures and products such as, flash freezing of varietal grape juice for winemaking in the off season, sterile juice production and bottling, soft drink development using wine grape juice, soft seltzer with the flavor of varietal wines, and Clean Wine® production techniques that produce wines low in histamines and low in sulfites, known to cause red wine headaches and allergic reactions. Deerfield is an incubator winery where, under Robert’s mentorship, new winemakers and wineries get started. Several of his mentees have become professional winemakers and owners of successful wineries, one of them, Michael Browne made the Wine Spectators number one wine in the world, twice.

 Robert’s mother put him and his simblings on stage when they were kids. They learned to speak in public and entertain. Add that to Robert’s stellar knowledge of wine and winemaking and it makes for a most entertaining and informative lecturer, story teller, and teacher of all things wine and life. He is a super taster and remembers everyhing he tastes. His engaging and informative lectures are legendary and he’s been at it for 50 years.