Ron Fenolio Bio
Ron comes from an historic winemaking family. He
and four cousins of his own wineries in Clarksburg,
Sonoma, Napa and have affiliated wineries in El
Dorado County and Portugal. His great grandfather
was a vineyard owner in Friuli (northeast of Venice)
in the 1880s, and in the early 1900s a great uncle in
law was one of the owners of Charles Krug, St.
Helena CA. Charles Krug was sold during prohibition
to the family that ultimately sold it to the Cesare
Mondavi family (father of Peter Mondavi, current proprietor of Charles Krug, and of Robert
Mondavi).
Ron started Veedercrest in the early 1970’s with co-founders Alfred Baxter, founding
winemaker, and the Ring family of New Jersey. 1972 was the first commercial vintage, and by
1976 the wines had gained such fame that they were chosen to be in the now infamous
Judgement of Paris of 1976, where the California wines bested the French wines, to the dismay
of the French (See the movie “Bottle Shock”). At the Judgement of Paris Veedercrest wines
were chosen to be the most French style of all the wines tasted. We still make our wines in the
grand European tradition. Ron is now the sole proprietor of Veedercrest and its CEO/Managing
Member. He is also a member of the California Wine Institute, the Napa Valley Vintners, the Mt.
Veeder Appellation Council, the Family Winemakers of California (board member representing
Lake and Napa Counties, 2007-2013), and the American Society of Enology and
Viticulture. Wineries owned by his cousins and cousins in law include Corison (Napa), The Three
Wine Company (Clarksburg), Clancy Cellars (Napa), Cline and Jacuzzi (Sonoma, Ron was CEO of
Jacuzzi Winery for four years during its founding period), and they previously owned Red Truck
and Trinitas. Ron is also President and CEO of Atlantic Wine Growers USA (500,000 plus case
production Portuguese winery for which he is responsible for importation and brand
development in the United States for the Hot Spot and Porta 6 wines).
Ron graduated from UC Berkeley in 1964 with a degree in Accounting and where he was on the
teaching staff in Finance. He then attended Hastings College of Law, earning his JD in 1967, and
New York University (LLM in Taxation, 1970). Ron founded Veedercrest while practicing law in
San Francisco, but soon retired from the practice of law to become a real estate developer and
investment banker. During the Japanese bubble economy he was on the real estate acquisition
staff at the joint venture between Itochu Corporation (then the largest Japanese trading
company) and Mitsui Trust Bank. He was responsible for closing over $100,000,000 per month
in investment grade real estate. He continued his career in China and elsewhere in oil field
development and petrochemical importing, where he concurrently was Director General for
Southeast Asia of one of the United Nation’s agencies.
Ron has been a member of the board of directors of companies as diverse as automobile parts
manufacturing and auto assembly, circuit board production, real estate investment trusts, and
real estate development companies. He was a member of a teaching team for the acclaimed
EECS 110 (entrepreneurial studies for computer science students) in UC Berkeley’s Computer
Science Department, and has taught tax and real estate law. He is a member of the California,
the US Supreme Court, and US Tax Court bar associations.