Pebble Ridge Vineyards and Wine Estates, LLC owns Vista Verde Vineyard in San Benito County in the Central Coast, California and Paicines AVA.  Vista Verde produces and sells premium wine grapes to contract wineries based upon long term and short term grape purchase contracts.   With over 850 acres of producing vineyards of Pinot Noir, Chardonnay, Sauvignon Blanc, Tocai Friulano, Pinot Gris, Cabernet Sauvignon, and Merlot; Vista Verde’s grape clients have included Constellation Brands: Robert Mondavi, Estancia, Wild Horse, Blackstone, Clos du Bois, Mark West; E.&J. Gallo, Joel Gott, Williams Selyem, Miller Family Wine Company, Treasury, Kendall Jackson, J. Lohr, Hope Family and many smaller winemakers throughout California and beyond.

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John Dyson,Chairman and Chief Viticultural Officer of Pebble Ridge, is a pioneer in the global wine industry and an innovator in site specific viticulture and wine making.  Dyson purchased Vista Verde in 1990 from Heublein/Diageo as a 200 acre vineyard.  Since that time, Vista Verde has grown through contiguous land acquisition and has been replanted entirely with the best clones of over fifteen (15) different grape varieties including nineteen (19) clones of Pinot Noir.  In 2000, Dyson in conjunction with Richard Smart, a worldwide authority on vineyard development, developed the Smart-Dyson vine training and trellis system which is used in tens of thousands of acres of vineyard worldwide. 

 

Dyson is a graduate of Cornell University’s College of Agriculture.  His agrarian spirit has been the driving force throughout his career and many of his business ventures. Dyson served as the New York State Commissioner of Agriculture in 1975 where he developed the “Grown in New York” program.  From 1975 to 1979, he served as NY State Commissioner of Commerce where he created the famous and effective “I Love NY” economic development program. During this time he saw an opportunity to turn failing NY dairy farms, sitting dormant throughout the state, into farm wineries.  With this economic development idea in mind, Dyson led the effort in passing the New York State Farm Winery bill in 1976.  In 1979, Dyson started Millbrook Vineyards and Winery in the Hudson River Region AVA, with his brother-in-law David Bova.  As Millbrook grew and Dyson expanded his interest in other vineyard and winery properties, Pebble Ridge Vineyards & Wine Estates was established.  Mistral Vineyard, in Gilroy CA, was Dyson’s first vineyard acquisition in California in 1989, Vista Verde soon followed.  In 1998, Dyson purchased Williams Selyem Winery in the Russian River AVA in Sonoma, California.