September 2020 is California Wine Month

This gives us a great opportunity
to highlight some of the many
incredible wineries we’ve visited
over the years.

We look forward to visiting these
wineries again very soon.

Who’s Ernest, you ask?

Since we know you’re wondering: Yes, there was a man named Ernest. He was an entrepreneur, a risk-taker and a role model for his grandson, Todd Gottula, who founded the winery with his wife, Erin Brooks, back in 2012. Today, the “Ernest” in the name stands for more than one man. It’s about integrity in the fruit used and the people they know. It’s about restraint, about how ego drives nothing they do.

Todd and Erin are not only co-founders and co-owners of the winery; they touch every single aspect of the business. They connect with growers. They interact with distributors. They respond to customers. They deliver wines. They tackle paperwork. Just about the only thing the couple doesn’t do is make the wine—they leave that to Ernest’s winemaker, Joseph Ryan. A byproduct of all this hands-on leadership is an acute personal connection to the people behind the brand. Neither Todd nor Erin plans to change that anytime soon.

Both Erin and Todd hail from agricultural families, and they believe in relationships with small farmers. Ernest works with 15 different farmers overall—winegrowers who represent 17 different sites across Sonoma County. Ernest’s wines tell their stories as much as they tell Todd’s and Erin’s. They consider these farmers part of their extended family. 

Learn more about Ernest Vineyards here.