About:

The dream of having his own personal winery was moved along by John Ross Storey when he accepted a "buyout" from his day job as a photojournalist with the San Francisco Chronicle in the fall of 2005. Being the creative type, John then decided that the perfect name for his new venture would be the j.r. storey winery.John's not new to producing quality wine having been a founding partner and co-winemaker of the successful Eric Ross Winery since its inception in 1994. With this winery John's mandate is to search out small family vineyards throughout California with the goal of making unique wines with a sense of place that feature a true vineyard identity. Along with this vision an important belief he holds is that "oak" is used to complement a wine and not mask the beautiful fruit produced by the quality vineyards that he has found to work with. This will be one of the the hallmarks of his new wine making venture.

John believes that certain grape varietals excel in different regions of California, for his first year of production for the j.r. storey winery he's selected with care two vineyards from the Paso Robles region, and one from Sonoma County to demonstrate his unique wine making skills and vision. In the future additional wines from Sonoma County, Paso Robles and other promising regions of California are planned.While most of his time will be invested in winemaking John's love for creating exceptional photographs will continue on with John Storey Photography, but for now his main focus will be on the art of wine making.