Peter Haywood
USA
Haywood Winery
- Peter made such good wine a big corporation came to buy his brand name. They paid big bucks to use his name but they never cared about the talented winemaker that was behind the excellent wine.
- While the brand got sold from one corporation to the next, Peter went on growing great grapes and making good wine under different names.
- If you care more about the winemaker than about the brand name, buy a bottle of Peter's wine.
Peter Haywood's Story
Peter Haywood's Story
Peter Haywood grew up in Chicago, earned a political science degree from Stanford University and served in the Marine Corps. In the 1970s, he operated a San Francisco Bay Area construction and development company, but looking for a more rural lifestyle in 1973 Peter purchased 280 acres of rugged hillside land a stone’s throw from the town of Sonoma in Sonoma Valley. Three years later, he planted 75 (of an eventual 90) acres to wine grapes and named the vineyard Los Chamizal, which in Spanish means “a thicket of hardwoods.” In 1980, Haywood purchased a small nearby winery, crushed his first grapes and began selling a selection of wines under the eponymous Haywood label.
In 1991, Haywood sold his wine brand to Racke International. Then Racke started releasing cheaper wines under the Haywood brand, broadened distribution, and so on.
Racke sold the brand to Allied Domecq. Allied sold it to Beam. Beam got bought out by Constellation, the world's largest wine company... you get the picture.
