Joseph Swan Vineyards

Joe Swan grew up in the farm country of North Dakota and made his first "wine" from garden rhubarb as a boy. He taught flying to the Army Air Corps during World War II and then flew for Western Airlines until his retirement in 1974. In 1967 he bought a small farm on Laguna Road near Forestville, in the Russian River Valley of Sonoma County: 13 acres of old Zinfandel vines, fruit trees and pasture, with an old barn and a house that had once held the post office of the village of Trenton. In 1968 he made wine from the few remaining Zinfandel vines in the cellar of the house, and he was bonded the following spring. At the urging of his friend and mentor André Tchelistcheff, he then began replanting with Chardonnay and Pinot Noir, planting the estate vineyard over several years beginning in 1969. He chose low-production clones and pruned and thinned to keep yields very low. Joe Swan made his first estate Pinot Noir in 1972, and in 1975 he fermented the estate Chardonnay in French oak. He made Zinfandel from the Teldeschi family's Dry Creek grapes through 1976, and in 1970 and 1971 he also made wine from Teldeschi grapes then called gamay, now known to be Valdiguié. In 1974, with help from friends including Joel Peterson, he built the winery building known as the tin shed, where Peterson made his first Ravenswood wines in 1976. Although he had no formal training in viticulture or enology, he lectured frequently at the University of California at Davis. He sold almost all of his wine to a mailing list, which at one point carried a three-year waiting list, and sold some wholesale through Kermit Lynch Wine Merchant. Joe Swan's last vintage was 1987.

• 1967: Joe Swan buys a 13-acre farm on Laguna Road near Forestville
• 1968: first vintage, made from the few remaining Zinfandel vines on the property
• 1969: planting of the estate vineyard begins, after André Tchelistcheff urged Chardonnay and Pinot Noir
• 1972: first estate Pinot Noir
• 1974: the tin shed winery building goes up
• 1987: Joe Swan's last vintage

Rod Berglund, a lifelong Sonoma County resident, began his winemaking career in 1979 at La Crema Viñera, the predecessor to La Crema, and made his first Russian River Valley Pinot Noir that year. He married Lynn, Joe Swan's stepdaughter, in 1986. In 1987 he helped Joe finish the harvest, and he took over the winemaking with the 1988 vintage. Joseph Swan (d. 1989) was succeeded by Rod and Lynn Berglund, who formally took over the operation of the vineyard and winery in 1989. As of November 2023 Rod Berglund had completed his 46th harvest, 36 of them as co-owner and winemaker at Joseph Swan. The winery's contact page lists Rod and Lynn Berglund as owners and Rod Berglund as winemaker. Lynn Berglund, who kept the books and did the winery's graphics, had retired by spring 2023. Cody Sapieka, a Sonoma State University Wine Business School graduate, joined in 2006, handles the wine club and was operations manager as of November 2023; with Paul O'Neil of Solas Vineyard he also started the Villein label.

• Rod Berglund: winemaker from the 1988 vintage; co-owner with Lynn Berglund since 1989
• Lynn Berglund: co-owner; retired by spring 2023
• Cody Sapieka: joined 2006; operations manager as of November 2023

The Trenton Estate Vineyard covers 11 acres on Laguna Ridge, the Russian River Valley neighborhood near Forestville to the south of the Russian River. It is mostly Pinot Noir with an acre of Syrah, a few Viognier vines and older Chardonnay and Cabernet Sauvignon vines; the winery describes it as home to the oldest Pinot Noir vines in the Russian River Valley, and its Pinot Noir is predominantly the Swan selection. The estate Chardonnay and Cabernet Sauvignon were planted with the original vines in 1969. In 1996 the two blocks closest to the winery, largely Chardonnay struggling on very shallow soil, were replanted to Pinot Noir and a small amount of Syrah, with a new row orientation and triple the vine density, and the old vines were converted from Joe Swan's tall head training to vertical shoot positioning. The vineyard is farmed with organic methods, though not certified, using spaded-in cover crops and in-row tilling instead of herbicides. Beyond the estate, the winery buys fruit from neighboring and nearby vineyards. Trenton View, a 4-acre vineyard just east of the winery, is planted to Dijon clones of Pinot Noir. DNA Vineyard lies directly across the road, and with Trenton Estate, Trenton View and Solas it is one of four contiguous vineyards in Trenton that supply Pinot Noir. Saralee's Vineyard, also on Laguna Ridge, is planted to the Calera and Swan selections of Pinot Noir and has an original block of musqué-clone Chardonnay. Ritchie Vineyard, just north of the winery, supplies Pinot Noir and Chardonnay, including Kent the Younger, a Chardonnay from a rocky section planted to an old Wente selection. Great Oak Vineyard, north of Forestville and the Russian River, has 10 acres planted to 90% Pinot Noir and 10% Syrah. Other sources include Catie's Corner (Viognier, Grenache Blanc and Pinot Noir), Dan Teldeschi's vineyard in Dry Creek Valley for Valdiguié, and Banfield Ranch, a block that is almost entirely Zinfandel from the 1880s.

• Trenton Estate Vineyard: 11 acres on Laguna Ridge, mostly Pinot Noir with an acre of Syrah; planting began in 1969
• 1996: two blocks replanted to Pinot Noir and some Syrah at triple the vine density
• Organic methods, not certified
• Sourced vineyards include Trenton View, DNA, Solas, Saralee's, Ritchie, Great Oak, Catie's Corner, Teldeschi and Banfield Ranch

The range centers on Russian River Valley Pinot Noir: the Trenton Estate bottling, vineyard-designated wines from Trenton View, DNA, Saralee's, Ritchie, Great Oak and Catie's Corner, and the Cuvée de Trois, which consists of some of each of the vineyard-designated Pinot Noirs and which the winery calls its number one selling restaurant wine. Cuvée de Trois has also been bottled as a Chardonnay and a Zinfandel. Chardonnay has come from the estate, Ritchie (including Kent the Younger), Saralee's and Hawk Hill; Zinfandel from Banfield Ranch, Zeigler Vineyard and Mancini Ranch; and Syrah from the estate, Great Oak and Solas. The list also takes in Valdiguié, Viognier, rosé, and Grenache Blanc made both traditionally and as a skin-contact orange wine, and over the years the winery has also made Gewürztraminer and Tannat. In 2026 the winery introduced the Deviation Series, whose first four releases are rosés of Pinot Noir, Zinfandel, Syrah and Valdiguié, with four orange wines and a Red White Table Wine to follow. A trio called The Three Estates pairs Trenton Estate Pinot Noir with Two Birds, from fruit swapped with Arista Winery, and Tilton Hill, a one-time 2017 lot from Benovia Winery's estate vineyard in the Sebastopol Hills.

• Pinot Noir: Trenton Estate, Trenton View, DNA, Saralee's, Ritchie, Great Oak, Catie's Corner, Cuvée de Trois
• Chardonnay: Trenton Estate, Ritchie, Kent the Younger, Saralee's, Hawk Hill, Cuvée de Trois
• Zinfandel: Banfield Ranch, Zeigler Vineyard, Mancini Ranch, Cuvée de Trois
• Other wines: Syrah, Valdiguié, Viognier, Grenache Blanc, rosé and the Deviation Series

Joe Swan's models were, with a couple of notable exceptions, French; he made many trips to France and took away the lesson that low production was necessary for high quality. The winery says all of its wines carry a hallmark signature of balance and personality, and describes Rod Berglund as a committed terroirist who believes that wine's first duty is to express a sense of place. Red wines ferment in small open-top fermenters with manual punch-downs of the cap or treading of the must, and French oak barrels have been used from the beginning. Most wines ferment with the native yeast present in the winery and go through spontaneous malolactic fermentation. The wines are rarely fined, and the filter is rarely used; Gewürztraminer and rosé, bottled very early, are the exceptions and are only lightly filtered. The wine is still made in the tin shed, and production has grown from Joe Swan's 1,200 cases to a ceiling of about 5,000 cases, the most the facility allows. In The Press Democrat, Sarah Doyle wrote in 2023 that Joe Swan was recognized for demonstrating Pinot Noir's ability to age and for creating balanced wines using traditional Burgundian winemaking techniques. The winery believes Joe Swan was the first in the modern era to both grow and make Pinot Noir in what is now the Russian River Valley, and The Press Democrat credits him as the first to plant Pinot Noir on Laguna Ridge.

• Small open-top fermenters, manual punch-downs or treading, French oak barrels
• Native yeast and spontaneous malolactic fermentation for most wines
• Rarely fined or filtered
• Production ceiling of about 5,000 cases

Primary sources (producer's own site): https://www.swanwinery.com/, https://www.swanwinery.com/about/, https://www.swanwinery.com/about/history/, https://www.swanwinery.com/about/about-rod/, https://www.swanwinery.com/about/vineyards/, https://www.swanwinery.com/about/about-lynn/, https://www.swanwinery.com/tasting/, https://www.swanwinery.com/about/newsletters/2026-newsletter/, https://www.swanwinery.com/about/newsletters/spring-2023-newsletter/, https://www.swanwinery.com/trade/, https://www.swanwinery.com/about/contact-us/, https://www.swanwinery.com/about/newsletters/2020-newsletter/, https://www.swanwinery.com/about/newsletters/spring-2017-newsletter/, https://www.swanwinery.com/about/newsletters/2021-spring-newsletter/, https://www.swanwinery.com/about/newsletters/spring-2017-releases/. Secondary sources: The Press Democrat (Sarah Doyle, 5 July 2023 and 7 November 2023): https://pressdemocrat.com/article/lifestyle/dive-deep-russian-river-valley-invites-exploration, https://pressdemocrat.com/article/lifestyle/longtime-joseph-swan-vineyards-winemaker-at-a-crossroads; San Francisco Chronicle (Bryce Wiatrak, 13 September 2016): https://www.sfchronicle.com/wine/article/Joseph-Swan-fine-Russian-River-Valley-Zinfandel-15592925.php. Last verified 2026-10-18. Where the producer's site and a secondary source disagree, the producer's site governs.