Organic Welcome Tasting Package

Sophie James is a love story ten years in the making.

 

In 2009, Marin County natives and high school friends, James and Sophie Gray (née Boddington), serendipitously reconnected and fell in love.

 

Sophie was establishing her career as an esteemed stem cell research scientist at UCSF, and James had recently returned from London where he co-founded an entertainment ticket marketplace. After years of city living, James was nostalgic to escape to the expansiveness of the Northern California landscape and yearned for a more fulfilling sense of purpose, to connect with nature and to work the land. He confided in Sophie (on their very first date) that he planned to find a ranch and become a homesteader. Intrigued, Sophie encouraged his dream, and together they set out to find the perfect piece of land.

 

The original vision was a rustic ranch, possibly with livestock, or a farm. What materialized, or perhaps was manifested, was a rugged and breathtakingly beautiful mountaintop property outfitted with a modern, but neglected house with solid architectural bones. Sophie and James knew they were home when they found this idyllic plot of earth, with its panoramic views and dramatic terrain covered in a diverse spectrum of flora - complete with five acres of somewhat wild Pinot Noir vineyards.

 

What happened next was a whirlwind of sorts. In the summer of 2010, Sophie and James purchased the property and began what they knew was their life’s purpose - to build a family legacy on this mountaintop. Together they set to work restoring the house, elevating the natural beauty of the land, and converting the vineyards to all-organic farming practices.

 

While their very first harvest was the 2010 vintage, and the first bottling under the Sophie James label in 2012 (the same year the couple married on the mountaintop vista overlooking Jack London State Park), the Sophie James wine company was not formally established until 2017. Sophie and James knew that in order to truly make the land sustainable and secure its heritage to create a legacy for their two daughters, they would need to put the land to work. Inspired by a vibrant and supportive community in Sonoma and their native Marin, Sophie and James founded Sophie James on the principles of organic farming, their love of nature, entertaining friends and family in the great outdoors, and the joy of exceptional, shared experiences.

 

Sophie James hosted the inaugural member dinner party for an intimate group of friends, family, and supporters in the fall of 2017. With Sophie Gray at the helm of operations, she and James look forward into the decades to come to further their mission to bring people together to share the simple pleasures of delicious, thoughtfully-crafted food and wine, through the magic of their organically-farmed wines.