DaVero Farms and Winery
CrushBrew Editorial · Wine Travel · 6 min read
Key Takeaways
Farm first — DaVero is a working biodynamic farm with a winery built into it, not a standalone tasting room.
Founded on olives — The first Tuscan olive trees were planted in 1990, about a decade before the first vineyard.
Italian varietals — DaVero grows Mediterranean grape varieties suited to Healdsburg, including Sangiovese and Sagrantino.
Native-yeast wines — Wines ferment on wild yeasts from the vineyard and age in old, neutral barrels rather than new oak.
More than wine — DaVero also makes hand-pressed estate olive oil, a signature Meyer Lemon oil, and jams, lemon curd, and lemonade jarred on site.
In This Article
What makes DaVero Farms and Winery different?
Most tasting rooms in Sonoma and Napa pour wine and stop there. DaVero pours wine, then hands you a spoon of olive oil, walks you past the pigs, and shows you the gardens where the jam on the tasting table started as fruit on a tree. It is a working farm first, with a winery folded into it.
The farm sits just outside Healdsburg, in the Dry Creek Valley, about a mile off Highway 101. Wine tasting and a guided farm tour come together here in a way they rarely do elsewhere: olive oil tasting alongside the wine, free-range animals to visit, and produce, jams, and oil all made on site.
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What is biodynamic farming, and how does DaVero use it?
The farm came before the winery. Tuscan olive trees went into the ground in 1990, and the first small vineyard of Sangiovese followed about ten years later. From the start, founders Ridgely Evers and Colleen McGlynn farmed biodynamically, whether the crop was grapes or olives.
Biodynamic Farming
A holistic, organic approach to agriculture that treats the whole farm as one living system rather than a collection of separate crops. At DaVero, biodynamic methods guide both the grapes and the olives, and the small vineyards are surrounded by open fields and woods to build soil health and biodiversity.
DaVero’s vineyards are small and deliberately ringed by open fields and woods instead of tidy rows of nothing but vines. The aim is soil health and biodiversity, a farm that behaves like an ecosystem rather than a monoculture.
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What wines does DaVero make?
DaVero plants Mediterranean varietals, the Italian grapes suited to this climate, with each block carrying its own terroir, the specific soil and microclimate of that patch of ground. Sangiovese and Sagrantino come off the estate’s first-planted vineyard, and the farm grows a range of other Italian varieties across its blocks.
Native-Yeast Fermentation
A winemaking method that relies on the wild yeasts already living in the vineyard and on the grape skins to drive fermentation, rather than added commercial yeast. DaVero ferments this way and ages the resulting wines in old, neutral barrels instead of new oak, which keeps the flavor focused on the fruit and the site.
The wines lean on what is already there. Fermentation runs on the native yeasts living in the vineyard and on the grapes themselves, and the wines rest in old, neutral barrels rather than new oak. The result is a fresh, pure flavor that tastes of the place more than the cellar.
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What else does DaVero produce besides wine?
The olive oil is no sideline. DaVero’s olives are hand-harvested and pressed the same day on a stone wheel and blade mill, then bottled unfiltered as small-batch cold-press oil.
Meyer Lemon Olive Oil
A DaVero signature oil made by crushing extra-ripe olives together with organic Meyer lemon skins, so the citrus is pressed directly into the oil rather than added afterward. The lemon juice left over goes into the farm’s lemon curd and lemonade.
The lemons earn their keep twice over, and the farm jars its own jams and preserves on site as well. Between the oil, the fruit, and the wine, a visit tends to send people home with more than one bag.
Frequently Asked Questions About DaVero Farms and Winery
🍇 DaVero Farms & Winery at a Glance
A quick reference to the farm, the wines, and the visit.
| Detail | Value |
|---|---|
| Location | Westside Road, Healdsburg, CA; Dry Creek Valley, Sonoma County |
| Founded | Olive trees planted 1990; first vineyard (Sangiovese) about a decade later |
| Founders | Ridgely Evers & Colleen McGlynn |
| Farming | Biodynamic and organic; vineyards surrounded by open fields and woods |
| Winemaking | Native-yeast fermentation; aged in old, neutral barrels |
| Grapes | Italian and Mediterranean varietals, including Sangiovese and Sagrantino |
| Olive oil | Hand-harvested, stone-wheel pressed, unfiltered cold-press; Meyer Lemon oil |
| Also made on site | Jams and preserves, lemon curd, lemonade, fresh produce |
| Visiting | Farm tours, wine and olive oil tastings; reservations recommended |
