Petrali Wines

Our Story

Peter and Ali
We cannot confirm it but we are probably the first wine-making partners to have met in a New York City public high school Chemistry class. That was back in 1980 and over the next dozen years we dated and broke up a number of times, finally got smart and got married. While we were falling in love with each other, we also fell in love with wine, particularly red wine.

During a vacation to northern California in the fall of 1994, we spent a week in Sonoma and Napa counties riding bikes and tasting wine. After that, we knew we wanted to come back and we moved to San Francisco in 1995. Finally in 2001 we found our own little spot on the east side of the town of Sonoma. While the steep hill on which our property sits can be inconvenient after walking to town for ice cream, its rocky soil and protected valley turns out fabulous Syrah grapes. In short, it’s the perfect location for what we wanted…a small, organic, family winery where the wines are made with great care.

Since our love of wine and this wine-making adventure is a shared passion, we thought a combination of our names was appropriate in naming our vineyard. Hence, Petrali – a combination of Peter and Ali – was born.