Dick Ponzi
Dick Ponzi | |
|---|---|
| Born | March 26, 1934 Michigan, United States |
| Occupation(s) | Vintner, structural engineer |
| Years active | 1960s–present |
| Known for | Founder of Ponzi Vineyards; founding member and first president of Oregon Winegrowers Association; co-founder of Bridgeport Brewing Company |
Dick Ponzi (born March 26, 1934) is an American vintner and a trailblazer in Oregon’s wine and craft brewing sectors. He established Ponzi Vineyards, one of the pioneering wineries in the Willamette Valley, alongside Erath Winery and The Eyrie Vineyards. In addition to his winemaking achievements, Ponzi enjoyed a distinguished career as a structural engineer and is acknowledged for his innovative contributions to enology and viticulture. He played a key role as a founding member and the inaugural president of the Oregon Winegrowers Association, as well as serving as a founding director of the Oregon Wine Board. Together with his wife, he launched Oregon’s first craft brewery, Bridgeport Brewing Company.
Early life
Born the third son to Italian immigrant parents who settled in Michigan, Ponzi grew up in a family that produced homemade wine each year from grapes sourced in California. As an adult, he worked within California’s aerospace sector, where he met Nancy Ponzi, whom he married in 1961. After traveling through Europe—a journey that sparked their passion for winemaking—they returned to Los Gatos, California, where they began crafting wine before eventually moving their family to Oregon’s Willamette Valley to realize their vineyard aspirations.
Engineering
Ponzi’s engineering career flourished in California, where he initially contributed to the design of rockets and fighter aircraft for United Technologies. Later, he applied his skills as a ride designer for a firm contracted by Disneyland.
In 1988, Ponzi was responsible for creating the Weather Machine, a lumino-kinetic bronze sculpture located in Pioneer Courthouse Square, Portland, Oregon. Developed in collaboration with Roger Sheppard and Jere and Ray Grimm, this installation “predicts” the daily weather at noon by showcasing symbols representing sunny, drizzly, or stormy conditions.
Ponzi Vineyards
Following exploratory visits to Burgundy, Ponzi relocated his family to Oregon’s Willamette Valley and acquired 20 acres southwest of Portland, Oregon in 1969. He and his wife Nancy founded Ponzi Vineyards in 1970 at a time when only four wineries operated in Oregon. Their location near Portland was chosen deliberately to target that market. Their inaugural vintage in 1974 consisted of 100 cases of Pinot noir, quickly establishing them as pioneers in enology and viticulture. They engineered specialized equipment such as a destemmer designed to separate grapes without crushing them—innovations that have since become industry benchmarks.
In 1975, they collaborated with Oregon State University to plant Pinot noir clones for varietal trials. The vineyard expanded in 1981 with the purchase of an additional 20 acres encompassing this experimental plot, which they named Abetina vineyard. They also acquired 10 acres on a lower slope called Madrona vineyard, where eight acres of Pinot noir were planted in 1985.
Ponzi was among the first commercial growers of Pinot gris in Oregon starting in 1978 and released their initial bottling of this varietal in 1984.
The 65-acre Aurora vineyard was added to their portfolio in 1991 and serves as a site for research on rootstocks, grape varieties, and clones.
In 1993, Dick Ponzi transferred winemaking duties to his daughter Luisa.
A notable development came in 2008 when Ponzi designed and constructed a four-story, 30,000-square-foot gravity-flow winery acclaimed for its sustainable and environmentally conscious design. Their vineyards maintain LIVE (Low Input Viticulture & Enology) certification.
In 2021, ownership of Ponzi Vineyards transitioned to Societe Jacques Bollinger—the parent company of Champagne Bollinger—with Jean-Baptiste Rivail appointed as CEO that same year, marking the first time leadership came from outside the family.
Teaching
During the early stages of establishing his winery, Ponzi worked as an engineering instructor at the Community College of Portland. It was there that he encountered David Lett, the founder of The Eyrie Vineyards, who sold Ponzi some of his initial grapevines and connected him with Dick Erath of Erath Winery—both pioneers in Oregon’s wine scene. To financially sustain his winery venture, Ponzi continued teaching for a period spanning fifteen years.
Bridgeport Brewing
In 1984, Dick and Nancy Ponzi launched Oregon’s inaugural craft brewery, Bridgeport Brewing Company. This enterprise played a crucial role in igniting the craft beer movement within the region and contributed to the growing popularity of India Pale Ale across the United States. The Ponzis eventually sold Bridgeport Brewing to The Gambrinus Company in 1995.
Other
Ponzi was instrumental in founding the Oregon Winegrowers Association, serving as its first president, and also helped establish the Oregon Wine Advisory Board (now known as the Oregon Wine Board) as a founding director. Alongside these efforts, the couple opened Ponzi Wine Bar, a dedicated tasting venue, and The Dundee Bistro, a restaurant showcasing cuisine from Willamette Valley, located in Dundee, Oregon.
Winemaking
Ponzi’s goal was to craft wines inspired by Burgundy styles; however, he initially found that traditional Burgundian whole-bunch fermentation techniques were not effective until he adopted a more delicate approach. By the 1980s, he had refined a gentle winemaking method that involved using whole berries or clusters and transporting must in buckets rather than pumping it. In 1985, he pioneered pre-fermentation soaking—a practice that later gained widespread acceptance both in Burgundy and New World wine regions.
Throughout the 1990s, Oregon earned acclaim for producing high-quality Pinot noirs from vineyards such as Beaux Frères, Argyle, and Archery Summit—an outcome reflecting Ponzi’s significant impact on local winemaking practices.
Family
In 1961, Ponzi married Nancy Berry in California.
From the outset, the entire family played an active role in vineyard work and winemaking. Their children helped out after school and on weekends before pursuing their own careers. Eventually, they returned to the family business: Michel transitioned from music composition to business management and served as operations director and CEO until 2013; Anna Maria moved from publishing to become director of the Linfield University Center for Wine Education by 2024; Luisa trained in Burgundy, earned a degree in viticulture and enology, and assumed the role of Winemaker in 1993.
Titles
Ponzi was a founding figure of the Oregon Winegrowers Association and held its inaugural presidency. In 1987, he also became a founding director of the Oregon Wine Advisory Board.
Awards and recognition
In 1988, The Wine Advocate recognized Ponzi as one of the world’s premier winemakers as well as Oregon’s leading producer. Later, Wine Spectator honored him in 1996 among its "People Who Made a Difference." His accolades include receiving the American Center for Wine, Food and the Arts’ Vintner of the Year award in 2005 and a Lifetime Achievement Award from the Oregon Wine Board in 2007. Ponzi’s Pinot noirs consistently rank among America’s finest examples.
Influence
Applying his engineering background, Ponzi developed innovative tools and methods—such as gravity-fed wine transfer—that have since become standard practices globally.
Michael G. Etzel, winemaker at Beaux Frères Winery (co-owned by Robert M. Parker Jr.), acknowledges Ponzi as his mentor and continues to apply his techniques. Beaux Frères is recognized as one of Oregon’s premier producers of Pinot noir.
Ponzi is widely acknowledged for shaping Oregon Pinot noir’s distinctive style—a blend of generosity with refined elegance—that now predominates in today’s market.
In 1985, Ponzi contributed to drafting legislation that legalized brewpubs and tasting rooms in Oregon, thereby encouraging expanded direct-to-consumer sales opportunities.
Sale
On April 7, 2021, the Bollinger family—proprietors of Champagne Bollinger, Delamain Cognac, and three additional renowned French estates—completed the acquisition of Ponzi Vineyards. This purchase encompassed the winemaking and hospitality operations located in Sherwood, as well as the Avellana, Abetina, and Madrona vineyard properties.
See also
External links
- Oral History Interview with Dick Ponzi 2015, Linfield College Archives (video)