A.W. Baxter (1928 – March 7, 2005) was a

California California is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States, located along the West Coast of the United States, Pacific Coast. With nearly 39.2million residents across a total area of approximately , it is the List of states and territori ...

winemaker A winemaker or vintner is a person engaged in winemaking. They are generally employed by wineries or wine companies, where their work includes: *Cooperating with viticulturists *Monitoring the maturity of grapes to ensure their quality and to deter ...

who founded Veedercrest Vineyards which competed in the

Judgment of Paris Judgement (or US spelling judgment) is also known as ''adjudication'', which means the evaluation of evidence to decision-making, make a decision. Judgement is also the ability to make considered decisions. The term has at least five distinct u ...

wine tasting Wine tasting is the sensory examination and evaluation of wine. While the practice of wine tasting is as ancient as its production, a more formalized methodology has slowly become established from the 14th century onward. Modern, professional w ...

. The Veedercrest entrant was Baxter's first commercial vintage

Chardonnay Chardonnay (, , ) is a green-skinned grape variety used in the production of white wine. The variety originated in the Burgundy wine region of eastern French wine, France, but is now grown wherever wine is produced, from English wine, Englan ...

. He began buying grapes and making wine in the basement of his home in the Berkeley hills. He then acquired land on Mt. Veeder in Napa and planted a vineyard of Cabernet Sauvignon funded by selling limited partnership shares. Eventually the wine making volume outgrew his home and at the suggestion of one of the limited partners, C. R. Nelson, he moved his winemaking to a thick walled concrete building at the by then closed Shell Shell Development Companies' Emeryville research lab. The business failed when the winery's distributor dropped prices to work off excess inventory. His wife Gail Fleming was one of the 25 people who died in the

1991 Oakland firestorm : The Oakland firestorm of 1991 was a large suburban wildland–urban interface conflagration that occurred on the hillsides of northern Oakland, California, and southeastern Berkeley, California, Berkeley over the weekend of October 19–20, ...

M. Taylo
Obituary Alfred Baxter -- acclaimed winemaker
''

San Francisco Chronicle The ''San Francisco Chronicle'' is a newspaper serving primarily the San Francisco Bay Area of Northern California. It was founded in 1865 as ''The Daily Dramatic Chronicle'' by teenage brothers Charles de Young and M. H. de Young, Michael H. de ...

'' March 13, 2005

References

California winemakers 1928 births 2005 deaths {{wine-bio-stub

See also

References