The ingenuous winetaster may not realize, on passing glance, that this brand-new tasting room tucked into a dell off Westside Road is very much more than the latest iteration of a contemporary trend. What makes the difference between a dream and a third-generation winegrowing concern of international acclaim? Time, good timing, and good grapes.

Santa Rosa native Charles Bacigalupi settled into a dentistry practice in town. Dreaming of country life, he purchased benchland vineyards above the Russian River in the 1950s, then turned to his clients for advice. Paul Heck, who had recently purchased Korbel, advised—as best he could in between gargling, surmises granddaughter Katey Bacigalupi—that he replace the old Chenin Blanc with Chardonnay, using budwood from Karl Wente. He did, and grapes from that vineyard composed a good portion of Chateau Montelena’s Chardonnay that won the famous “Judgment of Paris” tasting in 1976.

Napa generally gets the credit for that, but Katey and twin sister Nicole are quick to point to a copy of the original weigh tag from 1973 that’s displayed in the tasting room, below watercolors painted by their great-grandmother, Olive, in the 1940s and 50s. Depicting redwoods, historic wineries and a scene of downtown Healdsburg that looks as fresh as yesterday—vintage truck and all—her paintings offer both a window to the past, and a mirror for the present. Wine country watercolors? Dentists longing to rusticate amid the vineyards? Wine country hasn’t changed so much, after all.

A website and blog, of course, keep us up-to-date on what is new. Katey and Nicole are the new face of the family business, energetically building the brand while participating in next-generation events like Single Vineyard Night, and staffing the family-run tasting room. On the odd weekend, grandfather Charles may lend a hand, too.

Most Bacigalupi grapes go to long-time buyers, including Williams Selym. John Tyler wines (named for vineyard owner John Bacigalupi and winemaker Tyler Heck) are offered in mini verticals of Pinot and Zin. Most are aged in neutral oak and released several years after the local norm. The 2004 Russian River Valley, Bacigalupi Vineyard Pinot Noir ($52) shows graceful aging with orange peel, rhubarb and pepper jelly; the 2006 Pinot Noir ($45), earthy, Burgundian aromas of hay, cinnamon stick with cherry, pepper jelly flavors and wide, fine dry finish; while the 2006 Zinfandel ($38) has a minty, sweet herbal aroma that I just can’t place—is it anise, plus rose hip and dried raspberry? While the aroma haunts, the finish is dense, not hot; an agreeable table Zin with some ineffable extra. Old World twists on old California clones from a brand-new winery.

John Tyler Wines, 4353 Westside Road, Healdsburg. Open daily, 10:30am to 5pm. Tasting fee, $10. 707.473.0115.

The support group for the Sonoma County Wine Library, the Wine Library Associates of Sonoma County, will host an evening of wine, food and wine history featuring Helen and Charles Bacigalupi. Listen to the Bacigalupi’s story and taste stellar wines made from their vineyards, together with great hors d’oeuvres from Park Avenue Catering, at Paradise Ridge Winery, 4545 Thomas Lake Harris Drive in Santa Rosa, on Friday, Feb. 25 at 7 p.m. Reservations are $45 for non Wine Library Associates and $30 for Associates, and can be made by calling 433-1660.

Helen and Charles Bacigalupi have been selected and interviewed as part of the Sonoma County Wine Library’s oral history program. Join them in intimate conversation with their oral history interviewer, author Vivienne Sosnowski, as they relate rich resonant stories from their fifty-six years of wine growing. Their odyssey covers the emergence of the Sonoma County and the North Coast as leading areas in the production of fine wine worldwide. Helen and Charles have been there from the days when grapes sold for a few dollars a ton, when it was blended into jug wine, and when growers were at the mercy of a few huge wineries that set the prices arbitrarily and only after the grapes were delivered. One of their crowning moments was when Miljenko “Mike” Grgich selected their Chardonnay to go into the 1973 Chateau Montelena wine that became the white wine that won the Judgment of Paris in 1976.

Besides being complete professionals, the Bacigalupis love growing wine grapes. With all its tedium and terror, there is something wonderful about living among the vines, and making a living from them. The down side includes driving a tractor for endless hours dusting the vines with sulphur to keep them from rotting, being at the mercy of the weather that can be too cool for much of the summer and then spike to 110 for long enough to fry your grapes into raisins, enduring fluctuating grape prices and fickle, demanding wineries. Part of the payoff lies in the sure knowledge that you can artfully arrange stubborn vegetative matter on trellises, nurture its fruit until it has gained the complexities and nuances that mark it as world class and then harvest it at just the right moment with speed and precision. And part of the payoff lies in living among the vines, the sheer beauty of the landscape you helped sculpt and that sustains you is vivid and staggering. Sunsets explode with soft intensity, colors multiplying beyond any names. On some dank mornings the pruned vines rise from river mist so ground-hugging the cordons appear like free floating arms.

Bo Simons is the Wine Librarian. He can be reached at bo@sonoma.lib.ca.us or 433-3772.