About Bill

Bill Wertzberger playing for the vines

Bill Wertzberger is the solitary person behind the Wertzberger Wine label. Between time spent fulfilling his duties as the assistant winemaker at F. Teldeschi Winery in Sonoma County’s Dry Creek Valley, Bill makes a scant few hundred cases of wine each year under his own label. While most micro-wine producers have the bulk of the work done by contract wineries, Bill does all the winemaking duties, either single-handed or with the help of friends and family. Some of his wine is produced from small vineyards where Bill does the farming in exchange for a share of the grapes. He has actually produced wine where he personally did every step from planting the vines to gluing the labels onto the bottles.

Bill was born and raised along with six sisters and three brothers in Dubuque, Iowa. “It’s a great place to grow up or raise a family,” says Bill, “but I didn’t appreciate those things when I was 18, so I left as soon as possible.” That meant joining the Army. “I tell people that I ended up in California because it was the last stop on my all-expenses-paid world tour. My uncle paid for everything!” The benefactor being Uncle Sam, of course. After leaving his last military assignment at the Presidio of San Francisco, Bill worked on the Options Floor of the Pacific Stock Exchange, starting as a runner for the Exchange and leaving a trade-checking business in the hands of three of his former employees 18 years later.

“I never made a fortune there, but I’ve always been the kind of guy who was more concerned about making a living while doing something interesting. San Francisco was a great place when I was 25, but when I hit my 40s Sonoma County seemed like the place to be and my wife Robin and I bought a house in Cloverdale in 2001.”

Bill soon started working part time in winery tasting rooms in the area and began making garage wine with his next-door neighbor.

“I had retail experience from working at Val de Cole Wines in my SF neighborhood in the 80s, but I’m still very grateful to the first people to take a chance and hire me, like Ron Hayes, then at Dry Creek Vineyards and now with Merry Edwards, Josie Gay - who took me on when she worked for Fritz Winery, and Bernadette Byrne, then retail manager for McDowell Valley Vineyards and now the proprietor of the best and most unique tasting room in Mendocino County, Sip! in Hopland.”

Later on, Bill worked for Foppiano Winery and learned the ropes concerning large-scale wine production during a stint doing production at Asti Winery.

“Asti is the old Italian-Swiss Colony, now owned by Beringer. We dealt with 40,000 barrels; Chateau St. Jean, Souverain, Cellar #8, all labels owned by Beringer; plus HUGE tanks of White Zinfandel. Much different than what I’m working with at Teldeschi! And the Foppianos were the greatest people to work for! It was hard to leave there to go and work for Dan (Teldeschi) but the opportunity he gave me to produce my own label cemented the deal.”

2009 was the fifth harvest for Wertzberger Wines. Bill is usually at Teldeschi Winery Mon-Fri and you are welcome to stop by and visit between noon and 5 p.m. 3555 Dry Creek Road (at the corner of Lambert Bridge Road) just a few miles west of Healdsburg, CA 95448. Ph: 707-433-6626