J. Douglas (Doug) Meador is a Washington State transplant—arriving in the California wine industry in early 1972. Raised in an agricultural family in Washington, he was well indoctrinated in cattle, wheat, and—most specifically—apples and other tree fruits during a time of radical change in the world tree-fruit industry. His formal education was at the University of Washington in mathematics and econometrics. His next nearly seven years were spent as a naval officer and aviator, drawing two combat tours in Vietnam flying from aircraft carriers and exchange flying with the Marines and Air Force.
In early 1972, Mr. Meador was headed home to be "an apple baron" but was induced first to install about 2,500 acres of vineyards in Monterey County—and then "go home." He quickly became fascinated with the industry—primarily with the problems of cold climate viticulture and winemaking— and never left. He shortly thereafter, acquired the property known since as "Ventana" and embarked on an over 30-year journey of research and exploration affecting world viticultural thought and practices in the process. Among the many areas of Mr. Meador's pioneering work are:
varietal identification and clonal isolation
vine physiology with operational theory
basal leaf removal
vineyard design—close vine spacing and the vertical shoot system, as well as split-canopy trellising
root-stock studies and "own roots" study
low and no sulfur dioxide use in winemaking
introduction of malo-lactic fermentation in white wines to American winemaking
planting of America's first plantation of French barrel oak trees
achieved 26 consecutive years of Gold Medal Wines from our Chardonnay grapes and 28 consecutive years of Gold Medal Wines from our Riesling grapes.
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