Chris where he is most commonly found

Chris Bilbro puts his life into his wine. As a child, growing up in his great aunt Marietta’s kitchen and garden, Chris learned to make the most with very little. While the presentation was simple, the food was always hearty and handmade, the portions plentiful, and flavors exceptional. This standard still holds true today. Chris’s winery in many ways emulates the style of Marietta’s kitchen: just as Marietta wasn’t afraid of garlic and rosemary, Chris isn’t afraid of full and ripe flavors in his wines.

Any chance he gets, Chris is outside. Whether it is at his ranch in Yorkville hunting mushrooms and wild boar, abalone diving in the Pacific, salmon fishing in Alaska, or pheasant hunting in Montana, Chris is equally passionate about his outdoor activities as he is about his winemaking. Constantly restocking his freezers, Chris can provide a wild game cuisine to suit any of his wines, along with fresh vegetables from his garden, on a moment’s notice. With no formal training in winemaking, Chris found mentors in wine as well as in life through old

Chris in his glory...wild mushrooms in hand and strings of homemade sausage hanging behind him.

Italians the likes of Vic Berrizzi and Frank Pastori. Chris developed his style and “cut his teeth” making sausage with Vic, picking olives with Frank, and gardening and cooking with Marietta.

For Chris, winemaking is by no means a job and far more than just a passion. It is his lifestyle, his tradition, and his love. With three grandkids and three of his four boys already working for him, don’t be surprised in a few years to hear that Chris has stepped back a bit from Marietta Cellars and is living on a remote ridge top in Mendocino County making homemade wine for his friends, tending his garden, cutting wood for his woodstove, and cooking the same meals for his grandkids as his great aunt did for him many years before.