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WINEMAKING TECHNICAL REVIEW Thomas George Estates winery is located in the renovated space of what was previously the Davis Bynum winery in the Russian River Valley AVA. From Black Mold to Premium Pinot Thomas George Estates rebuilds the pioneering Davis Bynum property OR By Andrew Adams as he worked to open Thomas George Estates winery. S The difficult parts? He certainly counts the two cave-ins and blasting through solid bedrock for a cave project that went from simple to slightly maddening. "With caves there's no certainty. You don't know what you're going to find until you start digging," he said. What Baker found was an arduous excavation, but one that finally came to an end in 2010. The cave project was the last piece in a multi-million-dollar rebuild on the site of what had been the Davis Bynum winery located on Westside Road 48 Wines & Vines FeBRUARY 2012 andblasting black mold off the walls, laying down new floors and essentially building a modern winery on the site of an old one—these were the easy jobs for Jeremy Baker CALIFORNIA Mendocino Thomas George Estates Pacific Ocean Santa Rosa Napa CALIFORNIA San Francisco NV largest firms and later as the owner of his own firm. Thomas Baker passed along a passion for wine to his son, who nurtured it while running his own restaurant business and later as he worked with a wine-distribution company traveling the world's wine regions. Jeremy Baker's thirst for wine knowledge led him to the Russian River Valley, and there the Bakers decided they wanted to craft world-class Pinot Noir. Jeremy Baker is now president and near Healdsburg, Calif., in the Russian River Valley of Sonoma County. The name of the winery comes from Jeremy's father Thomas and Thomas's father George. Thomas Baker decided to enter the wine industry after a lengthy career in law, specializing in mergers and acquisitions for one of Canada's chief operating officer of the winery that saw its fourth vintage this past harvest and produces 8,000 cases with 65% of total sales coming from the direct-to-consumer channel. The winery specializes in producing estate Pinot Noir and Chardonnay in the $30 to $50 price range