A new future for an historic vineyard.

Back in 2008, Applegate Red Winery's Frank Ferreira died unexpectedly, right in the middle of harvest. Winemakers from throughout the region showed up, and helped the Ferreira family bring in the grapes. After all, Frank was beloved and famed for his extraordinary wines.

Enter Scott and Krissa Fernandes. When they stepped in pick up the reins, they found a gorgeous 80-acre property with 30 acres of grapes, a half hour's drive into the hills outside of Jacksonville.

They wanted to pursue their own dreams producing of fabulous limited-run estate wines from a vineyard growing small lots of high quality fruit. But in keeping with Frank's approach ("I'm a wine grower, not a wine maker!", he would say), they focus their efforts on making wines with a pure expression of the fruit, not a lot of winemaker fussiness.

They named it Serra Vineyards because Serra means "view from a high place" in Portuguese, a nod to Scott's heritage. But it is also a nod to Father Junipero Serra, the missionary who established the first wineries in North America.