Greg Hamilton is the winemaker at Hamilton Wines in Kenwood, Sonoma Valley, CA. He and Lindsay met in Glasgow, Scotland, where Greg was working as a wine merchant. After marrying and moving to California, they began making wine in a Berkeley garage in 2011.
In 2016, they moved to Sonoma Valley and began building their winery. Their home was destroyed in the 2017 Sonoma fires, but they remained committed to the region. Today, Hamilton Family Wines is a small, family-owned winery focused on Sonoma wines, hospitality, and connection.
Media Inquiries: Marianna Correia mana@teamchicexecs.com | https://hamilton.wine/
What’s the ONE THING most unique, authentic, & memorable about your brand?
Our wine was born from fire. After several years as home winemakers, we moved to Sonoma in 2016 with a small vineyard and plans to eventually launch Hamilton Family Wines. Fourteen months later, we lost our home in the 2017 wildfires. A few weeks afterward, we decided to pursue our dream. Our first vintage was 2018, and we launched in 2019 with 400 cases.
We focus on minimal intervention, native fermentation, and vegan-friendly practices, using organically grown fruit selected from Sonoma vineyards for specific varieties and wine styles.
We are also building a more complete wine-country experience. Our property includes a two-bedroom vacation rental in a historic Carriage House that survived the fire, along with a tasting room opened in 2022. We are expanding the tasting room into Hamilton Family Wines, Kitchen, and Mercantile, offering Scottish-inspired food made with California ingredients and products from local makers. We also partner with Pushpak Wine Country Tours on guided e-trike tours through Kenwood and the surrounding wine country, ending with a tasting at our tasting room.
For us, wine is ultimately about bringing people together around the table and connecting them with the land, food, and community behind the bottle.
Describe how and what you’d do with your winemaking career or winery business if you were not constrained.
Honestly, there’s not much we would change. We never wanted to build a large corporate winery; our goal is to reach 2,500–3,000 cases while maintaining our minimal-intervention, native winemaking approach.
We are expanding our vineyard holdings, with five acres in Glen Ellen and another two acres in Bennett Valley. By next year, about 80% of our production will come from vineyards we farm ourselves, giving us greater control from vineyard to bottle. Our long-term goal is regenerative organic farming, perhaps with the help of a few Babydoll sheep.
If money were no object, we’d also expand the Carriage House rental and hire someone to handle the paperwork so I could spend more time doing what I enjoy most: tasting wine with our guests.
What is the One Wine most emblematic of your brand and/or winemaking style? Tell us its story.
For me, it’s our GSM—Grenache, Syrah, and Mourvèdre. Growing up in Scotland and spending time in France, I developed an appreciation for Rhône wines early on. I still remember a family wine-tasting trip to the Rhône when I was about 15 or 16. At a small, unassuming farm, an old French winemaker poured us wine from a makeshift barrel-top bar. The second wine he poured changed everything for me. I wanted to understand the alchemy that turns grapes into wine.
Our 2023 GSM, from Windsor Oaks Vineyard in the Chalk Hill appellation, is my attempt to recreate that experience. The blend is 50% Grenache, 25% Syrah, and 25% Mourvèdre, aged entirely in neutral oak to preserve the fruit and tannin balance. It’s a mid-weight, food-friendly red that rewards lingering over, but is equally enjoyable on its own. Read my review of this exceptional GSM.
Bonus Question: What are your wholehearted convictions related to the wine business?
I believe wine has a unique ability to connect people and bring together those who might otherwise disagree. One of the things I love most about my job is that when people gather around a table and share wine, they share an experience. I honestly believe a lot of the world’s problems could be helped by getting people together over a great bottle of wine.
I also believe we need to do a better job of wine education. Too many people leave tasting rooms feeling intimidated or embarrassed because they don’t know enough. That misses the point. Wine is endlessly fascinating—history, culture, biology, agriculture, art—but a little basic knowledge can give people the confidence to understand what’s in their glass and make their own choices.
I’m also a strong believer in teaching young adults about responsible drinking rather than leaving them to figure it out on their own. In much of Europe, wine is part of the culture and people grow up understanding regions and varieties. We could benefit from more of that approach here.
If we want the next generation to appreciate wine, we need to invite them into the conversation, not make them feel like they’re taking a test.