Cline Cellars began in 1982, when Fred Cline founded the winery in Oakley, working with historic Mourvèdre, Zinfandel, and Carignane vines from the early 1900s. In 1989, the family purchased a 350-acre former horse farm in Sonoma-Carneros—land that had earlier been a Miwok village and later the Poppe family’s 19th-century dairy and carp-farming operation—and moved the winery there two years later. Today, production spans both Sonoma sites and Oakley’s “ancient vines,” where 80- to 120-year-old Rhône and heritage varieties survive on original rootstock in phylloxera-resistant sand. Winemaking is led by Tom Gendall, who joined in 2017 and focuses on clean, sustainably farmed, site-driven wines.