Fifty Years, Rooted in Family

Welcome to the Vino Farms Journal, our home for telling the family's story in our own words: where we have been, how we farm, and where we are headed. We are starting it in our fiftieth year so that our partners, our community, and the next generation always have a record of the people and values behind the vineyards.

In 1976, Vino Farms was about 1,200 acres of young vineyard on the Lodi flatlands and a family that believed California winegrapes were worth betting on. Fifty years later we farm more than 17,000 acres across ten California counties, from Lodi up to Sonoma and Napa, out to Monterey and the Central Coast, and into the Sacramento Delta, as well as Mendocino and Lake Counties. The work has grown a great deal. The family doing it has not changed.

As we celebrate our 50th year, we find ourselves looking back down the vineyard rows with deep gratitude; for the people, partnerships, and values that have brought us here.

It Started in the Dirt

The Ledbetter family has farmed in California for generations. Keith Ledbetter came home from World War II in 1945 and went back to work on the land. In the early 1970s he made the decision that started all of this. He moved the family out of row crops and into winegrapes, and he planted those first acres in Lodi, right as California wine was beginning to find its place in the world.

The Next Generation

John and Jim Ledbetter

Keith started the vineyard business, and shortly after Jim graduated from Fresno State he was working side by side with his father. When Keith was ready to step back at the end of the 1970s, his sons John and Jim took over. John came into the business in Lodi in 1978, at his father's invitation, and he always said it was the best move he ever made. Together the brothers grew Vino Farms from a single Lodi vineyard into a company that farms across ten counties, and they did it the way their father taught them. With trust, with their word, and with the belief that a good partnership is worth more than a good season. They were not only growing grapes, but becoming leaders at the state and local levels. They helped build the Lodi Rules for Sustainable Winegrowing, the first third-party certified sustainability program of its kind in the country, and Vino Farms was one of the original farms to earn that certification. It set a standard the whole region still farms by today.

Still Farming Forward

The same thinking that made Vino Farms an early believer in sustainable farming is still at work today. From Lodi to Napa, Sonoma, Paso Robles, Monterey, and beyond, we cultivate vineyards using organic, biodynamic, and sustainable farming practices, tailoring our approach to each site's climate, soils, and certifications. Our focus is always the same: producing exceptional fruit while caring for the land for future generations. Fifty years in, we are still asking the question we asked back in the 1970s. What is the better way to farm this land for the people who will farm it after us?

The Same Family

The third generation of Ledbetters works these vineyards now, alongside the viticulturists, the area managers, and the crews whose hands have kept this place running for half a century. The name on the gate is the same. So is the way we do things.

John Ledbetter, one of the brothers who built this company, liked to say that "Lodi has gone from being the Tokay capital of the world to the largest source of premium grapes in the United States." We are proud to have been part of that story, and prouder still of the one we are still writing.

Rooted in family. Growing for the future.

To every winery partner, landowner, employee, and family member who has been part of these fifty years, thank you. You are the reason 1976 became 2026.

Here is to the next fifty.

With gratitude,

The Vino Farms Family