Ric Forman

The Path

The early technical base came at Sterling Vineyards, where Ric Forman worked as winemaker from 1969–1978. He then moved to Newton Vineyards as winemaker from 1978–1982, and followed with a stint at Merryvale as winemaker from 1983–1985. Alongside those cellar roles, he also became co-founder at Abreu Vineyards Management and co-founder at Abreu Vineyards, adding ownership and planning to work that was already rooted in production. The throughline is consistency: each title reflects the same practical attention to craft, carried across different sites and years. The roles shift, but the method remains centered on wine as a made object, shaped by repetition, judgment, and follow-through. Ric Forman’s path moves in sequence, with each stop reinforcing the style and discipline that would later define Forman Vineyard.

The Work Today

At the Napa Valley, California winery he founded, the focus remains on Cabernet Sauvignon and Chardonnay, grapes that fit a style built around precision and balance. Ric Forman has described the approach without decoration: “A philosophy of winemaking which follows more a traditional approach as opposed to technological appealed to me early in my career.” That preference reads as a working principle rather than a slogan: keep the method grounded, let the wine carry the imprint of considered restraint. The winery itself extends that same logic into the built environment. Ric Forman has said, “I would say that a familiarity with European tradition has seriously influenced my style and hence the fashion with which I designed and built my winery.” In that sense, the place and the wines are part of the same practice. The design is not separate from the cellar work; it is another expression of the same measured, tradition-aware approach.

Signature

Ric's signature wines include 1983 Cabernet Sauvignon, First Forman Vineyard Chardonnay, and 1974 Sterling Reserve. Each name points to a different part of the same body of work: the first years at Forman Vineyard, a Chardonnay tied directly to the estate, and an earlier reserve from Sterling that marks the beginning of the archive. Read together, they map a career built through specific bottlings and steady repetition, with lineage carried forward in the glass.

In Their Words “I founded Forman Vineyard in 1983 to fulfill a dream of producing, as a sole proprietor, small quantities of classically made Chardonnay and Cabernet Sauvignon.” “I would say that a familiarity with European tradition has seriously influenced my style and hence the fashion with which I designed and built my winery.”