Obituaries

W. Rockwell (Rocky) Wirtz, who led Wirtz Beverage as it morphed of Breakthru Beverage Group, has died after a brief illness. He was 70 years old. Wirtz Beverage, which began in 1945, was part of Wirtz Corp., which began in 1926 as a real estate company, owning and managing more

Mitchell Katz, 59, owner of Mitchell Katz Winery, Livermore, Calif., was killed in a Friday afternoon crash. Katz had founded his winery in 1998 to honor his grandfather who made hand-crafted wines.  The winery produced single-vineyard wines that capture the essence of each vineyard, its website says.

Michael Benedict is a renowned botanist and vineyard pioneer who changed Santa Barbara County's wine industry. He was  83 of melanoma.  He co-founded Sanford & Benedict Vineyard in 1971.  You can read a profile here.   Don St. Pierre Sr., who won fame with importer and distributor ASC Fine

Sir Ivan Menezes, CEO of Diageo for the past decade, died Wednesday after a brief illness. He was 64. Menezes was present at the creation of Diageo plc, and over 25 years crafted Diageo to become "one of the best performing, most trusted and respected consumer companies," Javier

Clarke began writing about wine, food and travel in 1984 when he founded Foothill Wine Press, which evolved into the California Wine Press, In 1993, he created California Wine and Food, a print magazine that later became an Internet publication. More recently he published Taste California Travel and Taste Washington

In 1973, John C. Cushman III, along with five friends, established Zaca Mesa as the third winery in all of Santa Barbara County. The winery gained prominence in 1978 when it became the first to plant Syrah in Santa Barbara County, and was instrumental in launching the Santa Barbara Rhône

In 1951, Alfred G. Scheid hitchhiked out of the coal mining town of Bridgeport, Ohio, with $42 in his pocket.  After jobs in a steel mill and a coal factory, joined the Navy and, with the Korean War raging. was stationed at Los Alamitos Naval Air Station in Southern California.

His wife's parents owned Larkmead Vineyards, a 150-acre estate in Napa Valley. When Katharine (Kate) Solari's parents passed away in 1993, Cam and Kate, who had married in 1961, became the proprietors and took great pride and joy in reestablishing Larkmead Vineyards as a historic and

He was born in Jera, Italy, and working as an architect when he moved to the U.S. at age 29 in 1979, settled in Sonoma County.  He became a cook at The Villa, an Italian restaurant in Santa Rosa owned by his uncle, for 12 years. In 1994, he

He served as international director of marketing from 1988 to 2008.  He was a key player in reviving FIVS, as well as other wine-related bodies including the World Wine Trade Group.