ABOUT THE WINE
On a day to day basis we meet all sorts of people in San Francisco. As Dimitri was stocking wine in the family's Noriega Store one afternoon this gentleman walks up to him and starts talking wine. The gentleman happened to be Barry Gnekow and the Noriega store at the time was stocking 7 different wines that Barry had a hand in making. Not only did the Vardakastanis' family like Barry's work, but our customers did as well. We knew that if we were going into the wine making business we needed Barry on our side. Without his experience and knowledge of the wine world Varda Vineyards would not be here today.
ABOUT THE WINEMAKER
Barry Gnekow, is a UC Davis graduate, and has over 30 years experience in the wine industry, most notably with J. Lohr where he created the J. Lohr Estate wines. Most recently Barry has worked successfully on all of the Hahn Family Wines brands with the numerous accolades and medals garnered by his wines through the years. Barry is considered to be one of California’s most decorated winemakers.
ABOUT THE VARDAKASTANIS FAMILY
The Vardakastanis family has been in involved in the retail/grocery business in San Francisco since 1976. The family comes from a small island in Greece, where farming and agriculture was the way of life for our family since the 1700’s. The family immigrated to San Francisco for a better life but still had the desire to continue the family tradition. Once the opportunity came to grow our own grapes and produce our families wine, we knew it was a calling to keep our family tradition going.
We hope that you enjoy our wine as much as we enjoy creating them for you.
Dimitri Vardakastanis
Dimitri's been involved in the grocery business since he was 15 years old. As he looked into expanding the selection of products for the business he found specific interest in the wine business. After taking some classes and going to numerous tastings he soon realized that this is not just a way to drink good wine all time, but something he wanted to put focus on within his own business career. Running the day to day operations gave him the idea that people not only wanted local produce, but other local products to pair with them. What better item to pair all your local ingredients with than wine.
Today Dimitri's involvement in growing the family's businesses and creating Varda Vineyards is a dream come true. When not working on any of those things he enjoys spending time with his family and rooting for anything SAN FRANCISCO!
Bobby Vardakastanis
Bobby Vardakastanis joined the family business at 20 years old. He remembers the days where he took the bus with his grandfather to the store early in the morning when he was a young boy. Always loved to work, talk to customers, try all the seasonal fruits & veggies, it was inevitable that one day he will join the family business. He always liked quality and that’s what he wanted to give to his customers, quality items that are locally sourced. His brother got him into tasting wine, and when the opportunity came to give the customer a quality wine with all of the values that he respects, he was all over it. 100% controlled by us from the vines to the bottle, from his family vineyard to your family table. Enjoy!