At just five years old, Harry Merlo Sr. began his journey in the wine industry, stomping grapes with his feet beneath the railroad tracks in the Italian section of Stirling City, California. His father, Giuseppe Merlo, an Italian immigrant known as the wine steward of the High Sierra lumber town, would place a washtub on the woodshed floor, dump in a 50-pound lug of zinfandel grapes, and young Harry would eagerly stomp away. Harry often jokes that his years in wine qualify him as a true connoisseur—thanks to his permanently purple feet.

The family tradition flourished when Harry acquired his own vineyard near Geyserville, California, in 1965. By the mid-1960s, he delivered his first truckload of grapes to the Italian Swiss Colony Winery, receiving a receipt priced at $50 per ton after weighing his truck.

This passion for winemaking extended to the next generation, with Harry’s son, Harry Jr., pursuing viticulture and enology at California State University, Fresno. After graduation, Harry Jr. took the reins as Manager of Lago di Merlo Vineyards & Winery at the family’s Merlo Ranch in Sonoma County.

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