Wine lovers note with sadness the passing of Gene Trefethen, the industrialist and philanthropist who bought the property that became the award-winning Trefethen Vineyards. He died last week in Napa Valley at age 86.
Although it was his son John Vance Trefethen and daughter Janet Spooner Trefethen who established the winery in 1973, it was the elder Trefethen--a former president of Kaiser Industries--who, in 1968, purchased and restored the historic Eschol Ranch, built in 1886, that would become Trefethen Vineyards.
