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David R. Bennion was a Stanford Engineer and California winery owner who served chief winemaker at Ridge Vineyards from 1959 to 1969. From an early period, Bennion labeled Ridge Vineyards wines by vineyard, district, appellation and varietal rather than generically. This is now the standard for New World Cabernet Sauvignon wines.

In Bennion started as a Stanford Research Institute (SRI) engineer.

In 1959, Bennion purchased a vineyard site in the Santa Cruz Mountains from theologian William Short and produced a quarter-barrel of Cabernet Sauvignon later that year. The partners had intended to sell the grapes from the property, but the quality of wines in 1960 and 1961, inspired the partners to re-bond the winery in time to produce a 1962 Cabernet Sauvignon.

who became the first winemaker of Ridge Vineyards, Cupertino, California with fellow SRI colleagues, Hewitt Crane, Charles Rosen and Howard Zeidler.

Bennion made several contributions. ‘He was the first winemaker at Ridge Vineyards, making the first 1962 Monte Bello Cabernet Sauvignon. He made the first Ridge zinfandel in 1964, from a small nineteenth-century vineyard on the nearby Picchetti ranch. This was followed in 1966 by the first Geyserville Zinfandel, according to San Jose Mercury News. By making single-vineyard Zinfandels—Sonoma, Santa Cruz, Lodi, Paso Robles—he showed that zinfnadel can express terroir. In 1967 Dave Bennion left SRI, completely, to become the first president and winemaker of Ridge. In 1969, Bennion hired Paul Draper to succeed him as winemaker. as president of Ridge in the 1980s. Bennion later died in an automobile accident on the Golden Gate Bridge. In 1976 a Napa winery would win, but Ridge placed fifth, at the Judgment of Paris cabernet sauvignon wine tasting.