About the winery
In 2001 Clayton Vineyards was Clayton Russell's 40 acres of Zinfandel in Lodi1. Its page on Web Winery said he had taken over the vines about 13 years earlier, when he bought a Lodi foundry that came with them. There were 15 acres of 80-year-old vines, the Old Block, dry-farmed on deep-rooted Hanford loam, and 25 acres of young Zinfandel, the Weston Block, planted in place of the Tokay vines that came with the property and named for his oldest grandson1.
Russell sold grapes to Fenestra and Retzlaff by 1998 and to Cline Cellars in 1999, and his old-vine Zinfandel won a Best of Show bronze at the New Orleans Wine and Food Experience in 2000, with his daughter Sondi beside him1. The page planned on 1,200 cases of Zinfandel and 800 of Petite Sirah from the Old Block, and 6,000 cases from the Weston Block by 20031.