The Orin Swift story starts in 1995 when, on a whim, David Swift Phinney understandably took a friend up on an offer to spend a term studying in Florence.During that time, he was introduced to wine and how it was made, and he got hooked. After graduating in 1997, he took a temporary harvest job at the iconic Robert Mondavi winery. Harvest is not an easy job, and David quickly decided that if he was going to work this hard, it should eventually be for himself. in 1998, he founded Orin Swift Cellars with two tons of zinfandel, a disruptive approach to labels and marketing and not much else. Today, Orin Swift is owned by California icons E&J Gallo. Still, David remains at the helm, disregarding the traditions of terroir and site-specific bottlings in favour of simply procuring the best grapes to make the most drinkable blends and putting them in bottles that really stand out.