
Andy Peay
Sales, Marketing, Everything Else
In the spring of 1995, brothers Andy and Nick got to know one another listening to old jazz records and brewing beer in Andy’s in-law apartment in Berkeley. Nick would bring the wine for dinner and Andy, since he was trying to figure out if maybe he wanted to be a professional chef, would cook. One evening while washing down a bite of lamb with a perfectly paired cool climate Syrah, Andy’s brain lit up like a Christmas tree. Forget life as a chef. Wine! A life in wine is the future.
Prior to that time, Andy had received his BA from Dartmouth College in 1992 and spent a few years on Wall Street as a financial analyst. After leaving banking by way of trekking through Southeast Asia for a year, Andy studied economic development at UC Berkeley. After his wine epiphany that spring, Andy traveled to various wine regions and enrolled in the OIV Wine Marketing Summer Session at UC Davis. He continued to pursue his interest in wine by working the 1995 harvest at Cain Vineyards in Napa. By this time, Andy was hooked and moved to San Francisco to learn about the retail end of wine at The Jug Shop. During that time, Andy and Nick searched for land to grow cool climate Chardonnay, Pinot noir and Syrah. They purchased their land on the Sonoma Coast in November of 1996.
Starting a vineyard and winery from scratch is no small undertaking so while looking for an ideal vineyard site and preparing to plant, Andy received an MBA from the Haas School of Business, UC Berkeley. Upon graduation, Nick and Andy planted the first 30 acres in 1998. The isolation of the Coast proved to be hard and cash was getting low so Andy moved back to San Francisco to get a job to help pay for the money hungry vineyard up north. In 2004, Andy returned full-time to Peay Vineyards to run the business and sell the wine. Andy feels very lucky to share a vision for making timeless, evocative wines with intelligent, hard-working winegrowers who also happen to be his brother and sister-in-law.
"My job is to get the unique wines from this foggy hilltop into the world."



Winegrower
UC Davis-trained and veteran Santa Cruz mountains winemaker, Nick Peay, is the vineyard manager and works side-by-side with our full-time crew of 8 workers.