El Dorado County vineyard manager making a difference
By Mike Dunne, Sacramento Bee
We wine writers devote entirely too much space to wines and the vintners who make them, not enough to grapes and the farmers who grow them.
Well, then, let’s catch up with Ron Mansfield, who farms 300 acres of wine grapes on and about Apple Hill in El Dorado County.
A big guy with a homespun drawl and laconic manner, Mansfield brings the sensitivity and precision of a bonsai artist to vines. As a consequence, on the short list of people responsible for El Dorado County’s standing as a fine-wine region he’s at or near the top.