A San Francisco teenager once rode his motorcycle up to Napa Valley, walked into a winery, and bought a bottle of Beaulieu Vineyard’s Georges de Latour Cabernet Sauvignon for around $3. That bottle retails for roughly $180 today. Tom Rinaldi, the founding winemaker at Duckhorn Vineyards and the figure most credited with elevating Merlot from blending material to serious varietal, died peacefully in his sleep at age 77. His death was described as unexpected by his daughter, Angelina Bigelow.
From Navy Aircrewman to Napa’s Unlikely Merlot Evangelist
A Vietnam-era vet who flew into typhoon eyes wound up reshaping what you order at dinner.
The path from Guam to Napa isn’t obvious, but Rinaldi walked it anyway. He enlisted in the Navy at 17, flying as an aircrewman into storm systems and working alongside the Army’s 101st Airborne Division.
Back stateside, he landed at Santa Rosa Junior College, initially aiming for medicine or veterinary science, before wine classes redirected everything. At UC Davis he studied oenology and viticulture, then apprenticed at Freemark Abbey, Rutherford Hill, and Round Hill. He later told Doug Shafer’s podcast: “I met a lot of miserable doctors and a lot of happy winemakers.”
Decision made. In 1978, a chance meeting with Dan Duckhorn — working on trees outside a nascent winery — ended with Rinaldi hired on the spot.
The Bet That Built a Category
Eight hundred cases of Merlot, one stubborn decision, and a grape that never looked back.
Duckhorn’s inaugural 1978 vintage produced 800 cases of Three Palms Vineyard Merlot and 800 cases of Cabernet Sauvignon under Rinaldi’s guidance. He initially proposed blending the two; Dan and Margaret Duckhorn pushed back, insisting on bottling the Merlot solo. Three Palms Vineyard Merlot was born from that argument. The first vintage contained roughly 15% Cabernet — a pragmatic blending call Rinaldi believed was essential to its early success.
In the 1970s, Napa ran on Cabernet. Merlot was support staff — blended in to soften edges, rarely given a solo spotlight. Rinaldi’s work helped ignite the American Merlot craze of the 1980s and 1990s, reshaping what consumers expected from California red wine. His approach — structured, age-worthy bottles built on balance rather than extraction — set a standard others chased for decades. In 2017, Wine Spectator named the 2014 Three Palms Merlot its Wine of the Year, a distinction vanishingly rare for the varietal. After leaving Duckhorn in 2000, he became founding winemaker at Provenance Vineyards and Hewitt Vineyard; his 2010 Hewitt Rutherford Cabernet ranked #4 in the world by Wine Spectator in 2013.
“He put Merlot on the map in the modern era… he was so generous with his time and advice for all of us.” — Doug Shafer, Shafer Vineyards
The man behind the wines wore a thick beard, Hawaiian shirts, and cargo shorts. Not exactly the polished Napa archetype. An avid cyclist and devoted San Francisco Giants fan, Rinaldi was — per his daughter — the kind of person who, wherever he went, just knew everybody. Even after formal retirement, he stayed active in Napa cellars, mentoring younger winemakers with what Shafer called an “incredibly forthcoming” generosity.
A Life Reviewed in Its Final Chapter
He was reading the last pages of his own biography when he died.
Rinaldi was married to Beverly Kinney for 43 years; she died in 2024. He is survived by his daughter Angelina and six grandchildren. In the months before his death, he had been collaborating with a writer on his biography, reviewing the final chapter shortly before he passed. The book is expected to be published soon.
“He led a beautiful life and I think he did everything he wanted to do. He took advantage of all the opportunities life gave him.” — Angelina Bigelow
Every pour of Three Palms Merlot in a Napa tasting room, every restaurant list that treats Merlot as a serious choice rather than a fallback, carries some trace of what Rinaldi built. That bottle didn’t pour itself.
