Grapes to Glass

Crafting Wines: My Wine Journey

Prequel: Rob Murray grows up on a family farm in the Central Valley. He attends Cal Poly San Luis Obispo and earns a degree in Agriculture Mgt. Rob begins his wine grape career in 1995 in Lodi planting 10k acres of wine grapes during the 90's grape boom. He later returns to the Central Coast in 1997 and starts his vineyard management company in 2001.

2004: In addition to running his vineyard management company, Rob and his partners begin to acquire vineyards, including Mossfire, Tolliver Ranch, and Armour Ridge. In 2008 Rob and his partners buy the Murmur Vineyard property and Rob plants it from the ground up.

2009: Rob suggests creating their own wine brand, using fruit from their own vineyards. They begin making the first wines starting with the 2010 vintage.

2010: Four distinct labels are conceived: Force of Nature (to be renamed Rabble), Tooth & Nail, Amor Fati, and Stasis. The labels will become renowned for their edgy historical designs.

2011: Tooth & Nail Wine Company is officially launched. The inaugural 2010 vintage wines are released, and a grand total of 35 cases are sold. Rob learns it's hard to sell wine.

2012: Tooth & Nail hires its first employee. Wine Warehouse becomes the California distributor, and case sales grow to 2,900 by the end of 2012. By the year 2020 Tooth & Nail Wine Company sell's 100k cases of wine through 3 tier and DTC. Tooth & Nail becomes the fastest growing winery in Wine Warehouse history in California.

2014: Tooth & Nail Wine Co acquires the former Eagle Castle winery on the west side of Paso Robles, which is upgraded and renamed the Tooth & Nail Winery. This is Tooth & Nail Wine Co’s transformation from a virtual brand to a “brick and mortar” winery. This opens up new DTC channels: tasting room, wine club, events, eCommerce and more. As with the wines and labels, the focus is on providing a unique, progressive experience.

2016: To accommodate the growth trajectory, the winery adds another processing building at the winery—increasing barrel storage capacity and adding a cased goods room and flex room.

2018: Tooth & Nail Wine Co becomes the first U.S.-owned winery to harness augmented reality technology, and the first to engage in the acceptance of over 400 cryptocurrencies. New wholesaler partnerships are formed with some of the leading companies in the nation.

2020: COVID is hard. Rob sells the Rabble Brand and develops the Tooth & Nail Squad Series to replace Rabble, and updated the TN Audubon Series, and Destinata.

2024: By 2024, Tooth & Nail Wine Company produces 45 different sku's of wines from $20 to $120 per bottle.

2025: In January Rob's winery ownership journey ends, not as expected and a new journey starts.

Rob has unique all around insight on the wine business from grape growing, to wine making, to branding, to sales and marketing.

Matt Heil

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