Casey Hartlip was a firefighter with the California Department of Forestry in 1977, when he met John Scharffenberger during a controlled burn at Scharffenberger's Eaglepoint Ranch in Mendocino County. When fire season was over that year, Hartlip helped out with the harvest, and two years later he signed on with the vineyard full time. When Scharffenberger founded his eponymous Anderson Valley winery in 1981 (he later sold it to a French company), Hartlip became the vineyard manager at Eaglepoint, which sits in the hills east of the Ukiah Valley.
 
Scharffenberger and his family had purchased the 1,250-acre ranch in 1973, and they planted the first Zinfandel vines there in 1975. Hartlip oversaw the expansion of the vineyard, which now encompasses 82 acres and seven grape varieties.

 

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