Lookout Ridge winery is perched above the Valley of the Moon on fifty acres in the Mayacamas mountain range that forms one side of the Sonoma Valley. From there proprietor Gordon Holmes presides over his domain nestled amongst the California wineries and oversees his Wine for Wheels program. The wines he creates are not the work of one talented viticulturist, but the work of many as Holmes enlists the creative expertise of numerous local talented winemakers to create his offerings. But what makes his premium, small volume wine productions even more noteworthy than the local stars which had a hand in their creation is the fact that the sales of those bottles are designed to support the purchasing of wheelchairs for those in need of them but are unable to afford them.
Holmes is intent on making some of the finest wine possible, and by doing so he is then able to command the hundred dollar price tags on his Lookout Ridge labels, each of which highlights the involvement of the star vintner involved in the creation of that wine. But making great wine is only a mechanism to facilitate his efforts toward making an even greater contribution to society. With each $100 bottle of premium wine that Holmes sells, one complete wheelchair gets sponsored and delivered to some underprivileged person in need through the non-profit organization, the Wheelchair Foundation, located in Danville California. The wheelchairs are purchased in such volumes that the organization is able to acquire them at $150 each and have given away almost three-quarters of a million wheelchairs since the foundation began in 2000.
Holmes came to appreciate the life-altering prospects of wheelchairs after his wife Kari, contracted Multiple Sclerosis ten years ago. Around that time Holmes sold off his two investment magazines and with the funds from those sales, as well as other financial dealings, he has the luxury of running his Sonoma Valley winery with purpose rather than for profit. Holmes acknowledges that there is great satisfaction in being able to so positively impact the lives of others by offering mobility and independence to those who would otherwise never have the hope of such; the life altering change is dramatic and the transformation is instantaneous. Gordon Holmes knows the blessings that he has been afforded in life and they serve to contrast the misfortune of others. And with that knowledge he is intent on continuing to transform the lives of as many people as he can through his Wine for Wheels program. He sees his vineyard as being able to produce even more world-class wine with the help of the best winemakers, and with those efforts he intends on making greater inroads toward improving the lives of many more of the one hundred million people who would welcome gaining some mobility, independence and a little bit of happiness from his good work around his vineyard.
