"Obstreperous, difficult, arcane," as his wife later described his reputation, Martin Ray — known as Rusty — was the son of a fiery prohibitionist minister. He learned wine at Paul Masson's Mountain Winery in Saratoga, between San Jose and Santa Cruz, and went on to buy the original Masson vineyards. In the forties, Ray became a vocal advocate for creating 100 percent varietal wines in California, and in so doing sparked a wine revolution in a region then better known for pasty pseudo-wines sold under dubious marketing labels
