Sean Haley Thackrey (July 9, 1942 – May 30, 2022) was an American winemaker based in the town of Bolinas in Marin County, California.
[6] His father, Eugene, worked as a journalist and playwright; his mother, Winfrid "Kay" Knudtson, was employed as a script supervisor in Hollywood.
[7][8] Starting in 1959, Thackrey studied art history at Reed College in Portland, Oregon, where he was taught by Lloyd J. Reynolds.
[5] Some early problems with Lactobacillus led Thackrey to take extension courses at the University of California, Davis College of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences, although he stated he had little use for the scientific approach to winemaking.
Thackrey was uncertain what grape varieties were in the field blend, and vineyard tests by researchers at UC Davis were inconclusive.
[5] First released in 1992, The Pleiades (Sean Thackrey Pleiades California Red Table Wine) was an experimental nonvintage blend made from a host of different grape varieties (potentially both white and red, including Barbera, Carignan, Syrah, Pinot noir, Zinfandel, Mourvèdre and Grenache), potentially from various regions and vintages.
[11][19] Having collected ancient wine texts since 1996, the oldest document is a sixth-century papyrus receipt for grapevines written in Greek.
[18] A converted military bunker warehouse at Mare Island near Vallejo, California, was set ablaze by an arsonist on October 12, 2005, resulting in a loss of nearly 4,000 cases of Thackrey's wine.
[22] 500 cases (45 hl) of Thackrey's wine were later recovered,[23][24] in an event that resulted in the loss of 6 million bottles owned by 43 collectors and 92 various Napa Valley wineries, many of whom lost their entire stock.