Gold in Your Backyard

Ron Rubin has had a storied career as an entrepreneur.

He started out working in his father’s alcohol beverage distribution business, Central Wholesale Liquor Co. in Mount Vernon, Illinois. Life was good. In 1994, 22 years later, Ron purchased The Republic of Tea and promptly turned it into a model of innovation and a leader in the world of premium teas. But that was just the beginning.

Back in 1971, Ron spent a year studying viticulture and enology at U.C. Davis, and right there his life dream was born: to one day have his own vineyard and winery in California Wine Country. In 2011, he made that dream come true: he purchased a small winery in Sonoma County and built it into the River Road Family Vineyards and Winery, today a Certified B Corporation meeting the highest standards of performance, accountability, environmental protection, and social responsibility.

A firm believer in Giving Back, in 2006 Ron endowed and set in motion the creation of The Ron Rubin School for the Entrepreneur, at Culver Academies in Culver, Indiana. In 2022, Ron received an Honorary Doctorate in Humane Letters from Sonoma State University. After suffering a serious heart episode, he launched “Trained For Saving Lives,” a ground-breaking program aimed at equipping Sonoma County’s 450 wineries with CPR-trained staff capable of handling sudden cardiac arrest and equipped with life-saving AEDs, Automated External Defibrillators.

Ron and his wife Pam have two grown children and live in St. Louis, Missouri.