Martin Ray Proprietor: Courtney Benham

Courtney Benham was raised in California's Great San Joaquin Valley. As a third generation native, at an early age he developed a deep respect for the land: its promise, and its care. He worked summers in his father's vineyards and almond orchards, tilling, irrigating, tending, and harvesting. It was during these long summer days that he began to dream of building his own wine business.

After graduating from the University of California at Berkeley in the early 1980s,  Courtney worked for his father's winery, in the heart of the Sacramento Delta. For eight years he worked in all departments of the winery, from sales and distribution to management and production. In 1990, after discovering 1,500 cases of Martin Ray library wines in an old warehouse in San Jose, Courtney decided to contact the Ray family and was able to purchase the Martin Ray label. Courtney has spent the last 15 years dedicating his time and skills to producing wines whose quality would make Martin Ray himself proud.

The Artist Behind Our Wines: Bryan Davison, Martin Ray Winemaker

The success behind our wines is the skilled and intuitive talent of our winemaker, Bryan Davison. Bryan received his B.S. degree in Chemistry from the University of California, Santa Barbara in 1980. Shortly after college, he began his career in the wine industry in 1981, working for the next thirteen years in Chateau St. Jean's Sparkling Wine division. For the past nine years, Bryan has specialized as a winemaker for custom wine production, and supervised the winemaking at Pacific Wine Partners in Graton, California.

Today Bryan and his team are dedicated to producing high quality wines sourced from premium fruit for Martin Ray Winery, as well as overseeing our custom crush facility. Bryan embraces a fundamental winemaking technique that makes our wines successful: blending only reliable components to achieve a truly pleasing outcome. Bryan carries out the method of intuitive winemaking by creating the perfect conditions in which a wine's essence can unfold naturally. This time-honored approach depends completely upon the winemaker's ability to know when to step in and when to let nature take its course. Our winemaker selects only the finest grapes from vineyards primarily throughout the Russian River Valley and Napa Valley appellations. His expertise and incomparable winemaking techniques have allowed us to produce exceptional fine wines that make us at Martin Ray Winery proud.

Bryan's Keys to Success

• The grapes: Selecting fruit from premium vineyards in the Russian River Valley, Napa Valley, Santa Cruz Mountains and Sonoma County.


• The growers: Working with growers to insure the best possible vineyard practices; including pruning, irrigation patterns, pest and bacterial treatment and harvest scheduling.


• Winemaking: Meticulous care throughout the entire winemaking process from the crushing of the grapes to the bottling of the wine. Using the fines French and American oak barrels and stainless steel tanks. And, a passion and commitment to make great wine.

Assistant Director of Winemaking: Bill Batchelor

Bill Batchelor received his BA degree in Anthropology from Sonoma State University in 1992.  He began his career in the wine industry in 1996 working as a seasonal cellar hand at Preston Vineyards in Dry Creek Valley .  Bill soon moved on to work at Associated Vintage Group in Graton.  Starting in the cellar and quickly moving up to manage the hard cider program, Bill learned the fundamentals of winemaking in a fast-paced custom production environment.

Bill spent 6 years at Graton managing custom-winemaking for a diverse portfolio of clients. In October of 2001, as Pacific Wine Partners assumed ownership of the Graton facility, Bill concentrated his efforts on managing wine production for the rapidly growing Blackstone brand. In July of 2002, Bill accepted a position to set up and manage winemaking at Blackstone's new reserve crush facility in Sonoma Valley .

In July 2003, Bill joined the new team that Courtney Benham put together, bringing his experience managing wine production to his new position as Assistant Director of Winemaking and Production Manager for Martin Ray Winery.

Assistant Winemaker/Cellarmaster: Rhonda Miles
Rhonda began her career in the wine industry in 1980, working for the next 14 years in Chateau St. Jean's Sparkling Wine division in the Cellar Department. For the next 9 years following, Rhonda was the Cellarmaster for a custom wine production facility producing 1.2 million cases. She supervised all cellar processes, as well as managed the barrel program for a vast amount of clients.

In July 2003, Rhonda joined a new team and brought her dedication to creating quality wines and expertise in customer relations to her new position as Assistant Winemaker/Cellarmaster for Martin Ray Winery.