Larry Stone Leaves Rubicon for Evening Land

Larry Stone, Master Sommelier and, up until recently, the managing director of Rubicon Estate (nee Niebaum Coppola) in the Napa Valley, will be starting a new job soon as general manager at Evening Land in Oregon's Willamette Valley.

Mr. Stone, who for years was the sommelier at the Rubicon restaurant in San Francisco before leaving to work for Francis Ford Coppola in 2006, starts his new job next week. He is to be the general manager of Evening Land, which makes Pinot Noir and Chardonnay from the Seven Springs Vineyard in Oregon’s Willamette Valley and from the Occidental, Carl Myers and Two Daughters Vineyards in California’s Sonoma Coast AVA and the Siren’s Call, One Tree Hill, Bloomsfield and Memorious Vineyards in the Santa Rita Hills.

He will oversee day-to-day operations at Evening Land and will work with winemaker Dominique Lafon (of Domaine Dujac in Burgundy) who serves as a consultant on the Willamette Valley wines and who will soon be producing Evening Land wines in Burgundy. Mr. Stone will also continue his ventures producing his own label, Sirita.

Evening Land is the brainchild of Mark Tarlov, a creative businessman from outside the wine industry who has been coming up with some new paradigms when it comes to developing his wine business. A movie producer, director, and film contract negotiator who once wrote speeches for U.S. Supreme Court Justice Warren Berger, Mr. Tarlov is also a lifelong fan of Burgundy and Pinot Noir.