Our Story: Ritch & Lehn
We met playing tennis in San Diego and fell in love over a mutual passion for gourmet food, wine, world travel and the pursuit of excellence!
In August 1989, the courtship thrived against the intrigue of founding Cafe Coyote Mexican Restaurant in Old Town San Diego. We lived over the restaurant for five years and nurtured it to ultimately become one of San Diego’s Landmark Restaurants and Relationships over the past 30 years!
One of our outlets during those challenging, yet formative, restaurant years was traveling to Northern California’s beautiful Wine Country to assimilate the food and wine Culture so prevalent there and the epicenter of the farm to table movement. There is where we further honed our knowledge and love of wine and food.
In July 2013, the ultimate success of Cafe Coyote and a daily AlaskaAir flight from San Diego to Sonoma afforded us the opportunity to acquire 70 prime acres in the Russian River Valley and dive headfirst into our lifelong dream together, of planting our very own Vineyard, making world class wines, building our brand and making a second life. This is where the birth of our second child, Rancho Coyote Vineyards & Winery came to fruition.
