Californian winery DuMol has a worldwide following and its wines have been served in The White House for the last 12 to 14 years.

Still, its co-founder Kerry Murphy says times were not always so rosy for the winery, especially when it started out 17 years ago.

The 71-year-old says: "I had to twist my friends' arms to try our wine when we first started and they looked at me like I had made bathtub gin."

DuMol was founded in 1996 by Mr Murphy and Mr Michael Verlander, both friends, business partners and wine lovers who were keen to produce their own wines.

In the first year, they started with 300 cases, half syrah and half chardonnay.

These days, the winery is known for its harmonious, balanced fruit-driven wines and offers varietals, including chardonnay, pinot noir, syrah and viognier.

It started out by making wine with fruit from just one estate, but now sources its grapes from areas such as Green Valley, Russian River Valley, Sonoma Coast and Carneros. Some of the vineyards produce fruit for DuMol only. In others, it owns specific lots and rows of vines, which are tended to and treated according to DuMol's specifications, pruning and farming practices.

The winery produces 20,000 cases a year and has 15 different types of wine named after Mr Murphy's and his partners' children and grandchildren. These include ones made with fruit from single vineyards as well as others made with a blend of fruit from several vineyards.

Over the years, its wines have received good reviews and ratings of more than 90 points in publications such as Wine Spectator, and by famed wine writers such as Robert Parker.

Mr Murphy says: "I am not a big fan of reviews. People drink and buy wines, I don't think reviews do. But that being said, am I happy that our wines have received good reviews? Obviously.

"But people don't trust their own palate enough. The only difference between Robert Parker and the average drinker is the adjectives. There aren't too many people who have bad palates."

Mr Murphy was in town recently for a wine dinner and to talk to trade customers.

Before investing to start up a winery, he used to run a successful tyre distribution, servicing and manufacturing company, which he sold to Goodyear in 1987, for an amount "large enough" for him to retire.

His business partner, Mr Verlander, used to run a restaurant, while winemaker Andy Smith, who joined the winery in 2000, became a partner in 2006.

Then newly retired Mr Murphy, who was 45 at the time, busied himself learning how to fly and playing golf. He and his wife Margie, a housewife who now helps with the tasting of wines at DuMol, have five grown-up children and eight grandchildren.

It was over dinner and four bottles of wine in the mid-1990s that he and Mr Verlander decided to open a winery to produce Burgundy-style pinot noir as a hobby.

A lover of wines from Burgundy, he found himself disappointed by some wines that had strong aroma and structure on the nose, but did little for the palate.

He says: "A wine is made up of components and fruit is an essential component - the wonderful taste of it, not just the aroma."

He made it their mission to produce wines made with quality grapes that showcased purity and intensity of fruit.

The partners have worked with estates to plant vines that are closer together, which lower the yields and aid the growth of tighter clusters of fruit that have more intensity.

In 2008, DuMol built a winery in Windsor, California - a 20,000 sq ft environmentally sustainable building, testament to the company's stance on sustainability.

It is powered by solar panels and has special walls that insulate the building, and a bio-reactor system that converts waste water and suspended solids and breaks down the waste to make it cleaner for the environment. It also has an air system that takes in cool night air to help regulate temperature within the facility.

Its sustainability mantra also extends to farming practices where the company shuns the use of artificial chemicals, pesticides and insecticides.

Asked if DuMol embraces organic or biodynamic practices, Mr Murphy says: "We believe in biodynamics and organic farming, where those principles, within biodynamics and organics, help the health and welfare of our vineyards. Do we embrace them wholly? Never will, don't want to.

"You can have organic food that is absolutely, positively horrible."