Alex Guarachi arrived in California from Chile in the 1970s on a soccer scholarship that ended in injury, noticed that no Chilean wine was available in American shops, and built TGIC Importers — later Guarachi Wine Partners — into the leading U.S. importer of South American wine over the following two decades. In 2007 he launched a label under his own name with help from friend and winemaker Paul Hobbs, initially buying fruit from Gap's Crown and Beckstoffer's Las Piedras and To Kalon. Losing access to a coveted Gap's Crown block after a high-scoring Hobbs Pinot Noir drove demand convinced him to buy land instead: Sun Chase Vineyard in the Petaluma Gap in 2013, then Meadowrock on Atlas Peak in 2014, with a winery completed at Meadowrock in 2017. The estates now supply nearly all the Cabernet Sauvignon, Pinot Noir and Chardonnay.