Interview
This interview is with Mike & Merry Fix of RainSong Vineyard. In this interview, the couple discusses how they started their vineyard and passed it along to the second generation.
The two talk about how the vineyard went from an idea to a reality. Mike and Merry met in college through skydiving club at different universities. Now, the couple has been married for almost 55 years. After Mike retired from Nabisco at 52, they could achieve their dreams of owning and living on a vineyard. Mike was always interested in fermentation and Merry wanted to raise a family in the country. After making a three-way trade for land, Mike and Merry started planting in 1985. The first year, they realized how naive they were about the difficulty of producing a vineyard, but they were quick leaners. They learned a lot from a friend who had started a vineyard a few years before them and took UC Davis wine refresher courses to obtain winemaking knowledge.
Mike and Merry discuss their successful bottling program. RainSong was widely known for this program until the pandemic in 2020. The two got the idea when they were traveling in Italy and stumbled upon a small winery that allowed customers to bring their own bottles and containers to collect wine directly from the barrel. While Mike and Merry couldn’t do this exact model due to labeling laws, they were able to make it their own by supplying bottles with a simple label. This program was wildly successful and built a great community around the vineyard. Each year, the attendees looked forward to hearing “the bear joke.”
Later in the interview, Mike and Merry talk about passing the vineyard off to the next generation. While their son-in-law has been making their wine since 2011, they didn’t make the official transition until July 2019. Now, the vineyard is in the hands of their two daughters and son-in-law. The couple is grateful to keep living on the vineyard and being involved in RainSong on a smaller scale. Now, they do more of the background work and leave the future of RainSong to the next generation.
This interview was conducted by Rich Schmidt at RainSong Vineyard in Cheshire on August 3, 2026.
Interview
This interview is with Fiona FixMitchell & Marcus & Allie Hall of RainSong Vineyard. In this interview, the second generation of RainSong talk about growing up on the vineyard and taking over the family business.
Fiona and Allie talk about growing up on the vineyard and becoming involved in their parents’ dream. Their parents, Mike and Merry Fix, purchased the vineyard when Fiona was around 5 years old and before Allie was born. Growing up in the industry, the two remember going to wine events and festivals with their parents and helping out around the vineyard and winery. They believe RainSong is a magical place and were grateful that they could remain living on the property in their own houses.
Marcus discusses becoming involved with RainSong and eventually becoming their head winemaker. Marcus and Allie met in college, and when it was evident he would be sticking around, Mike started asking him to help out with little things around the winery, and bit by bit, he started teaching him how to make wine. His first harvest was in 2009 and after spending some time at RainSong, he was easily convinced to become a part of the business and lifestyle. Marcus claimed his first vintage as head winemaker in 2011 has been evolving in the role ever since.
Later in the interview, the three talk about the process of taking over the business. It was a smooth a gradual transition from the first generation to the second, but the three officially took over RainSong in 2019. Usually, a new generation brings lots of change, but the three want to maintain the feeling and friendliness that RainSong has always had. While they plan to keep the winery mostly the same, they have introduced new varietals and a wine club to stay up to date and relevant in the modern climate.
This interview was conducted by Rich Schmidt at RainSong Vineyard in Cheshire on August 3, 2026.