SEBASTOPOL, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Oct 23, 2026--
Merry Edwards Winery is proud to announce that its founder, Merry Edwards, has been named American Wine Legend of the Year in Wine Enthusiast’s 2026 Wine Star Awards, honoring her lasting contributions to California winemaking.
This press release features multimedia. View the full release here: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20261023032968/en/
“I’m so excited to see Merry recognized for a career that has shaped our winery and impacted California’s wine industry,” said Heidi von der Mehden, who Edwards personally selected as her successor. “Merry’s curiosity and intuition are grounded in an unwavering commitment to quality. From pioneering research on lead in wine capsules to groundbreaking clonal selection and her work as a sought-after consultant, she continually challenged convention and raised expectations. She built a winery around her own vision and values. She is truly a legend.”
One of California’s pioneering women winemakers, Merry began her career in 1974 at Mount Eden Vineyards in the Santa Cruz Mountains. In 1977, she became founding winemaker at Matanzas Creek, where she remained until 1984. She then built a consulting practice, working with small and large wineries in Oregon and California and earning a reputation for her technical expertise and innovative approach.
Throughout her career, Merry advanced the industry through research, viticulture expertise and clonal selection, helping growers better match vine material to specific vineyard sites. Her influence extended beyond the cellar, establishing her as a respected mentor, consultant and trailblazer for both men and women in wine.
In 1997, Merry founded her namesake winery with family and friends, realizing her vision of being a true vigneron overseeing the winemaking process from vineyard to bottle. The winery became known for its acclaimed Russian River Valley Pinot Noirs, alongside Sauvignon Blanc and Chardonnay. In 2008, she and her husband, Ken Coopersmith, completed the winery at Coopersmith Vineyard in Sebastopol.
In 2013, her 40th year as a winemaker, Edwards was inducted into the Culinary Institute of America’s Vintners Hall of Fame and received the James Beard Award for Best Wine, Beer or Spirits Professional. At the time, she was one of only three women to receive both honors. She sold the winery to Champagne Louis Roederer in 2019 and retired in February 2020 following a year-long transition.
“We are deeply proud to see Merry recognized with this well-deserved honor,” said Nicole Carter, president of Merry Edwards Winery. “She built an exceptional winery and brand when women faced significant barriers to leadership in winemaking. Every step was done with determination, vision and an uncompromising commitment to quality. Her accomplishments are remarkable and paved the way for many of us in the industry. We are honored to carry her legacy forward.”
Wine Enthusiast’s Wine Star Awards Gala
Monday, January 25, 2027
Fairmont San Francisco
950 Mason St., San Francisco, CA 94108
About Merry Edwards Winery
Founded in 1997 by pioneering California winemaker Merry Edwards, Merry Edwards Winery produces terroir-driven, single-vineyard Pinot Noir, alongside Sauvignon Blanc and Chardonnay. The winery farms more than 80 acres of estate vineyards across the Russian River Valley and Anderson Valley. Acquired by Champagne Louis Roederer in 2019, Merry Edwards Winery is part of Roederer Collection USA, the domestic portfolio of Maison Louis Roederer.
Winemaker Merry Edwards Named American Wine Legend of the Year by Wine Enthusiast Magazine
It's one of baseball’s most iconic records: For 2,632 straight games over 17 seasons, Cal Ripken Jr. never missed a day in the Baltimore Orioles’ lineup.
For the past 28 years, lifelong Orioles fan Rick Taylor has been amassing a collection to match it, trying to gather a ticket from each game of Ripken's “Iron Man” streak, which lasted from 1982 to 1998. After decades of searching, Taylor is just eight tickets short of completing what experts agree is already one of the most impressive collections of baseball tickets ever assembled.
“Did I ever really think I would get this far? No, not really,” said Taylor, a retired 69-year-old food industry salesman who lives outside Baltimore. “But I always said to myself that if I could ever get down to single digits, I think I could do it.”
Taylor's collection now fills 16 boxes in his collectible-filled basement, each ticket individually protected in a hard plastic holder and labeled with its corresponding game number — the physical manifestation of a record that many believe will never be broken.
“The amount of time and the effort to put something together like that is astonishing,” said Mike Provenzale, a production manager at Heritage Auctions, which is not affiliated with Taylor’s collection. “Everyone marvels at Ripken’s record. It’s almost an equal feat of perseverance to put together a collection of that many tickets.”
Taylor's pursuit, though, comes as physical tickets have largely become a thing of the past, with teams shifting toward digital passes and QR codes that offer little of the appeal of an old-fashioned ticket stub.
“It’s devastating,” Taylor said, lamenting that younger collectors will never be able to build similar collections that span the careers of today's stars like Shohei Ohtani or Aaron Judge.
“It would be impossible to put together a run like this today,” said Matt Fuller, head of ticket authentication at PSA, which authenticates and grades collectibles.
Taylor initially had a more modest goal: a ticket from every game in which Ripken hit one of his 431 career home runs. But when a fellow collector asked him if he had thought about expanding the search to encompass the Iron Man streak, Taylor was intrigued: "I said, ‘That would be crazy, but you might have something there.’”
So Taylor began placing ads in The Baltimore Sun, which quickly yielded calls from people offering to sell or trade their tickets to him. As a local, finding a ticket from each home game was relatively easy, Taylor said, even if he had to pay $4,400 in 1999 to win an auction for the jewel of his collection: a May 30, 1982, ticket that marked the first game of Ripken's streak.
The road games have proven much tougher.
Over the years, Taylor has gone to card shows, scoured eBay and even bought the tickets of other Ripken fans who'd given up on their own Iron Man collections. A lively Facebook group called Booger’s Ticket Stubs has also been a big help, as members help each other track down things on their friends' wish lists.
A few years ago, things had slowed to a trickle: 2023 yielded one ticket. 2024, zero. But then he got three in 2025. And this year, amid a renewed push to publicize the collection on social media, Taylor has already gotten five more.
That leaves eight largely uneventful road games from the 1980s still missing: four against the Minnesota Twins, three against the Texas Rangers and one against the Kansas City Royals. Taylor can recite the dates by heart: 6-4-82 in Minnesota. 8-21-82 against the Rangers. 4-25-84 vs. the Royals...
Taylor partially attributes the difficulty in finding the Twins and Rangers tickets to the fact that both teams were mediocre in the mid-80s and did not command large crowds, further increasing their scarcity. He is offering $100 per ticket to garner interest.
“I’m just hoping there are people who see that someone needs those tickets — because they’re out there,” Taylor said.
Fuller, from PSA, agreed: “I have no doubt they’re out there, collecting dust in a desk drawer, a scrapbook or a shoebox.”
The fact that Taylor has already found so many of those obscure tickets is astounding, Provenzale said, recalling the poorly attended Rangers games he used to attend while growing up in the 1980s.
“To find somebody that held on to a ticket like that, it’s jaw-dropping,” Provenzale said.
Taylor is searching for tickets that few thought to save. But for today’s fans, there may soon be no physical tickets at all.
For years now, tickets to sporting events have been largely distributed digitally or via printable PDFs, neither of which has the appeal or style of a ticket on cardstock. Some teams will print out a ticket for a nominal fee. Others have ceased the practice entirely.
Taylor recalled attending an Orioles game last year in which the Dodgers' Ohtani hit two home runs. Knowing some of his friends collect Ohtani tickets, Taylor went to the Orioles' box office to buy 10 bleacher tickets for $35 each. The only problem? Taylor says the Orioles staffers refused to print the tickets, offering only digital tickets instead, something Taylor had no interest in paying for.
“They turned down $350," Taylor said. "They can print the tickets; they just don't want to.”
In a statement, the Orioles defended digital ticketing, citing reduced fraud, better communication with fans and a smoother entry process. The team said it still provides physical tickets in certain circumstances, such as when a minor doesn’t have a cellphone.
Ironically, it’s this shift away from physical tickets that has increased their appeal, Provenzale said. He said the market grew about a decade ago and “exploded” about eight years ago, appealing both to memorabilia collectors, as well as card collectors, who value condition.
If Taylor completes his collection, he says he's going to "sit back for a while and just enjoy it.”
Beyond that, though, he's not sure what to do with it. He and his wife don't have any children, and he said their nieces and nephews aren't especially interested in it. One possibility he'd welcome is for the collection to end up with Ripken himself.
It could also fetch a substantial sum at auction. Provenzale estimated that Taylor's collection, if completed, could command in the “high five figures,” and potentially more than $100,000, especially because of the “story” it tells.
“If somebody got a ticket to every game Ken Griffey Jr. played, that would be impressive, too, but the Ripken collection has something a little bit extra because of that consecutive games record," Provenzale said. “It adds a purpose to the collection.”
But even if Taylor finds the last eight tickets, the hunt wouldn't necessarily be over. In the collecting world, there's a hierarchy: Full tickets are more desirable than ticket stubs. Ones issued by the box office are better than ones from Ticketmaster. And none are more valuable than the oversized, elaborately designed tickets issued to season ticket holders. In other words, there are always ways to improve the collection.
“It's never-ending,” Taylor said with a laugh.
Baltimore Orioles fan Rick Taylor holds two newly-acquired tickets to add to his collection of tickets from almost every baseball game of Cal Ripken Jr.'s 2,632 game "Iron Man" streak, at his home in Reisterstown, Md., Tuesday, Oct. 13, 2026. (AP Photo/Stephanie Scarbrough)
Baltimore Orioles fan Rick Taylor thumbs through his collection of tickets from almost every baseball game of Cal Ripken Jr.'s 2,632 game "Iron Man" streak, at his home in Reisterstown, Md., Tuesday, Oct. 13, 2026. (AP Photo/Stephanie Scarbrough)
Baltimore Orioles fan Rick Taylor shows the log that he uses to track his progress in collecting tickets from every game of Cal Ripken Jr.'s 2,632 game "Iron Man" streak, at his home in Reisterstown, Md., Tuesday, Oct. 13, 2026. (AP Photo/Stephanie Scarbrough)
Baltimore Orioles fan Rick Taylor holds a ticket from the first baseball game of Cal Ripken Jr.'s 2,632 game "Iron Man" streak, at his home in Reisterstown, Md., Tuesday, Oct. 13, 2026. (AP Photo/Stephanie Scarbrough)
Baltimore Orioles fan Rick Taylor looks through his collection of tickets from almost every baseball game of Cal Ripken Jr.'s 2,632 game "Iron Man" streak, at his home in Reisterstown, Md., Tuesday, Oct. 13, 2026. (AP Photo/Stephanie Scarbrough)
