Ask Brice Jones, founder and president of Sonoma-Cutrer Vineyards, what he does for a living, and he will answer simply, "I'm a farmer." Spend a morning touring his vineyard and winery in Windsor, California, however, and you will discover that growing grapes for the production of a superior wine is no simple matter. Those who raise a glass of Jones's Sonoma-Cutrer Chardonnay are enjoying the delicate outcome of painstaking scientific research, months of careful growing, exceptional attention to detail, and - last but not least - a 25-year commitment to producing the best wine possible, regardless of cost.

Recounting his early years in this quixotic business, Jones notes, "When I first came to this area, the prospects were not encouraging. No one was growing premium grapes, and I was warned that the climate might be too cold for the fruit to sugar up. When I built the winery in 1981, people questioned the need for another wine operation in California. I decided - primarily out of fear - to do my best on a single product, focusing exclusively on Chardonnay. I had faith that somebody would always want our best effort."

One example of Jones's best efforts can be seen in the Grand Cru program he instituted in 1992. Bred to yield the most intense flavors possible, the pea-sized Grand Cru grapes, derived from French clones, are harvested from the vineyard's rocky hillsides, sorted on a vibrating culling table invented by Jones, and cooled to 40 degrees before being pressed while still on their stems. Inside the state-of-the-art winery, where the cellar temperature is a constant 48 degrees, the juice is aged and fermented inside barrels coopered from air-seasoned oak staves made in France, from trees Jones personally selects on annual trips to French forests. The corks sealing off Sonoma-Cutrer's green bottles are presampled to ensure that they will not taint the wine's final flavor.

This investment of tender loving care has paid off: in an annual survey published in Wine & Spirits magazine, Sonoma-Cutrer has been named "America's most-asked-for Chardonnay" for the last eight years, in addition to ranking either first or second in popularity of all wines of any variety and origin. Jones credits his success to luck (white wine came into vogue just as he was harvesting his first crops); to the support of his wife, Susan E. Porth (MBA '72), the CFO of Kaiser Permanente; and to his decision to follow his passions. "Make sure you do what satisfies you," he advises. "If it's just for the money, it won't work."

A graduate of the Air Force Academy who grew up in a military family, Jones developed an interest in growing grapes while serving in Southeast Asia under a general who was a wine buff. In 1970, after nine years as a fighter pilot, he traded his cockpit for a seat at HBS, where he gained the credentials and expertise to pursue his entrepreneurial dream. Initially rebuffed by financiers on Wall Street, Jones finally found a backer in Kent M. Klineman, a New York attorney. "We shook hands on the corner of 57th and Lex on September 17, 1972," recalls Jones. "He said, 'You go do it and I'll get the equity,' and that's been our only contract to this day."

At his 15th HBS Reunion, Jones was given the "long-suffering award" - "Because it took me seventeen years to break even," he laughs. That hurdle overcome, this year he returns to HBS having achieved a different kind of entrepreneurial goal: in May, he hosted his 12th annual World Croquet Championship and charity wine auction, which raised more than $400,000 for the Make a Wish Foundation and several other local charities. "Of all the things we've done at Sonoma-Cutrer," he observes, "I think that supporting our community has been the most important, and this particular effort has been the most gratifying."

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