There’s a certain kind of leader who doesn’t just run a business. They shape its soul. Sarah Citron, co-founder and CEO of Bricoleur Vineyards, is that kind of leader. Since helping establish the Windsor, California, estate in 2015, she’s guided it from the ground up, through launch, growth, a cancer diagnosis and recovery, and now a formal appointment to the top role. Today at 35, she’s building something that goes well beyond wine: a purpose-driven destination where exceptional bottles, fine focused culinary experiences, inclusivity and community giving converge under one roof in Sonoma County’s celebrated Russian River Valley.
A Legacy Written in Vines
Citron’s connection to California winemaking didn’t begin when she broke ground at Bricoleur. It goes back more than a century. Her great-great-grandfather, Pietro Carlo Rossi, was the original oenologist at Sonoma County’s historic Italian Swiss Colony, the iconic cooperative that shaped the region’s identity in the 19th century. Trained as a chemist in Piemonte, Italy, Rossi was recognized in France for the quality of his Zinfandel and sparkling wine, helping to put California on the global winemaking map.
That lineage runs deep in Citron’s DNA, but she didn’t come to Bricoleur straight from the vineyard. She spent six years in digital commerce with Tory Burch and Theory in New York, where she honed a sharp sense of branding, consumer experience and design. When the opportunity arose to co-found a family winery with her parents, she made the leap, and her fashion background turned out to be an asset. The attention to aesthetics, hospitality and storytelling that defines luxury retail is now woven into every aspect of the Bricoleur experience.
What She’s Building: Wine First, Experience Always
Bricoleur released its first wines in 2017 and has spent the years since earning national recognition. The winery’s 40-acre estate in Windsor sits at the heart of the Russian River Valley, an appellation celebrated for its cool-climate growing conditions and fog-kissed mornings that coax extraordinary complexity from Pinot Noir and Chardonnay. Bricoleur also draws fruit from Kick Ranch in the Fountaingrove District, producing a Cabernet Sauvignon that has turned heads.
The accolades have followed. Wine Spectator’s James Molesworth spotlighted the winery with a notable observation: “Some wineries offer excellent Pinot Noir. Others offer excellent Cabernet Sauvignon. It’s rare when one producer does both. Enter Bricoleur.” Wine Enthusiast awarded Bricoleur’s 2021 Estate Grown Special Selection Pinot Noir 94 points, and the estate has also been recognized by Forbes and earned spots on USA Today’s “10 Best New Wineries” list. At the 2025 Sunset International Wine Competition, the Kick Ranch Viognier and Cabernet Sauvignon both earned Best in Class honors at 98 and 97 points, respectively.
But Citron’s vision for Bricoleur has always been bigger than the bottle. She describes the property as wine-first with fine culinary, a place where the kitchen and the vineyard speak to each other in equal measure. Executive Chef Todd Knoll leads an estate-to-plate culinary program that pulls from the property’s own sustainably farmed culinary gardens, with menus that evolve alongside the seasons. It’s the kind of integration that turns a tasting room visit into a full sensory experience, and it’s central to why Bricoleur positions itself as a modern lifestyle destination rather than just a winery.
Inclusion as a Core Value
One of the most forward-thinking moves Citron has championed is Bricoleur’s commitment to non-alcoholic offerings, not as a concession to any trend, but as an expression of who the winery believes its guests are. Bricoleur has always been a family-friendly estate, and ensuring that every guest has something exceptional to sip regardless of whether they drink alcohol is built into the DNA of how the property operates. For Citron, inclusivity isn’t a program. It’s a philosophy.
That ethos shows up throughout the guest experience: in elevated gifting programs designed to feel personal rather than transactional, events structured to welcome a wide range of visitors and wine club offerings that are built around relationships, not just transactions. Citron has also spearheaded the Bricoleur Small Lot Program and the Founder’s Block Pinot Noir, both of which reflect the winery’s commitment to craftsmanship at every tier.
A Cancer Diagnosis and What Came From It
In April 2023, at age 32, Citron was diagnosed with Stage 3 breast cancer. She underwent chemotherapy, radiation, a double mastectomy and multiple reconstructive surgeries, all while continuing to lead the winery and advocate publicly for early detection. Today she’s cancer-free, but the experience didn’t leave her unchanged, It left her more committed.
From her diagnosis grew the winery’s evergreen philanthropic campaign, Sip With Purpose. To date, the initiative has raised more than $102,000 for cancer research organizations including the V Foundation for Cancer Research, the American Cancer Society and Cycle for Survival. The campaign is powered in part by the Isla Rose Brut Rosé, named for Citron’s daughter, which donates $5 to the V Foundation for every bottle sold, with the founders personally matching $60 for every case purchased.
The V Foundation, founded in 1993 by ESPN and the late Jim Valvano, has funded over $310 million in cancer research grants nationwide. Sip With Purpose connects Bricoleur’s guests directly to that mission with every purchase, making the act of enjoying a glass of wine part of something larger.
Leading With Purpose
In October 2025, Citron was formally named CEO of Bricoleur Vineyards, a role that recognized what she’d long been doing in practice. She’d previously served as VP of Marketing and then Chief Operating Officer, working across every department and shaping the winery’s voice, partnerships and guest strategy from within. Wine Spectator noted her formal appointment in its February 28, 2026 issue.
Bricoleur is now led by two women at the top: Citron as CEO and Frances Spangler as CFO. In an industry where female executives at the helm of estate wineries remain rare, that pairing is notable. And in 2024, Citron was named a North Bay Business Journal 40 Under 40 honoree, a recognition that she’s not just running a winery but influencing a broader conversation about what leadership in wine country looks like.
She’s also building her profile beyond Sonoma. In early 2026, she was featured in Modern Luxury, SFGate and Resident Magazine as a voice for women-in-leadership and wellness voice, extending the Bricoleur story into national conversations about purpose-driven business and survivorship.
The Road Ahead
Citron’s vision for Bricoleur is rooted in a conviction that wine country can be something more: a place where the experience is as compelling as what’s in the glass, where community giving is part of the business model and where innovation doesn’t mean abandoning the land. She’s focused on building brand partnerships, deepening loyalty programs and developing onsite experiences that bring guests back not just for the wine, but for the connection.
Bricoleur’s organic, sustainably farmed estate is a physical expression of those values, a place that takes seriously its responsibility to the soil, the season and the community around it. And with Citron’s background in digital commerce, design and hospitality, the winery is also well-positioned to expand how and where it tells its story, reaching guests wherever they are.
What Citron building at Bricoleur Vineyards is, in many ways, a reflection of who she is: thoughtful, resilient, rooted in legacy and unafraid to redefine what a winery can be. It’s a place shaped by a great-great-grandfather’s chemistry and a great-great-granddaughter’s vision, and the best chapters, by all accounts, are still ahead.
