Richard Graff, 60; Leading Wine Maker

Richard Graff, a vintner who co-founded the American Food and Wine Institute, has died after flying his private plane into a power pole. He was 60.

Graff’s single-engine Cessna began losing power south of Salinas on Friday evening, Monterey County sheriff’s deputies said. As Graff tried to land at Salinas airport, the plane crashed into a power pole and a greenhouse before bursting into flames, deputies said.

Graff was pronounced dead at the scene. He was flying alone.

Though trained as a musician, Graff took over a small, remote vineyard in Soledad on California’s Central Coast in 1965 and produced the first Chalone Vineyard vintage the next year.

Chalone, with vineyards in Monterey, Napa, Sonoma and San Luis Obispo counties, was the first publicly owned wine company in the United States.

Graff, who traveled to France to study the production of Burgundy wines, introduced California in the 1960s to the technique of fermenting grapes in oak barrels instead of stainless steel tanks.

In 1991, he founded the American Institute of Food and Wine with the chef Julia Child and fellow winemaker Robert Mondavi.

Graff also wrote several books, including “The Art of Consensus Building.”

“He was a Renaissance man,” said Peter Watson-Graff, a brother. “He had varying interests and loved to talk about them and share his feelings about them. He had no fear. He wasn’t afraid of flying or heights.”

Graff is survived by three brothers, Watson-Graff of Monterey, David Graff of Oakley and John H. Graff of Santa Barbara. Funeral arrangements are pending.