Dorothy Bynum; Co-Founder of Davis Bynum Winery

Dorothy Bynum, 76, co-founder with her husband of the Davis Bynum Winery and the artist who designed most of its wine bottle labels, died May 1 of cancer in Healdsburg.

The Berkeley-born Bynum earned a fine arts degree from UC Berkeley and specialized in oil paintings. She met her husband at the home of photographer Ansel Adams in Yosemite.

Two decades after their marriage, the Bynums started making wine in an abandoned plumbing warehouse in Albany, Calif., and in 1973 they established their winery in Sonoma County. They produced the first pinot noir from the Russian River Valley and earned awards for pinot noirs and chardonnays.

Known for its environment-friendly practices, the Davis Bynum Winery last year became one of two in California chosen for a California Environmental Protection Agency pilot program to determine whether “green” management was superior to regulation in protecting the environment.