Carol Anderson-Scott, one of the first women winemakers in the Napa Valley, died of natural causes in her Yountville home on June 8. She was 68.
Born Carol Gregson on Jan. 15, 1935, in Chicago, she grew up in Temple City, a Los Angeles suburb. She was educated at Occidental College and the University of Southern California, where she earned a bachelor's degree in dental hygiene. She met and married dentist Stanley Anderson in 1961 and settled in San Marino to raise their four children.
She became interested in winemaking at an early age. Her family said she had her first sip of champagne on her 17th birthday and was so impressed that she vowed she would have a little champagne every day for the rest of her life. "After a while I decided it would be cheaper for us to make it than for me to keep my wife in supply," Stan Anderson often said, according to his son.
In the late 1960s the couple began looking for vineyard land in Napa. They purchased 28 acres in what later became known as the Stags Leap district. She realized that to make wonderful wines, she would need graduate education. In her early 40s, she enrolled in a course of study in enology at UC Davis, and for two years lived in the dorms, commuting home to the Los Angeles area on weekends. The family owned and operated S. Anderson winery and produced its inaugural vintage in 1979.
For 15 years the couple commuted back and forth from Pasadena to Napa because Stan Anderson needed to keep his dental practice going to support the fledgling winery.
She became sole owner of S. Anderson Vineyard after the death of Stan Anderson in 1994. Three years later, she married Tom Scott, a native of Napa Valley, and both continued to be active in the winery until it was sold in March 2002. She is survived by her husband, Tom Scott, of Yountville; her four children,
Caren Anderson of Portland, Ore., Jamie Anderson of Davis, Carrie Anderson Lamb of San Diego, and John Anderson of St. Helena; and four grandchildren.
A public memorial service will be held at 11 a.m. Sunday at Meadowood Country Club, 900 Meadowood Lane, St. Helena.
In lieu of flowers, the family suggests donations to Chamber Music in Napa Valley,
