No winery for Pasta King

JOHN BURGESS/The Press Democrat Sonoma County's "Pasta King'' Art Ibleto, shown here in 2008 in his Cotati vineyard with partner Chris O'Neill, right, has pulled out of plans to buy the former Topolos winery in Forestville.

The Pasta King has pulled the plug on his plans to own a winery.

Art Ibleto, known as “The Pasta King” after decades of dishing out Italian fare at community events, never sealed the deal to buy the former Topolos winery outside Forestville.

“I got old,” the 83-year-old Ibleto said by way of explanation. “My doctor told me to slow down.”

Ibleto agreed in late 2008 to buy the winery with Marin County real estate investor Chris O'Neill for $3 million. He owns about 50 acres of vineyards near his Cotati catering business, and thought owning a winery would be fun.

But it turned out to be hard work. Between the winery and his existing catering business, Ibleto said he was running himself ragged.

“I got so much already, I cannot keep up with the 70-hour weeks,” Ibleto said.

The Forestville winery is one of the few in the nation with a full-service restaurant. The winery has since been purchased by O'Neill and other investors, and reopened as Russian River Vineyards. The restaurant is called Corks.

During 2009, Ibleto was helping generate traffic by catering pasta and polenta nights at the new restaurant. But when summer came, his new venture started interfering with events like the Santa Rosa Downtown Market and the Sonoma County Fair, where his trailer is a fixture.

When he started hinting to customers that he might retire, the reaction was fierce, he said.

“When I mentioned, ‘I'm going to slow down,' they get kind of got nasty and mean and say ‘No, you can't!'” Ibleto recalled.

So after speaking to his doctor and his daughter, who pleaded with him to rest, he told O'Neill in the fall that he just didn't have the energy to be involved in the winery anymore.

O'Neill said he remains friends with Ibleto, wishes him the best, and hopes to continue buying grapes from him in the future. The winery is just getting ready to bottle the Bella Sonoma pinot noir made from Ibleto's grapes, he said.

“His vision of what owning a winery was was just different from the reality of it,” O'Neill said.