Robert Todd Williams, 69, founded Toad Hollow Vineyards - brother of actor Robin Williams
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Robert Todd Williams, a Russian River vintner who founded Toad Hollow
Vineyards and turned it into one of Sonoma County's most recognizable
wine labels, has died. He was 69.
Williams, whose younger brother is actor Robin Williams, died Tuesday
at Santa Rosa Memorial Hospital, according to the Healdsburg-based
winery. He had suffered from a heart condition in recent years.
Williams, also known as "Dr. Toad," partnered with vintner Rodney
Strong to open Toad Hollow Vineyards in 1993 and turned the boutique
winery into a major wine producer over the past 14 years. Its labels
feature irreverent names and drawings of dapper toads and frogs.
"He touched a lot of people in the winery business," Robin Williams
told The (Santa Rosa) Press Democrat. "He was a man who lived a great
life. He leaves a big footprint - a big footprint, with a cork."
Robert Todd Williams grew up in rural Versailles, Ky. and mixed drinks
at more than a dozen different saloons, taverns, nightclubs and
restaurants from Oklahoma to Chicago before getting into the wine
business. In the 1980s, he started a marketing company called Hillside
Estates to bring exposure to specialty wineries.
His mission was to strip away the mystique and make wine inclusive,
said longtime friend Susie Selby, a winemaker and fellow winery owner.
"He discounted any snobbery around wine and he made it clever and
interesting," she said.
Williams is survived by his wife, two brothers and eight nieces and
nephews.