Noel Diaz grew up in Delano in California's Central Valley, the son of migrant farmworkers, and came north to the Bay Area for film school. He found his way into wine through hospitality work alongside his wife Barrie Quan, and the deeper he went into natural wine, the more he felt it needed to be shared beyond the circles it usually reached.
Backstory
Diaz and Quan launched Purity Wine in 2013 on Treasure Island, making small-batch wines with a commitment to organic, zero-zero production. In 2017 they relocated to a warehouse along the Richmond waterfront marina and opened the space as a cooperative, inviting other natural winemakers to work under the same roof. That cooperative became the Richmond Wine Collective, which now counts over twenty small-batch producers sharing space, equipment, and expertise. Diaz serves as mentor and anchor of the group while continuing to develop his own wines.
The Region
Purity Wine draws fruit from Northern California, with the estate vineyard in Santa Rosa planted with 120-year-old Zinfandel vines. Additional grapes are sourced from organic-certified farmers across Sonoma County and beyond. The Richmond winery sits on the eastern shore of San Francisco Bay, a working-class city that Diaz has helped establish as an unlikely hub for California natural wine.
Vineyards and Farming
Every grape in the Purity lineup comes from organically farmed land. Diaz prioritizes old-vine sites where possible, believing that vine age contributes the kind of complexity that cannot be manufactured. The estate Zinfandel vines in Santa Rosa, over a century old, are a living expression of that philosophy.
Winemaking
Diaz works with native yeasts and bacteria exclusively, uses no fining agents, and keeps sulfur to an absolute minimum or zero. The approach is guided by curiosity rather than formula: he describes the collective as experimentalists grounded in science but moved by creativity. The goal is always wine with personality, wines that are not homogeneous.
The Wines
The Purity lineup reflects the breadth of Northern California farming, spanning varieties from old-vine Zinfandel to lesser-known grapes sourced from trusted growers. The wines are made to be shared, priced accessibly, and designed to start conversations rather than end them. Diaz has shown them at RAW WINE, Brumaire, and Third Coast Soif, reaching audiences well beyond the Bay Area.
