I remember Erich well from his days at Simi. He was a great guy and a lot of fun. As I recall, Dave Ramey bought a lot of his grapes for Matanzas Creek.
He did well until he decided that his rights as a 100% American were greater than those obligations he had under laws relating to riparian rights and land use. He got into a pissing match with SonomaCounty and guess who won??