Paul Dolan is the 4th generation of a family of winemakers who have lived in Northern California since 1881, when his maternal great-grandfather, Pietro Carlo Rossi, immigrated to the United States. The latter won the first medal for a Californian wine, a Zinfandel, in Paris in 1906, and the Rossi family ran the estate for 60 years until the 1940s.

Afterstudying oenology at the University of Fresno in the mid-1970s, Paul Dolan began working at Fetzer Vineyards in Mendocino County. He was one of the very first American oenologists to develop organic viticulture and in 1988, Fetzer Vineyards offered their first red wine made from organic grapes. He left Fetzer Vineyards in 2004 after twenty-five years of struggling to develop organic and biodynamic viticulture in Northern California.

In the same year, in partnership with Tom and Tim Thornhill, he acquired Parducci Wine Cellars and founded Paul Dolan Vineyards in 2006 where he produces organically and biodynamically grown wines from Sauvignon and Chardonnay, Zinfandel, Pinot Noir and Cabernet Sauvignon.