In 1933, Honeywood Winery was founded by Ron Honeyman and John Wood. It was originally call Columbia Distillers, and produced fruit brandies, cordials, and liqueurs. Eventually, they settled on making premium fruit wines and decided a name change was in order for the winery. Contrary to the obvious Messrs, Honeyman and Wood did not use a contraction of their names to make Honeywood, and in fact, objected to the name on those grounds. An advertising consultant, who knew a thing when he saw it, provided the rationale with a line from Oliver Goldsmith's play "The Good Natured Man", wherein the products of fermentation were referred to as "smooth as HONEY... aged in WOOD... the drink of the good natured man."