Strong trained at the School of American Ballet in New York and spent 4 years dancing in Paris, where he developed a taste for wine. In 1959, he moved to California to become a winemaker. He established Tiburon Vintners, which bought bulk wine, bottled it and sold it to tourists. In 1962, he bought Windsor Vineyards in northern Sonoma County. It was later renamed Rodney Strong Vineyards, which was a leader in transforming Sonoma County from rustic farmland to one of the finest wine regions in the country.