WINES


Our wines come from estate vineyards that we farm ourselves, or are farmed under our control. All of our wines are made in small lots, hand-sorted, punched down by hand, fermented in open-top dairy tanks using native-yeast fermentation, and barreled in French oak barrels.

We craft Pinot Noir, Chardonnay, and Zinfandel from the Russian Valley, and Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot, and Cab Franc from our vineyard on Sonoma Mountain.

We source grapes from family-farmed vineyards that we feel have the potential to be worthy of single-vineyard designation. Sometimes the wine is such high quality that it is hard to make the cut at time of barrel selection for final blending of wines. Just about all the barrels are highly deserving. Other times, we may decide that an entire vintage from a given vineyard is not quite good enough to be presented as a single-vineyard offering. In such times we may declassify the entire lot and put it in with the Appellation Series. After a number of years' experience with a given vineyard, when it has proven itself with consistently superior wines, we may create a Reserve Series wine from those barrels that are most distinctive.

Thus, we have three wine levels: 
Reserve Series
The Reserve Series, for our most distinctive wines, carefully selected from particular barrels. 

These wines reflect strongly our winemaking preferences. They are seductive, racy, arousing wines, not tame.

____


Single Vineyard Series
The Single-Vineyard Wines, for wines that have proven individual character and consistent superior quality. 

These wines stand out, and show characters that would be muted or blended out in the Appellation Series.

____




Appellation Series
The Appellation Series Wines, which are blended from barrels of the same wine that goes into the other wine tiers. 

We aim for character expressing the appellation rather than the individual vineyard.

____

Because we are a small winery focused upon hand-made small lots of the finest wine possible, and we do not source a second tier of grapes specifically for our Appellation Series wines, we do not produce really large volumes of Appellation Series wines. Our goal when taking in grapes is that all of the grapes should make wine worthy of Single-Vineyard designation. 

For some vintages that ideal comes close to realization, and the  basis for selecting barrels for the Reserve and Single-Vineyard wines is less about quality of the wine per se, and more about  the interest and character of that particular barrel, and how it will enhance or mute an effect in the ultimate blend. 

In such years, the Appellation Series wines rise above the very good to the extraordinary. Of course, due to blending with multiple vineyards, these wines present less individual character from any one vineyard, but this may in many tasters' minds be an advantage. 

Reserve Wines

Single-Vineyard Wines

Appellation Wines