Many people visit our hilltop vineyard and immediately fall in love with the beauty of the spot. I did, too, when I came to see it for the first time. But I viewed it with a regard not just for the physical wonder of the place, but for the magnificent vineyard potential I immediately perceived when I walked the slopes of each vineyard block. I had known for some time that the Sonoma Coast was the new, sought-after frontier, viticulturally, with its unique maritime climate and complex topography that lends the crucial elements for growing grapes for quality wine: long temperate days, cool nights, and mild autumns that offer slow but continuous ripening seasons.

As a wine maker, my job is to coax out and accentuate the defining characteristics of the grapes to produce wines of distinction. As a result, what happens before the grapes arrive at the winery vastly affects my ability to achieve my goals. For me, the most important aspect of making quality wine is growing grapes in an ideal site. Factors such as average temperature, overall heat days (days with temperature above a certain level), soil health and drainage, sun exposure (aspect), and others should be considered for the type of variety you are growing to achieve your wine quality and style objectives.

The winegrowing timeline is long, however, and we are at a little blip at the beginning of the timeline.  Some winegrowers have generations of knowledge already internalized.  Learning things in winemaking is a slow process because you only get one shot with a certain lot of wine each year and then it takes multiple years to evaluate the result.  To make subtle and complex wines, I must observe closely and respond to the differences in vintages and the grapes with nuance, constantly fine tuning rather than swinging from one style or trend to the next.  This is especially true when it comes to the vineyard.  Though we farm organically, we approach blocks differently and pick them differently, learning which blocks benefit the most from waiting or not waiting to pick and how they react to environmental factors compared to one another.  It’s kinda like treating your kids differently because you know that their temperaments are different.  You start off treating them all more or less the same (mainly to eliminate the variables) but through time and experience you learn that they do not need the same treatment to thrive equally or bring out the best in them.  And once the grapes have reached their greatest potential, my job is to reveal and retain these flavors in the wine. So, I employ wine making practices that are minimally manipulative to the grapes during processing and also to the wine during its vinification and barrel aging.

With our vineyard on the Sonoma Coast, we accomplished the crucial step of securing an ideal location. I am able to work with Nick to grow balanced vines that produce fruit of the highest quality. And I believe in our wines you will witness my belief in attentive, gentle wine making.

This is my mark. This is our mark. I think you will enjoy it.