Stories

Near the coast of northern California is a place where the fog caresses the sea and envelops the rolling hills in its cool embrace. And here lies a family owned estate that started from the most humble of beginnings. One that would go on to create the best Sonoma Coast Pinot Noir around. That estate…

Our Virtual Tasting Salons are designed not only to bring the vineyard to you, but to offer a tasting experience paired with organic delectables created by local artisan producers. As part of our California Wine Club, we’ve explored food pairing with Pinot Noir wines, Gewurztraminer, Sauvignon Blanc and many others.

In 2015, I got a call from a young man in New York, Josh Groban. He was performing on Broadway, had tasted our wine, loved it, and inquired about making a special wine to benefit his foundation, the Find Your Light Foundation. The Find Your Light Foundation funds arts education across the United States. Since…

When we planted our Estate Vineyard in 1993, our goals were not lofty. There had never been a vineyard planted in western Sebastopol, all the way to the coast. We were the first; we proceeded without a clue what we were doing. We purchased the rootstock from the Yellow Pages. We thought it would be…

By 2006, Halleck Vineyard had emerged as one of the top wineries amongst a handful of boutiques in our neighborhood. To say we were a big fish in a little pond would be overstating. We were a small fish in a small pond, but showing some bright colors. One of the big fish in our…

Similar to our approach with our Three Sons Cuvee and the Russian River Valley, we hoped to create a signature blend of vineyards to represent the Sonoma Coast. We introduced the Three Sons in 2003, but awaited until 2006 to introduce its Sonoma Coast brother. For Hillside Cuvee, we sourced vineyards close to the Halleck…

The Haas Vineyard is really not named, as such. It’s a modest, two acre vineyard behind an equally modest home near Glen Ellen on the eastern foot of Sonoma Mountain. It’s currently owned by Peter and Ginny Haas, but we had purchased fruit from this site through two previous owners. I met Pete some years…

The Farm Vineyards was the first vineyard in our neighborhood from which we purchased fruit. In 2003, after being judged #1 Pinot in the United States, we needed to make more wine than our Estate Grown could support. Greg Lafollette, our winemaker, started combing the countryside and met Ben and George, just down the road…

When we planted our Estate Vineyard in 1993, our goals were not lofty. There had never been a vineyard planted in western Sebastopol, all the way to the coast. We were the first, and we began without a clue what we were doing. We purchased the rootstock from the Yellow Pages. We thought it would…

I was introduced Gewurztraminer in, of all places, Kenya in the 1970s. I lived in Kenya as a young man. It had been a British Colony just a decade earlier. India had also been a British Colony, a relatively short hop across the Indian Ocean. As part of the British Empire, Indian businessmen were the…