The soil. The vines. The growers. The weather. It takes all four to create exceptional grapes, but some vineyards have these qualities in spades. They’re the superstars of the wine world, with the kind of name recognition usually reserved for actors and sports heroes.
Connoisseurs speak about these legendary vineyards in hushed tones. Vintners line up to buy their grapes, wineries include their names on vintage labels and experts cite their pedigrees.
Sonoma Valley has more than its fair share of them thanks to geography, history and a legacy of persistence.
“The county is distinctive because of the range of different soil types and climatic zones,” said Honore Comfort, executive director of Sonoma County Vintners. “Sonoma Valley plays a special role because it has been making wine continuously for more than 150 years. It’s ground zero for premium winemaking.”
“Generation after generation of growers has stuck with it, through Prohibition, frost, major heat waves and devastating diseases,” adds Grant Raeside, executive director of the Sonoma Valley Vintners and Growers Alliance. “They could have easily pulled up the vines and planted something else.”
Their efforts have been rewarded. Wines made from the Valley’s finest grapes have distinct, recognizable flavors, said Ray Johnson, author of “The Good Life Guide to Enjoying Wine” and teacher of wine studies at Santa Rosa Junior College. “Wines made from these grapes are an expression of the vineyard. You can taste it uniquely in them.”
Among those that qualify as Sonoma’s most storied are the following 10 vineyards, nominated by Raeside, Johnson, Comfort and Nick Frey, president of the Sonoma County Wine Grape Commission:
The legendary Monte Rosso is nestled into the sides of Moon Mountain. Photo by Caroline Hall.
1. Monte Rosso – Comfort calls this Moon Mountain legend “number one on the list because its wines are so prized. Credit that to the combination of soil, exposure, elevation and a long history.” It was planted with zinfandel and cabernet sauvignon vines in the 1880s and 1890s and was owned by the Louis M. Martini family for decades.
2. Durell – Raeside describes this stony Carneros vineyard as one of the region’s best. Cool breezes and morning fog incubate the grapes that find their way into the high-end chardonnays, syrahs and pinot noirs of several wineries, including Chateau St. Jean.
3. Sangiacomo – The Sangiacomo family has owned this 1,000-acre Carneros property since 1927, when it was planted in pears, apples, prunes and cherries. They later replaced the trees with pinot noir, chardonnay, merlot and pinot grigio vines that serve more than 40 wineries, including Landmark and Ravenswood. “This could be the single biggest grower in Carneros without its own winery,” says Johnson
4. Pagani – Comfort describes this Sonoma Valley landmark as “one of the Valley’s originals, a testament to where the industry came from, a true fieldblend vineyard.” Unsure what would grow best here, immigrants planted a range of varietals within one vineyard. Many of Pagani’s oldest vines, planted between 1896 and 1922, are still bearing. Ridge Vineyards and St. Francis Winery have been using Pagani grapes to make distinctive old-style wines since the early 1990s.
5. Wildwood – This Sonoma Valley classic has “one of the oldest zinfandel vineyards in Sonoma County that is still producing,” said Comfort. Pioneer John Drummond recognized the iron-rich, ancient volcanic soils and in 1879 planted them with imported cuttings from Châteaux Margaux and Lafite Rothschild. German immigrant Louis Kunde bought the vineyard in 1904; his descendants still use the grapes in their Kunde Estate wines.
6. Rhinefarm – This vineyard at the southeastern point of Sonoma Valley belongs to the 150-year-old Gundlach Bundschu winery, and “it is the root of that whole brand,” said Comfort. It stretches from the valley floor near Carneros up the Mayacamas Mountains, with soils ranging from volcanic to clay and gravel. It’s planted in cabernet sauvignon, merlot, pinot noir, gewurztraminer and chardonnay.
7. Jack London – This Glen Ellen jewel was planted by beloved author Jack London in the early 1900s and still produces wine. Descendants own some of the vines, but Kenwood Vineyards buys the rest of the harvest from cabernet sauvignon, merlot and zinfandel vines on adjacent land now owned by the California State Parks System. “Some places do double duty,” said Johnson, in that they give hikers and park patrons a close-up look at viticulture.
8. Bismark Mountain – Comfort loves the “can-do” spirit of this vineyard. Hanna Winery was told that this Mayacamas Mountain parcel was non-arable, but its owners thought better. They dynamited holes in the ground and in 1993 began filling them with vines that now bear grapes the size of blueberries and pack a wallop of flavor.
The Cherryblock Vineyard is 11-acres of reserve quality grapes. Photo by Ryan Lely.
9. and 10. Cherryblock and Mission – Sebastiani’s 11-acre Cherryblock vineyard was planted in cherry trees by wine pioneer Samuele Sebastiani, but later generations realized the value of its well-drained, rocky volcanic soil. In the 1960s, they replaced the trees with cabernet sauvignon vines that now produce the grapes for reserve-quality wines. These old vines also are accessible to tourists who visit the tasting room, as are vines at the Mission vineyard to the east. Franciscan fathers who founded the Mission San Francisco Solano first planted them in 1825. The vineyard is now a state historical landmark, but the vines on this two-acre parcel were pulled out in 1980. Sebastiani now uses the land for experimental plantings.
