We grow Pinot Noir and Chardonnay for sale.

Pinot Noir

Our Pinot Noir plantings consist of the Pommard and Mariafeld clones. Magical powers are attributed to some Pinot Noir clones and much energy is spent debating which clones are “better,” although we feel that it is the combination of the site, farming and clone that produce the real magic.

Pommard

Harold Olmo, a UC Davis professor, is thought to have imported cuttings from the Chateau de Pommard, in the commune of Pommard. We purchased our Pommard clone from FPS, which states that “this selection came to Foundation Plant Services around 1956 from Pommard, France, which is a wine region in the Côte de Beaune, subregion of Burgundy.” According to John Winthrop Haeger’s book, “North American Pinot Noir,” the Pommard clone predominates in wines made by Rochioli, Williams Selyem and Gary Farrell from Rochioli’s West Block and from the Allen Ranch, both located in the Middle Reach area of the Russian River Valley.

Mariafeld

The Mariafeld clone of Pinot Noir came from Wadenswil, Switzerland to UC Davis in 1966.  According to Haeger, “The mother vines for the various Mariafeld clones are said to have come…from the Mariafeld estate of General Ulrich Wille, commander in chief of the Swiss armed forces in World War I…” So, not from Burgundy, which is interesting and -- in California anyway -- a little unique. As we discussed in a blog entry, Celeste and I chose Mariafeld because we loved the way it tasted (we spent the better part of a day tasting various clones of Pinot Noir directly from the barrel in Kosta Browne’s cellars), and could consistently identify it as unique and delicious. That, we think, says something.

Chardonnay

Our Chardonnay plantings are primarily of a California heritage clone called Mt. Eden. The history of the Mt. Eden clone begins with Paul Masson, who imported Chardonnay plant material from Burgundy around 1896. In 1943, Martin Ray took cuttings from the Paul Masson vineyard and used them to plant a vineyard on Mt. Eden, in the Santa Cruz mountains. The majority of our Mt. Eden plantings (for all of our blocks 4 and 5) were from plant materials selected by winemaker Merry Edwards for the Matanzas Creek Vineyards, where she made wine in the 1970’s and 80’s. This Chardonnay is on 1616C rootstock (block 4) and 420A rootstock (block 5).

In block 6, we planted a microblock Chardonnay for our personal use. We grafted a mix (or “masale,” as the French would say) of the Mt. Eden and Robert Young clones of Chardonnay together with a “Mystery” clone (some of the Pinot Noir vines in Block 1 turned out to be Chardonnay, a not unheard of nursery mistake) onto 1616C. The Mt. Eden in block 6 was selected by Simi Vineyards winemaker Zelma Long from their vineyard on Piner Road, near us.

We think it is cool that our Mt. Eden Chardonnay selections all bear the fingerprints of Merry Edwards and Zelma Long, among the first and most iconic of California’s female winemakers.