Steve and Robyn Russak planted four acres of Grenache, Zinfandel, and Syrah on their Santa Rosa Valley estate in 2013. The vines are on a VSP trellis at four foot in-row spacing with 6 feet between rows. The hillside vineyard rises to almost 2000 feet above sea level on thin sandy soils over fractured limestone. This young vineyard struggles on the free draining soils and naturally produces low, concentrated yields of fruit that are buffeted daily by the winds coming off the Pacific.
The vineyard is entirely hand-farmed and is focused on sustainable approaches.
The coastal influence and limestone on this site allows for late harvests of rich, ripe flavors with great natural acidity. Each year this vineyard produces our darkest colored wines.
We instantly fell in love with the Lewis family’s hillside vineyard located a scant twelve miles from the Ventura County coast. This beautiful little vineyard is entirely planted to Syrah clone 877 on 1103P rootstock.
We took over farming this vineyard in 2016 and it has since been fully transitioned to organic farming. The steep hillside has loamy clay soils with moderate water holding capabilities that we augment with winter cover crops. During the last four seasons we've progressivly reduced irrigation by almost 50% each year and seen a resulting increase in concentration and natural acidity in the fruit.
The fruit from this vineyard is used in our The 109 Mile Syrah and Arianna Syrah and is typically the last vineyard we harvest in Santa Rosa Valley.
Our estate vineyard was first planted in 2010 to answer the question of what varieties are best suited to coastal Ventura County.
It contains test blocks of Cabernet Sauvignon, Syrah, Primitivo, Grenache, and Mouvedre on multiple rootstocks with some own-rooted vines.
The vines are planted with a variety of spacing and trellis systems from VSP, to Smart-Dyson, to head trained.
We began improving the structure of the heavy clay soils in 2009 and the vineyard is 100% organically farmed with fertilizer generously provided by our horses and chickens onsite. The oldest vines are dry farmed and the remaining are being trained to survive with supplemental irrigation.
The fruit from this vineyard goes into our Vigneron Reserve, the 109 Mile Syrah, and the 109 Mile Grenache. It typically has the highest acidity of all the fruit we harvest.
High in the Sierra Pelona Mountains this vineyard was planted on the San Andreas fault in 1899. After outlasting Prohibition and two world wars it was abandoned around 1960 and was eventually donated to the local school.
Since that time the vines have grown amongst the sagebrush and generations of schoolchildren have attended school, eaten the grapes, and had no idea of the viticultural gem next door. It is the only remaining vineyard in Los Angeles County that dates back to the early days of the California wine industry.
The vineyard is 100% own-rooted Mission. It has been dry-farmed since its inception and the soil is loose decomposed granite.
We heard about the existence of this vineyard in 2019 and quickly made the trip into the mountains to scout it out. The Lake Hughes/Elizabeth Lake School system has been kind enough to allow us to tenderly care for the vines and work on bringing this historic vineyard back into production.
Pruning of the long ignored vines began in 2019 and we anticipate the first harvest in 2021.
Rancho Baila Sol is a ten acre property in coastal Ventura County. The deep sandy soils are planted to own-rooted Cabernet Sauvignon and Grenache on 1103P rootstock. The vines are head-trained with 8 foot spacing between vines. The Cabernet
The original vineyard plantings of Syrah, Sangiovese, and Primitivo that gave rise to our first 90 point wine were brought down by Pierce's Disease in 2017 and we replanted it to primarily Grenache in 2019.
2020 marked the return of the vineyard to the lineup with a rosé field blend from the younger vines and the remaining Cabernet Sauvignon.
