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I have never really shared the story of our vineyard. Hearing about Nick's family havest and Two Buck Chuck got me going.
We bought our house 15 years ago (a unique fixer upper opportunity) and there was a derelict vineyard in the front. We were't even sure if it was alive, though they assured us that it was and that it was Pinot Noir. The house had been owned by an older gentleman who couldn't look after it. The first year, all of the grapes grew from the suckers sprouting from the base of the vines -- it was hard to even find them. We made some pretty bad homemade wine the first few years.
We started looking after it, moved from head pruned vines to a trellis, in-planted and expanded it. We picked the clone and root stock, planted the vines with a post hole digger and soaked them in the bath tub. The whole project was a lot of fun, and physical work.
In 1999, we found Adrian Fog, a boutique single vineyard Pinot winery, and they started producing the Two Sisters Russian River Pinot -- 150 cases from our vineyard. The winemaker really knows what he is doing, and he makes a serious Pinot. We got a 91 from Robert Parker, who said:
"The 2001 Pinot Noir Two Sisters Vineyard is outstanding. Notes of cola, root beer, cinnamon, and allspice jump from the glass of this medium ruby colored 2001... it exhibits complex aromatics, loads of fruit, and medium body."
Because the bottling is so small, it is always sold out, but retail is $75, and you can sometimes find it through wine brokers for about $90-$100. We have a friend who had a bottle in Tra Vigne in St. Helena ($125), and its in Spago, Rubicon, and a dozen or so spiffy restaurants around the states. Hundred buck James, LOL.
Maybe there will be FB wine in the future. Our tagline would be "Sonoma's Smallest Winery."
Here are a couple of photos of our tiny vineyard -- the last photos is from the large commercial vineyard across the street.
James
We bought our house 15 years ago (a unique fixer upper opportunity) and there was a derelict vineyard in the front. We were't even sure if it was alive, though they assured us that it was and that it was Pinot Noir. The house had been owned by an older gentleman who couldn't look after it. The first year, all of the grapes grew from the suckers sprouting from the base of the vines -- it was hard to even find them. We made some pretty bad homemade wine the first few years.
We started looking after it, moved from head pruned vines to a trellis, in-planted and expanded it. We picked the clone and root stock, planted the vines with a post hole digger and soaked them in the bath tub. The whole project was a lot of fun, and physical work.
In 1999, we found Adrian Fog, a boutique single vineyard Pinot winery, and they started producing the Two Sisters Russian River Pinot -- 150 cases from our vineyard. The winemaker really knows what he is doing, and he makes a serious Pinot. We got a 91 from Robert Parker, who said:
"The 2001 Pinot Noir Two Sisters Vineyard is outstanding. Notes of cola, root beer, cinnamon, and allspice jump from the glass of this medium ruby colored 2001... it exhibits complex aromatics, loads of fruit, and medium body."
Because the bottling is so small, it is always sold out, but retail is $75, and you can sometimes find it through wine brokers for about $90-$100. We have a friend who had a bottle in Tra Vigne in St. Helena ($125), and its in Spago, Rubicon, and a dozen or so spiffy restaurants around the states. Hundred buck James, LOL.
Maybe there will be FB wine in the future. Our tagline would be "Sonoma's Smallest Winery."
Here are a couple of photos of our tiny vineyard -- the last photos is from the large commercial vineyard across the street.
James