Pinot Noir Vineyards
Freestone Station | Joyce | Goodin on Blank | Sylvia's | Umino Vineyards | Holder
Pratt / Cornerstone on Sexton | Twin Hill | Baily Vineyards | Rayhill Vineyards
At harvest our processing is unintrusive. The fruit is fermented in small lot one-ton fermenters. To achieve carbonic complexity some whole clusters are added to the bottom of the fermenter. To maximize extraction and minimize astringency the ripe fruit is destemmed, not crushed to maintain integrity of the berry, after which the must is chilled down to ‘cold soak’ for several days using chiller plates (below, left). When fermentation begins, via indigenous yeast, a ‘submerged cap’ regime is employed to maximize extraction using screens (below, left) to hold the fermentation cap down. The screens are lifted for a gentle daily punch down. As the wine is pressed off and barreled down, Chardonnay lees from the previous vintage is added for color stability, to fine out unwanted tannins and as an extra layer of complexity.
 Pinot Noir set up: Chiller plates (right) for the cold soak and screens (left) for the submerged cap |
 Pinot Noir must ready for the cold soak |
 Pinot Noir punchdown |
Freestone Station
The property for this vineyard is owned by the Cleary family and is another farmed by the Dutton family. It is located in the city of Freestone on the western border of the Russian River Valley. We are working with an acre each of Dijon115 and 777 clone, clone 23 and a Pomard clone. This is a typical ‘west county’ vineyard with harvest coming in late October and a yield of about 1.5 tons to the acre. This wine consistantly has notes of red cherry, wild strawberry, yellow rose, roasted grain, pink peppercorn, smoke and sweet vanilla with sumac and other hints of Asian spice.
Joyce
The property for this vineyard is owned by Tif and Judy Joyce and farmed by Charlie Chenoweth. The three acres are located on a ridge above and just south of Freestone on Barnett Valley Road. The vineyard is planted to both Dijon clones 115 and 777. The vineyard is very late ripening and the ’04 vintage, the first, is as dark and concentrated as a Syrah but with incredible Pinot flavors. This is truly one to watch. In barrel the notes of this wine are black plum, cherry and allspice characteristics.
Goodin on Blank
The Blank Road vineyard is on, as its name implies, Blank Road in the southern most part of the Russian River Valley. In fact the vineyard is just on the border with the new extension of the Russian River Valley appellation. The property’s proprietor is San Francisco attorney Kenneth Goodin and was planted and is managed by local farmer Jim Pratt in 2001. This is one of those special west county vineyards located in a very cool mezzo-climate allowing for long hang time and therefore enabling us to make wines of extraordinary depth and complexity. Planted to two Dijon clones 115 and 777 and spaced 5 X 8, this vineyard is harvested typically well into October and has made a vineyard designate from the first vintage. Wine from this vineyard offeres red cherries, dried orange peel and ideally ripened Santa Rosa plums red licorice, pink peppercorn and mineral elements.
Sylvia's
This vineyard, only 9/10 of an acre, is owned and farmed by the Dutton family. Planted in 1994 on a ridge above the city of Graton to 'gold ridge' soils, the clone selected was Dijon 115. An interesting anecdote on how the vineyard derived it's name: the Duttons always referred to the vineyard as 'Sylvia's'. When they invoiced the winery for the fruit 'Sylvia's' was the name on the invoice. When the first vineyard designate finally made it into the bottle they laughed when they saw the name on the label, and said Sylvia was the woman who rented the cottage on the property. The wine can display sweetly fragrant red and yellow rose and beautifully defined red cherry, red currant and wild strawberry, in a savory marriage with roasted cereal grains, sumac and pink peppercorn.
Umino Vineyards
Dave Umino owns and farms this 11 acre vineyard, one third of which is purchased by Chasseur, located on rolling hills southwest of the township of Sebastopol on Blucher Valley road. At this writing the Russian River Valley has extended its boundary to include this vineyard. Dave is a third generation farmer from the Central Valley of California leaving to pursue a career in forensic metallurgy. With a desire to return to the land Dave retired and purchased this current property. Against the advice of local farmers and consultants he planted the property to 4 Dijon clones (115,667,777 and 459) of Pinot Noir in 1997. It was the belief at the time that this site was too cold for grapes. It is to our benefit that Dave paid no attention to this advice. 2006, our first vintage from this vineyard, was some of the finest quality fruit brought to the winery. In fact we have dedicated a vineyard designate to this vineyard starting with the 2006.
Pratt/Cornerstone on Sexton
Jim Pratt ambitiously planted the Cornerstone Vineyard in 2000 to multiple Dijon clones, 113,114,115,777 and the new 828. The vineyard is located 500 feet above the town of Feestone on Sexton Road. The cool breezes coming in from the coast allows this vineyard to ripen late, and therefore, allows for important hang time and flavor development. The different clones make for a complex blend. The Russian River Valley has been expanded so this vineyard now fits into this appellation. Sweet cherry, red raspberry, pomegranate, rose petal jelly and pink peppercorn are the common characteristics of the wine coming from this vineyard.
Twin Hill
The property for this vineyard is owned and farmed by Ben Hurst. It is located just southwest of Sebastopol. Ben’s family has been growing and processing apples for generations. However, he too realizes the potential for Pinot Noir in this area. Here it is as cool as it gets in ‘west county’. Four one acre blocks are planted, two to Dijon 777 and two to a Swan clone. Swan is a very late ripening clone of Pinot Noir. With the expansion of the Russian River Valley this vineyard is now in that appellation. The wine from this vineyard typically offeres dark red cherry, sweet plum and Mr. Lincoln roses, spiced with white pepper and powdered sumac, over a firmer core of darker fruits and mineral spice.
Rayhill Vineyards
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Rayhill Vineyards is perched on the top of a mountain at a 500 foot elevation in the premier Pinot Noir location of Sebastopol Hills, a sub classification of the Russian River Appellation. The 9 acre Vineyard was planted in 2001 on the well drained Goldridge Sandy Loam soil. The weather during the growing season is warm days, afternoon winds and cool nights. These are ideal conditions ( terroir ) for world class Pinot Noir.
Bailey Vineyard
Bailey Vineyards is located in the heart of 3 prestigious appellations: Sonoma Coast, Russian River and Green Valley. It consists of two and a half acres of pinot noir grapes, planted 4’ by 4’ in 1999. The pinot noir vines are all Dijon clones: 115, 114, 667 and 777, all grafted on 101-14 rootstock. The Vineyard is managed by Paul Sloan of Small Vines Viticulture, which prides itself on farming pinot noir grapes in the Burgundian fashion, with cane pruning, tight spacing and low crop yields. Organic farming is a requisite. Proximity to the coast makes for foggy mornings, cool afternoons and still cooler nights during the growing season.
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Holder Vineyard 
This is a 1.5 acre vineyard property owned and farmed by Bruce Holder and Mary Ann Wheeler. Situated one mile east of the town of Occidental at 832 feet above sea level, the Holder Vineyard benefits from the cool coastal influence in the morning followed by warm pleasant afternoons allowing for a slow ripening of the Pinot Noir grapes. The property was planted in four blocks with Pinot Noir Dijon clones 667 & 115 in 2000. The small acreage allows for individual attention to each plant presenting an excellent representation of Pinot Noir from the
True Wine Afficionados appreciate great Whites.
Chasseur Wines is known for not only great Pinot but also some amazing Chardonnay. Click Here for more information.