The Vineyards
Waxwing is proud to source fruit from these esteemed California Vineyards
Coastview Vineyard
Monterey County
In my nearly 30 year winemaking career, Coastview is easily my favorite vineyard to visit. You approach it from the Salinas Valley heading east into the Gabilan Mountain range. It's up a forested canyon that teems with interesting bird life. I see all kinds of species that are hard to find in other parts of the state. Keep going up a twisty dirt road, cut by owner John Allen himself, and you finally reach the vineyard at around 2,200 feet elevation. John has many varieties planted but I come for the Syrah. It's planted in shallow soils on top of decomposed granite and limestone. The vines are now self regulating and don't require a fruit drop to achieve 3 to 3.5 tons/acre. Just 18 miles from the Pacific Ocean, you look right across the Salinas Valley and into Monterey Bay. At the top is where it's easy to spot raptors floating on the coastal winds, zipping up and down the Gabilan Mountains in search of prey. The view of the dry, scrubby surrounding peaks, fertile Salinas Valley and Monterey Bay is amazing.
Deerheart Vineyard
Santa Cruz Mountains
The vineyard is just 5 miles from the Pacific Ocean in southern San Mateo County on the road between La Honda and San Gregorio beach. Much like Lester Family Vineyard, Deerheart sees more than its share of coastal fog in the mornings during the growing season keeping temperatures down (rarely does the site reach 90F) and producing a wine with vibrant ripe flavors but retaining a cutting edge of acidity. The vineyard is generally picked at the end of Sept or start of Oct (late for Pinot Noir). To promote ripening in such a cool site the owners, Bob and JoAnn Larson, are experimenting with six different Pinot Noir clones (943,459,828,777, Wadenswil and 667) on 4 different rootstocks. In Block 1 they have also trellised the cane wires just 18" above ground to capture reflective heat from the soil. The Larsons have owned the 44 acre property that borders the La Honda Open Space Preserve for 15 years and started planting Pinot Noir blocks in 2013. There are currently 4 blocks planted over successive years from 2013 to 2016 covering about 3 acres.
Lester Family Vineyard
Santa Cruz Mountains
Lester is a classic cold-climate location, with sandy, loamy soil. The sandy soils are a result of the region's origin as a sea bed; geological activity associated with the San Andreas Fault pushed up the seabed, forming successive marine terraces (this is how the Santa Cruz Mountains were formed). The vineyard's cold climate is due to heavy marine influence - it lies at about 600ft elevation, and is only 2-3 miles from the Pacific, so it gets plenty of fog during the summer. Although the fog can bring challenges in reaching full ripeness in colder years, the marine influence allows for the slow and even grape development that makes cool-climate Pinot (and Syrah) so desirable. Lester is managed by Prudy Foxx. Prudy is well known in the Santa Cruz Mountains AVA, and her care and attention really show at this site. The vineyard is nearly dry farmed, being watered at most 2-3 times during the year, and then only for 4-6 hours. This strict watering regime has remained in place throughout the recent drought, a remarkable feat not matched by many other sites. The deep (30+ ft) root systems of the vines (planted in 1998) and the uniformity of the sandy, loamy soils certainly help. Although not certified organic, this site has never seen herbicides of any kind, and the winter cover crop (usually barley and bell beans) slowly turns golden as summer progresses. The quality of this site and Prudy's careful farming really came out in my first two Lester vintages. The 2012 Pinot Noir (94 pts) and 2013 Pinot Noir (94 pts) both quickly sold out.
Flocchini Vineyard
Sonoma Coast/Petaluma Gap
I got a call from a fellow winemaker during the harvest of 2008. This friend knew of a promising Syrah vineyard, in the Sonoma Coast appellation, that still had fruit to sell. After talking with the Flocchinis I jumped at the chance and took a ton of their Syrah grapes, clones Noir and 877. The Flocchini family had traditionally run dairy cows on the property but planted a portion of their property to grapes in 2002. The Petaluma Gap growing region is fast becoming known for producing balanced, delicious cool climate Syrah. The vineyard is located along Old Lakeville Road Number 3, southeast of Petaluma. The block I take is on a gentle west facing slope above the Petaluma River. Flocchini uses stored surface water to irrigate during the growing season and with fluctuating drought conditions it can be hit or miss with collecting enough water during the wet season.
Tondré Grapefield
Santa Lucia Highlands
The vineyard is located in the Santa Lucia Highlands. SLH is known more for Pinot Noir but the cool, coastal influence from Monterrey Bay is ideal for Riesling (and Syrah!), too. Owner Joe Alarid planted the Riesling vines in 2006 just as other growers were pulling out large blocks of Riesling from the AVA. He has 104 acres total in vines and just 3 acres of Riesling. Elevation is 360 to 400 ft above the dry Arroyo Seco riverbed and the soil is Chualar sandy loam. The vineyard received just 4 inches of rain during the 2013/2014 wet season (average for the site is 12 inches) so Joe had to use his drip irrigation system during the growing season for our 2014 Tondré Riesling. His water comes from wells on his property and he feels the water table in the area is being used sustainably. He planted the vine rows in a north-south orientation to get more even sun exposure on both sides of the vines (traditionally the rows have mostly gone east-west in SLH vineyards). After bloom he opens up the canopy with leaf pulling around the fruit zone and tends to drop fruit after veraison to lighten the crop load. We pick the fruit between 21 and 22 Brix and right around 3.00 pH.
