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Our Vineyard Sources
 CABERNET SAUVIGNON:
The vineyard where our Cabernet originates is top secret — the owner is protective and proprietary. However, we'll give you a few hints. The historic vineyard was first planted by Hiram W. Crabb in 1868 and Crabb originally made his own wine from this Cabernet from 359 acres in Oakville that he called “Hermosa Vineyards.” After Crabb's death in 1899, the vineyard was sold to E.S. Churchill and Crabb's original label was maintained until Prohibition. |
In 1943, most of Churchill’s acreage (335 acres) was acquired by Martin Stelling and became part of the 2,000 acres known generally as the Stelling Estate. In the same year, 89 acres of the Crabb property was acquired by Beaulieu Vineyards. Wines produced from this vineyard have a phenomenal combination of power and silkiness. This is one of the grand cru vineyards of the new world... Have you guessed the top secret vineyard? One more hint - the Romans would have called this wine and vineyard the "honestum" or "the beautiful" or "the highest."
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ZINFANDEL:
Our ClandestZin 2006 Russian River Valley Zinfandel is sourced from vines nearly a century old on what used to be the Tom Feeney Ranch in the Russian River Valley. The ranch consisted of several distinct vineyards within a 1 mile radius of each other in the Laguna de Santa Rosa flood plain in Russian River Valley.
The Barbieri vineyard, planted in 1905, lies along Olivet Lane and is planted almost entirely with Zinfandel.
Montafi Vineyard (used to be Tom Feeney Ranch), planted in 1926 and named for a prior owner, is on the eastern bench of the Laguna de Santa Rosa flood plain and is mostly planted with Zinfandel but includes Alicante Bouschet, Petite Sirah and other grapes.
Papera Vineyard, planted in 1934, is mostly planted to Zinfandel on St. George rootstock, but contains one block planted as a field blend and may contain up to 12 different varietal.
Piner Vineyard, planted in the mid-1940s is known as Tom Feeney's home block.
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Our ClandestZin is close to 100% Zinfandel but likely has a small amount of the field blends noted above.
The 2006 vintage marks the end of a very special era as the Tom Feeney Ranch was recently purchased and these amazing heritage zinfandel vines will no longer be available. Don't miss the chance for this sip of perfection from Feeney Ranch.
A NOTE ABOUT THE APPELLATION:
The Russian River Valley parallels the Russian River and was approved as an American Viticultural Area in 1983. The Russian River Valley AVA is a sub-district of the Sonoma County and accounts for about one-sixth of the total planted vineyard acreage in Sonoma County. The area is demarcated by Sebastopol in the South, Santa Rosa in the east, Healdsburg in the north and Guernville and Occidental in the West. It is characteristically cool in climate and fog (because of the Valley's proximity to the Pacific Ocean) plays a large role in grape growing conditions.
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