• THE VINES ~ DUTTON RANCH
• THE VINES ~ SONOMA
• THE VINES ~ TOCAI
• OTHER RUSSIAN RIVER VINEYARDS

We feel privileged to be one of a diverse group of wineries that has secured fruit from the Dutton family vines. For two generations the Dutton’s have grown apples, and now grapes, in the Green Valley sub-appellation of the Russian River Valley. Wines from this region are famous for their softness, warmth and earthiness. We purchase fruit from several Dutton properties:

Thomas Road

Located West of Highway 116 and a mile or so North of Graton, this vineyard enjoys a Eastern exposure, Goldridge loam soils and a great reputation for producing intense, chewy and expressive wines. It forms the core of our Dutton bottling. Planted to clone 115 on 101-14 rootstock.

Winkler/Ross Road

Located just North of Graton, on Ross Road, next to the Manzana apple processing plant this former apple nursery also benefits from the typical Goldridge loam soils, is lower in elevation than Thomas road and ripens later. Wines from this block typically show an aromatic celery seed, or raspberry tea like aroma coupled with supple berry fruit. It too, is planted to clone 115 on 101-14 rootstock.

Cleary Freestone Hill

The coolest of our vineyard sites, planted to clone 667 on 101-14, again in the ubiquitous Goldridge loam soil, this valley floor vineyard typically ripens last of all the Dutton blocks. Small berries and concentrated flavors of raspberry and mint, coupled with dark color make this an important component of our Russian River Pinots.

Crane

Crane melons anyone? Oh, wait a minute we're talking pinot noir, but I cannot mention this vineyard without a nod to the Crane melon, developed by Oliver Crane during the 1920's and sold every fall by the Cranes in their rustic barn near the intersection of Crane Canyon Road and Petaluma Hill Road. A cross of Crenshaw and a Japanese melon, the orange flesh is aromatic, soft in acidity and infinitely beguiling…but, back to pinot!

I met Jennifer Crane after our lab tech brought a small sample of her first vintage to analyze and for me to taste. The wine was and the vineyard is exciting. Great raspberry fruit, excellent color and good acidity all combine to make this a vineyard to cherish.

The Cranes currently farm about 10-11 acres of pinot planted to clones 115, 667, 777 and the 'Italian' clones 18 and 20. Located just south of Santa Rosa at the base of Crane Canyon Road, the vineyard benefits from the cool ocean air that sweeps down from Bodega Bay on its way up Bennett Valley and ultimately into Sonoma Valley near the town of Kenwood. With no or minimal irrigation the dense soils produce small, intensly flavored berries with classic pinot character.

Current plans call for expanding the plantings by 1-2 acres a year, and as Rick Crane, (Jennifer's father), says-"The Gallo's better watch out!"

Pagani Vineyard

Known also for fine old vine zinfandel and Alicante Bouschet, the Sonoma Valley Pagani Vineyard traces its heritage back to Felice Pagani, an immigrant from Italy in the late 1800’s. He planted about 2 acres of ‘sauvignon vert’ in the early 1920’s. It’s these vines that continue to give us fruit today. Located on the floor of the Sonoma Valley just south of the town of Kenwood with shallow alluvial soils, the vineyard stays cool through the hotter summer days as the sun drops below the hills to the west. Often the last white grapes harvested in the Kenwood area the fruit benefits from a long ripening period that allows for great flavor development.

Benedetti

New to us in 2006 this vineyard is located just South and West of downtown Sebastapol, (is that an oxymoron?), on a South facing hillside of the first ridge West of town. The vineyard faces the Bloomfield gap which conveys the ocean fogs east toward Santa Rosa and Petaluma. Both the uniformity of the vineyard and its location promise good things, and if borne out by the wine offer the potential for a small bottling of a vineyard designated wine, in addition to contributing to our 2006 Sonoma County wine.