In 1999, Greg and Barbara Hill bought a small ranch from the Pinoli family in the heart of Anderson Valley’s “golden mile” of wineries, close to Golden Eye, Roederer Estate, Husch and Navarro vineyards. They began rebuilding one of the valley’s oldest farmhouses and planting a small vineyard on a south-facing slope. They selected French Dijon clones, similar to the ones used in their favorite old-world, Burgundian style pinots, and set out to pursue their passion and dream of making a “memorable pinot noir”. They assembled a team who shared their vision of handcrafting small lots of delicious, well-balanced Anderson Valley pinot noir.
The current manager of our vineyard is Norman Kobler, whose team cultivates our crop with sustainable, environmentally friendly methods that produce the fullest expression of the fruit without the use of herbicides and pesticides. He is also the owner of Philo Vineyard Solutions, Inc. and took over from Strictly Vineyards last year. He and his crew have been doing a wonderful job and the vineyard had a very good yield this year of 4.5 tons.
Phillip Baxter, co-founder of Baxter Winery, located near the town of Elk, provided custom-crush, barrel storage and bottling services for the majority of our vintages, in addition to consulting with Deny Dudzik on the winemaking. A graduate of the University of California Davis’ highly regarded enology program and trained in Burgundy, Phillip is a firm believer in the old world techniques that have made French Burgundy the standard for pinot noir for centuries.
The renovations to the old farmhouse, the construction of the wine shed, barn and water tanks were completed under the direction of Jim Boudoures, proprietor of Philo Saw Works. His dedication to maintaining the charm and original feel of the Anderson Valley, as well as the consummate craftsmanship of his team, further enhance the beauty and ambience of our property.
The seasonal vineyard operations would not be complete without Randy Ferguson, who bravely endures the poison oak to help out with projects around the property.
Finally, rounding out the team are several non-human assistants: Joy and Benny the vineyard dogs, Robert the bobcat and Henry the heron whose mission is gopher abatement.