Our estate vineyards were first planted in 1998; however, we had nurtured the land for more than 30 years. William Canihan Sr. purchased the land from a Basque farmer in 1970. Because of our commitment to the land and organic practices, we let nature cleanse the soil for 28 years. We planted 1103 Paulsen, SO4, and 101-14 rootstocks, and the following spring we field grafted Pinot Noir Dijon clones 115, 667, 777, 828,  Syrah clone 1, and Cabernet Franc clones 4 and 7. In 2005, we added 4 acres of Pinot Noir clones 115, 667, 777, Swan, Masson, Pommard and Wadenswil (2A).

Certified organic vineyard practices, dry-farming, hand-harvesting only at complete ripeness, fermentation with naturally occurring native yeast, and no fining or filtering result in flavorful wines expressive of our “terroir”.

We use winemaking techniques that are influenced by classic European traditions: hand-sorting our grapes before they enter the de-stemmer and then sorting them again afterwards. Rather than large tank fermentations, we utilize numerous, small hand-mixed fermentations in order to draw out the best from each vineyard block and to enhance the nuanced layers of the final blend. Aged in French oak barrels for 14 to 22 months, we rack our wines two or three times from barrel-to-barrel to provide the small doses of air needed for optimal maturation.

The wines are a pleasure to drink young, and will continue to improve in softness and subtlety as they age in the bottle.