Following the natural contour of the landscape while weaving their way through boulders, outcroppings and massive rock formations, our mountain vineyards provide a beautiful lush foreground against a backdrop of spectacular soaring peaks. Planted at an elevation of just under 3300 feet, our vineyards are truly a labor love, especially considering the incredibly challenging weather conditions that exist in the mountains. With typical summer highs of 100-110 degrees and winter lows in the range of 15-18 degrees, growing grapes can be anything but easy. Santa Ana winds blowing off the desert and torrential spring rains delivering upwards of 6” of rain per storm are not uncommon. This is mountain grape growing at its most extreme! For a vast majority of the year however the weather is absolutely fabulous giving visitors an incredible back country wine tasting experience.
Our high elevation vineyards produce intensely colored fruit with deep, rich, complex flavors and wonderfully fruit forward aromas. Our 4 main vineyard blocks include:
Ribbonwood Block: Recently grafted to Petite Sirah and Malbec, the gentle southern facing slope of the vineyard offers maximum sun exposure for even ripening and spectacular fruit.
Radar Ridge Block: Planted in 2003 and 2004 primarily to Grenache (clones 1 and 513) and Syrah (clones 470 and Estrella River), this low-yielding vineyard produces deeply colored, rich, intense fruit with a smokey, earthiness that is reflective of our mountain climate and terroir.
Calcite Flat Block: Our newest vineyard block planted in 2007/2008 in soils rich in calcium, quartz and minerals provide an exotic combination for our Cabernet Sauvignon and Cabernet Franc. The vineyard produced it’s first fruit in 2011.
Rattlesnake Block: Planted in 2003 and 2004 our most picturesque vineyard block has recently been grafted to Tannat; a dark, thick skinned, highly tannic red variety that creates wines of intense, earthy, deeply complex flavors and aromas. There are less than 10 acres of this rare variety planted in Southern California making our small vineyard block something of a rarity. We harvested our first fruit in 2018.