Looking straight down a row of vines at 5 Wells toward the oak woodland and the dry golden hills beyond.
5Wells

Our Origin Story

In 2014, Maclain “Mac” Wells found the property that would be the foundation on which to launch 5 Wells. Set in the cool, windswept hills in the southernmost reaches of the Russian River Valley, the ranch was then a goat farm hiding a secret — an underlayment of Goldridge soils.

The soils, combined with cooling afternoon winds from the Petaluma wind gap just to the south, presented the perfect opportunity to develop a world class pinot noir and chardonnay program.

From that point on, Mac had one goal: to produce estate wines that reflected the unique terroir of the 5 Wells vineyard. He spent the next decade planting the vines and nurturing them to maturity. Only then, after a decade, did 5 Wells wines launch.

In 2026, Mac’s partner Jeong joined him (and his vineyard dog, Cassis) at the 5 Wells ranch, and together they released the inaugural 2024 pinot noirs and rosé.

Maclain “Mac” Wells and his partner Jeong standing together in the vineyard at the end of the season, the vine leaves gone gold behind them.
Mac and Jeong in the rows at the end of the season
Mac on the gravel above the vineyard at sunset with a glass of pinot noir, facing Cassis, the black vineyard dog, hills going hazy behind them.
Cassis, the vineyard dog

The name

Five wells, and the waterwheels that drew them.

  1. Yourself
  2. Family
  3. Friends
  4. Community
  5. Spiritual

There are five wells from which each of us draw in life: ourselves, our family, our friends, our broader community and the spiritual force with which we commune. The name reflects the ranch and all the support Mac was able to draw upon to make this dream a reality.

That is why there are cast iron waterwheels hanging on the label. A waterwheel has one job, to draw from what is in the ground — the same job as the vines do.

How it happened

From goat farm to a world class vineyard.

  • 2015

    The first blocks

    The property was a quiet remnant of its past, an old goat farm littered with horned skulls and with its best days apparently behind it. Development began that year with the late Ulysses Valdez putting in the first blocks.

  • 2016 to 2018

    Follow-on plantings

    Later plantings followed the natural lines of the site and brought us to 32.8 acres of densely planted vines, spaced just 40 inches apart and with rows every 6.5 feet, resulting in 2010 vines per acre.

  • Along the way

    What the ground gave up

    As the vineyard went in, the soil exposed its secret: marine fossils came up on the plow, a reminder that this ridge had been seafloor long before it was farmland, and the Goldridge soil is what the ocean left behind.

  • 2019 to 2023

    Our first harvests

    We waited until the vines reached true maturity. During this time, other winemakers made numerous high scoring vineyard designates from the fruit.

  • 2024

    Our own label

    Three estate wines under our own name: the Goatman Pinot Noir, the Russian River Pinot Noir and the Rosé of Pinot Noir. Fruit from the various blocks goes to a short list of winemakers who bottle it as a single vineyard designate, which is the most honest review a vineyard can get.

Rows of bare trellis posts running away over the crest of the hill in 2015, straw mulch covering the bare ground between them, oaks still leafless at the edge of the block.
The first posts in, running over the crest
A man standing with two dogs at the top of a freshly planted block in 2015, looking down a curving row of young stakes with straw spread across the bare ground.
Looking down a block that had just gone in

The list

Come along for the next one.

We write a few times a year, when there is wine to talk about.

Join the list