The vineyard

Thirty-Two acres of winegrapes on a sandstone ridge that used to be a seabed.

Vineyard located southwest of Sebastopol, in the coldest corner of the Russian River Valley, with close to three hundred feet of fall from the top block to the bottom.

Terroir

Vineyard Site

Located in the windswept hills at the southwestern edge of the Russian River Valley, the fruit from the 5 Wells vineyard is an authentic reflection of the environment in which it grew. The confluence of the water, soil and wind in this region is the terroir, and it is what goes into every bottle.

72: Acres
32: Planted
300 ft: Of fall
Goldridge: Sandy loam

The 5 Wells ridge in full leaf: vine canopy across the foreground, the planted blocks running over the hill behind it with a single oak standing in the middle of them, and the hills of the valley beyond. — The ridge in full leaf, the oak standing in the middle of it

Climate

The coldest corner of the Russian River Valley.

The Sebastopol Hills sit in the southwest corner of the Russian River Valley, closer to the coast than other areas of the Russian River Valley and colder than all of them. That is the whole appeal — cool climate pinot noir!

By early afternoon (when it is the hottest), a reliable breeze generated from the Pacific Ocean and through the rugged terrain picks up and it does not really stop. Fog comes over the ridge most afternoons and sits until about ten the following morning. Both slow everything down. Our season runs long maximizing the hang time allowing the sugars to climb slowly while maintaining the bright acidity.

The wind does one more thing — it thickens the skins. And, thicker skins mean more color, more flavors and more depth. It is why a wine from this corner tastes deeper, more savory and darker than wines from vineyards ten miles inland.

Dusk over the Sebastopol Hills: the moon up in a clear sky, the far hills gone gold, and a row of 5 Wells vines across the foreground.

The view out over the blocks toward the hazy Russian River Valley, the far hills softened by afternoon haze.

Farming

Slow is the only speed up here.

Cool mornings and a steady wind mean long, unhurried ripening resulting in thicker skins, slower sugar development, and balanced acidity that is still there at harvest. This long growing season is a difficult way to farm, but it is the reason the wine expresses deep savory notes and dark fruit.

Soil

Goldridge is what is underneath.

The soil here is Goldridge fine sandy loam, which drains so fast that a vine has to send roots down a long way to find water. A vine that works that hard is a vine that produces concentrated fruit.

This soil comes from an ancient pedigree: the Wilson Grove Formation. In the late Miocene the Pacific reached far inland of where it sits today, and this hill stood on the shoreline. What settled in that shallow sea hardened into a fine marine sandstone packed with bivalves and shells, and what weathered off the top of it became Goldridge. The soil and the fossil are the same material at two different ages.

None of this is a story we invented. When the first blocks went in the plow kept turning up shells — the rock with fossilized shells sitting beside the bottle in the photo is one of many that came off this hill.

A 5 Wells Rosé of Pinot Noir bottle filled to the shoulder with pale Goldridge sand, standing on a lichened concrete wall above the vineyard, a block of the same sandstone beside it.

A block of pale Wilson Grove sandstone from the vineyard with two fossil bivalve shells embedded in its upper surface. — Wilson Grove sandstone with fossilized shells still in it, excavated from the vineyard

The blocks

Fourteen blocks, and what is in each one.

The planted ground is cut into fourteen blocks by aspect, slope and soil, each with its own clone, rootstock and microclimate. That is why we farm by row and often make multiple picks in each block instead of clearing the hill in one pass.

Block map of the 5 Wells Vineyard: fourteen numbered blocks outlined on an aerial photograph, each labelled with its clone, rootstock, acreage and vine count. The ten pinot noir blocks are shaded burgundy; the four chardonnay blocks are shaded gold.

On paper

The site by the numbers

Appellation: Russian River Valley, Sonoma County
Neighborhood: Sebastopol Hills
Property: 72 acres
Planted: 32.81 acres: 23.43 pinot noir, 9.38 chardonnay
Fall, top to bottom: Close to 300 feet
Soil: Goldridge fine sandy loam over ancient marine sediment
Pinot noir clones: 667, Calera, Pommard, 115, 943, and two proprietary suitcase clones from the most famous pinot noir vineyard in France
Chardonnay clones: Hyde Old Wente, Hyde 112, 548
Rootstocks: Riparia, 101-14, 3309
First blocks planted: 2015
Farmed by: Chris Walden and the Vinedresser team

The list

Hear when the wine is ready.

We send a few emails a year, and only when there is something in bottle.

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