Cohn Vineyard

Located off of Westside Road this vineyard was planted in 1975. By California standards that makes it pretty old for a Pinot Noir vineyard. Over the years in has earned famed for its superb Pinot Noir and Zinfandel.  In past vintages grapes from this site have produced single vineyard wines for Williams Selyem and Kosta Browne.

The vineyards are part of a 55 acre ranch owned by Joe Anderson, owner of Benovia Winery. This is a beautiful site, framed by redwood forests and incredible vistas of the Russian River Valley. This land gives you that “I could stay here forever” feeling.

The vineyards are considered Region 2 with maritime influences. The soil type is predominantly Josephine loam.  

The Pinot Noir vineyard is 6.5 acres and planted before anyone knew of clones. We have not had the vines tested but our winemaker, Mike Sullivan, speculates that they may be the Pommard and Martini clones.

In 2006 we did extensive pruning with this vineyard. As the vines get older we want to ask them to concentrate on fewer clusters per vine. This pruning took our harvest from 2.5 tons an acre in 2005 to only 1.25 tons per acre in 2006. We believe this resulted in a stunning Pinot Noir for the 2006 vintage.

The Zinfandel vineyard consists of two blocks. The upper block, just below the Pinot Noir section, is where we take the fruit for the Benovia Zinfandel. The Zinfandels tend to be brooding and intense with dark fruit aromas (blackberry and boysenberry) tremendous purity and fine grain tannins.

The second Zinfandel block is tucked in a hollow below the main ranch road and is seen in the pictures above and for now is being sold to another winery.