Our Estate Vineyard
It started as a quest to make great wine…
In 2004, after looking to buy a home together in the bay area, Jill and Bryan began looking to wine country in an effort to plan for their long-tern future. Bryan, a budding young garage winemaker and avid wine collector with a 2000+ bottle cellar, knew that he didn’t want to just purchase any vineyard. With a cellar filled with wines like Harlan Estate, Bryant Family, Colgin, Sine Qua Non, and Screaming Eagle, he knew that he want to produce only exceptional wines. So, he and Jill went in search of the best land that they could afford in order to make not only good wines, but truly great wines to stand up to any of the cult wines being made in California.
After almost a year of researching the wine regions Sonoma, Mendocino, Paso Robles and the Sierra Foothills, they decided to focus their efforts on Lake County — an up-and-coming wine region that use to be part of Napa County. Since the establishment of the Red Hills Appellation of Lake County in 1994, large Napa Valley grapegrowers including Beringer, Rombauer winemaker Gregory Graham, and Beckstoffer Vineyards have flocked to Lake County in search of the “next Napa Valley.”
Transforming a walnut orchard…
Bryan, having worked with grapes from Beckstoffer’s Dr. Crane and To-Kalon Vineyards in Napa Valley, reached out to Beckstoffer and his staff for advice. After touring many existing vineyards and undeveloped land, Bryan and Jill decided on a 70 acre parcel on the northern edge of Red Hills Appellation on the side of Mt. Konocti — Lake County’s tallest mountain in the area.
Nestled between Mt. Konocti and Benson Ridge on the northern edge of the Mayacamas Mountain range, was an old, abandoned walnut orchard planted on a mountain side with steep slopes and a terraced section with slopes of over 50%. Since Napa County passed what’s known as the Hillside Ordinance in 1991, forbidding any plantings on slopes exceeding a 30 percent grade, land like this could no longer be planted like those of famed hillside vineyards on Pritchard Hill like Bryant Family, Colgin and Chappellet and others like Shafer Vineyards. Fortunately, these restrictions were not yet in-place in Lake County, so this steep, hillside walnut orchard could be transformed into a steep, mountain-side vineyard.
Red Volcanic Soils…
Sol Rouge Vineyards contains rich, red volcanic soil and, from this unique profile, Sol Rouge derived its name – translating to “Red Soil” in French. As part of the Red Hills Appellation, Sol Rouge Vineyards predominantly contains the Konocti-Benridge volcanic soil type which makes sense since Sol Rouge is nestled between Mt. Konocti and Benson Ridge.
Volcanic soils are porous and provide good drainage, which causes grapevines to grow deep roots to seek nutrients (source: Wine Spectator), and thus grapes grown in volcanic soil are producing some of the world's most interesting wines (source: Food & Wine Magazine). Sol Rouge Vineyard benefits from its volcanic soil as proven in our wines and highlighted in Wine Enthusiast Magazine’s article called “The Producers Behind California’s Volcanic Wines.”
High Elevation Vineyard Farming…
Sol Rouge Vineyard averages 1800 feet elevation and ranges between 1450 feet and 1950 feet elevation. High elevation vineyards benefit from increase in solar rays, greater temperature fluctuations, scarcity of water resources, and the elevation changes themselves. High elevation mountain and hillside vineyards tend to receive more direct and concentrated sunlight – for every 1,000 feet gain in elevation, the level of UV rays increase by 10-12% - which forces the fruit to develop thicker skin, leading to greater color concentration and stronger tannins. The greater daily temperature fluctuations also help stress the vines during the day and provides relief to the vines overnight, causing more photosynthesis and energetic vines leading to thicker skins and more intense flavors. The scarcity of water can be both a plus and a minus. Although you need enough water for the vine to survive, you can control the water level easier, thus stressing the vine for optimal quality. In addition, there is less humidity in higher elevations, leading to less rot. Lastly, the different hillside aspects create different micro-climates, allowing you to farm different grape varietals in more optimal conditions. Sol Rouge Vineyard benefits from all of these high elevation vineyard characteristics.
High Vine Density Planting…
High vine density planing of vineyards has been all of the rage latest since Screaming Eagle, Harlan Estate, and others began to adopt this philosophy know as “small vine farming”, but its actually existed for centuries in the old-world. Most of top vineyards in France plant vineyards with 10,000 vines/ha - 8 times as many vines as the average premium vineyard in Napa Valley. The underlying logic is that closely planted vines have to compete with each other for nutrients and water, forcing them to expand their root structure and produce greater complexity in their fruit. (source: Jancis Robinson)
Bryan was introduced to high vine density planting in 2005 by Jeff Newton who planted the Jonata Vineyard down in Santa Barbara. In an effort to plant Sol Rouge Vineyard to produce the highest quality fruit, Bryan embraced high vine density and planted the vineyard with up to 6,000 vines/ha. As one of the early adopters to high vine density farming in California, Sol Rouge Vineyards has been a model for others as it is a model for how high vine density planting has lead to the highest rated wines by any winery in the county - earning 90–94 points for 32 of its 39 Lake County wines to date. (source: Wine Enthusiast)
Fewer Clusters per Vine…
Directly related to vine density is vineyard yield. It is well understood that vineyards yielding less wine should equate to higher quality, because restricting the volume of fruit being grown is supposed to result in greater concentration. So, with a high vine density vineyard, although there are more vines, there is not a greater yield. Instead, each vine focused on producing less fruit — and, like anything in life, if you are able to focus on something, you are able to do better. Thus, each vine at Sol Rouge focuses on fewer clusters and is able to produce fruit with more intense characteristics leading to higher quality wines.
Sol Rouge Vineyard is planted with 9 different grape varietals including Grenache, Mourvèdre, Syrah, Cinsaut, Counoise, Zinfandel, Petite Sirah, Cabernet Sauvignon, and Cabernet Franc. Although yields vary across different varietals and different blocks (hillside versus terrace), overall Sol Rouge averages near 3 tons per acre for its yield, which is considered ultra-premium quality.
Producing grapes for the Highest Rated Wines in Lake County…
In 2005 when we planted Sol Rouge Vineyard, we had a goal.
To produce the highest rated wines for Lake County — elevating our county into being one of the top wine regions in California.
To produce the highest rated wines, you need to produce the highest quality grapes. We spared no expense in planting the vineyard with a high-vine density costing 4-5 times the average vineyard. It seemed to have worked! To date, Sol Rouge has earned 90–94 points for 32 of its 39 Lake County wines to date. (source: Wine Enthusiast)
This is just the beginning. Each year, our vineyard continues to produce incredible grapes and the wines continue to received higher and higher ratings!