A Little Rockpile History

The Rockpile wine grape growing area in northern Sonoma County is one of the smallest AVAs in the country in total acres of grapes planted. There are 160 acres of vineyards sitting between 800 ft and 2,100 ft elevation in rocky, well-drained soil with maybe a foot of topsoil at the surface. 

The wines from here are a rare treat with so little vineyards planted. It's mostly zinfandel and cabernet sauvignon, but there are several others. The cab franc and petite sirah from here are also excellent. It's almost entirely red wine grapes.

Florence Vineyard in Rockpile at harvest time
image from florencevineyard.com

There are many stories about the Rockpile area going back over 150 years. This one is how it came to be a grape-growing area.

There's a five acre 130+ year-old vineyard sitting on the property of St. Peter's Church in Cloverdale, a small town in northern Sonoma County. In the early 1990s, Jack Florence Jr. got permission to manage the vineyard. Jack got a deal with Kent Rosenblum to make a limited bottling of St. Peter's Church zin. Rosemblum Cellars is often credited with putting zinfandel on the map in the 1980s and '90s. The wine was a hit. 

In 1992 Rod and Cathy Park had planted cabernet high above Dry Creek Valley in the Rockpile region, the first vineyard planted there in modern times. Two years later Jack took cuttings, put them on new rootstock, and planted them in Rockpile. Others started planting grapes, often using the St. Peter's budwood. Concentrated, intense, briary, are terms often used for the St. Peter's Church zin. 

If you really want the full history of Rockpile, Cathy Park wrote a 500-ish page book on its colorful past.

Rockpile became a designated AVA in 2002.

If you Google St. Peter's zinfandel, you'll find several winemakers bragging about their St. Peter's zinfandel. You'll also find lots of people bragging about their Rockpile wines.

Article from the SF Chronicle (possible paywall)

St. Peter's Church Vineyard, planted in the 1890s
image from florencevineyard.com