Bob on Sonoma: A Short History of Pinot Noir in Sonoma County

Pinot Noir has a short history in Sonoma County, and the rest of the country for that matter, as it was only a minor player in American wine for a long time. Even in its native France, Burgundy was overshadowed by Bordeaux until into the last half of the 20th century.

The romance of the Wine Country!
Punching down Pinot Noir during fermentation
(stirring in the solids that work their way to the top)

A few wineries grew Pinot Noir in Sonoma in the late 19th century, but none likely understood where to grow it and how to make it. They called it finicky, or probably worse. The famous post-prohibition winemaker, André Tchelistcheff, is claimed to have said, "God made Cabernet Sauvignon, the devil made Pinot Noir."

Pinot requires a very cool climate, some will say the cooler, the better. In Sonoma County, Pinot does quite well in vineyards looking over the cold waters of the Pacific. In making the wine, the thin-skinned grapes are handled differently from others. Growing and making Pinot was largely misunderstood in California until late in the 20th century.

Some Highlights of Pinot Noir in Sonoma County:

1950 Per the Sonoma County Annual Crop Report there were about 15,000 acres of grapes planted and an equal number of French Prunes. The wine grape crop was not yet broken down by variety, though prunes were.

1953 Hanzell Winery established in Sonoma Valley. Zellerbach, the founder, inspired by his time in Burgundy, planted three acres each of Chardonnay and Pinot Noir. These vines are claimed to be the oldest continuously producing Chard and Pinot in North America. Their first vintage was 1957.

Hanzell's vineyard, Sonoma

1957 (circa) The Van der Kamp Vineyard on Sonoma Mountain is planted to Pinot Noir. The original block from this vineyard are probably the second oldest producing Pinot vines in the county.

1964 (circa) Fred Bacigalupi, a Healdsburg dentist turned grape farmer, plants six acres of Pinot Noir on his vineyard property after getting the vine cuttings from Wente Vineyards. These vines were originally brought over from Burgundy. This is probably the first Pinot planted in the Russian River Valley.
C.H. Wente, the founder of Wente Vineyards, is responsible for most of California's Chardonnay. He imported vines from France over a hundred years ago, aka the Wente Clone Chardonnay.

1968 Joe Rochioli Jr plants Pinot Noir in his vineyard because the Cabernet wasn't doing well in his cool climate Russian River location. Rochioli gets the credit for making the Russian River Valley and Sonoma County famous for Pinot.

1968 Joseph Swan planted Pinot Noir and Chardonnay on his property a few miles south of Rochioli. He had recently purchased the land containing an old Zinfandel vineyard.

Joe Peterson (who later founded Ravenswood), Joe Swan,
André Tchelistcheff in Swan's vineyard

1968 Rodney Strong plants Pinot Noir next to his winery, a half mile from the Russian River.

1970 There are 435 acres of Pinot Noir in Sonoma County. The top grape is Zinfandel at 4,000 acres. Numbers two and three in acreage are Carignane and Petite Sirah. There are 14,000 acres of French Prunes planted in Sonoma County along with 4,400 acres of Gravenstein apples.
Through much of the 20th century prunes were the top dollar crop in the county. Dairy was the overall top ag crop for many years until passed by wine grapes in 1987.

1980 There are 2,700 acres of Pinot Noir planted and only 4,000 acres of French Prunes left.
Speculation, but the large growth between 1970 and 1980 might be partially explained by existing vineyards thought to be another grape, being identified as Pinot. There were wines produced at this time called Gamay Beaujolais, Napa Gamay, or just Gamay that may have been made from some Pinot Noir grapes. Another rationale for this reasoning is of the 2,700 acres of Pinot less than 80 were young, non-bearing vines.

1984 After several years of making wine for themselves, Burt Williams and Ed Selyem release their first commercial wine, a Pinot, of course.
Bacagalupi, Rochioli, Swan, Rodney Strong, and Williams-Selyem's wineries and estate vineyards are all within a few miles of each other near the Russian River as it stretches between Healdsburg and Forestville. This must be a sweet spot for Pinot Noir.

1990 There are 3,000 acres of Pinot Noir planted in Sonoma County along with over 10,00 acres of Chardonnay, 6,000 of Cabernet Sauvignon, and 4,300 of Zinfandel. The poor French Prunes are down to 1,200 acres. The Gravenstein apple crop is down to 1,500.

1990 (circa). My wife and I are working p/t for Kenwood Vineyards. They make a Pinot Noir from the well-respected Jack London Vineyards, planted on Jack's property in Sonoma Valley by his ancestors. To this day I remember it tasting stemmy and more like a Syrah than anything. This vineyard sits in a warm climate zone growing Cab, Zin, and Syrah, not a great place for Pinot. The Pinot grapes are long gone from the property. In 1990 there weren't many local winemakers that understood Pinot Noir.

1997 Merry Edwards, after many years of working for others, opens her namesake winery specializing in Sauvignon Blanc and Pinot Noir. She retired from winemaking in 2020 bearing the unofficial title as the Queen of Pinot.

Merry Edwards, left, with the founders of Matanzas Creek Winery 1977
Her first release was a Sauvignon Blanc, something she specialized
in at her own winery, besides Pinot Noir
Image from matanzascreek.com

2002 There are 6,500 acres of Pinot Noir in the county bearing fruit and another 4,800 acres of non-bearing young vines.

2004 I take a wine class at the local junior college from Richard Thomas, a local wine guy known for his opinions that occasionally got him into trouble, but that's another story. He's got a chart of acreage of grapes grown in Sonoma County, both bearing and non-bearing (too young to support fruit). He gets to what he sees as a huge number of new, non-bearing Pinot Noir acres. He scratched his head and mutters something like, "What the eff are we going to do with all the Pinot Noir?" To his way of thinking we're in Zinfandel country and by god that's what we should be planting.

2004 Sideways movie released, dissing hard on Merlot and praising Pinot Noir.

2023 There are 13,000 acres of Pinot Noir planted in Sonoma County. Second in acreage behind Chardonnay. Within California, Sonoma has the most Pinot, Monterey County is second, with Santa Barbara a distant third. There are 47,000 total acres of Pinot in California.
In Sonoma County, wine grapes are a $550m crop, dairy, which used to be number one, is $66m, Gravenstein apples $1.6m, and prunes aren't listed anymore. The land once containing apples went mostly to Pinot Noir as they prefer a similar climate. Prunes did well in warmer areas from Santa Rosa up to Cloverdale. Most of that crop's land has been replaced by housing or other wine grapes.