Manchester Ridge Vineyard, Mendocino County Pinot Noir and Chardonnay

As about as far from anywhere, Manchester Ridge lies about one hour west of Boonville up a tortuous, narrow, winding road toward the Mendocino coast. The torture gets worse as you turn onto a rutted dirt road and bump along for more than eight miles ascending ravines and ridges before you can go no farther. You have come to the edge of the land 2000 feet above Point Arena and the Pacific. Here, sharing the land with chestnut orchards, is Manchester Ridge, 30 acres of breathtakingly beautiful, enigmatic and hardscrabble vines. No other vineyard endures what vicissitudes nature throws at it in the way of wind, rain, elevation, temperature mood swings, and weathered soil. And yet Manchester Ridge’s extremes allow its Pinot noir and chardonnay fruit to hang longer, nurturing phenological ripeness and complexity without giving up acidity and freshness. Since the late 1990s Greg has collaborated with vineyard manager Martin Mochizuki to protect and coax Manchester Ridge vines into producing rich, opulent wines featuring ethereal qualities that reach beyond classic Burgundian and California pinots and chardonnays, all the while revealing a purity and grace achieved from turning adversity into overachievement. Pinot clones are Dijon 115, 114, 777 Chardonnay clones Old Wente, 76, 809 AVA: Mendocino Ridge