PINE MOUNTAIN-CLOVERDALE PEAK AVA
Pine Mountain-Cloverdale Peak is one of California's most elevated wine appellations and one of its most remote. The Alcohol and Tobacco Tax and Trade Bureau approved it on October 27, 2011, after a petition filed by Sara Schorske of Compliance Service of America on behalf of local growers. The AVA spans the border between southern Mendocino County and northern Sonoma County, with roughly two-thirds of its 4,570 acres on the Mendocino side, and sits about five miles north-northeast of the town of Cloverdale along the northern flank of the Mayacamas Range.
The geography is uncompromising. Elevations range from a strictly defined minimum of 1,600 feet up to nearly 3,000 feet, with vineyards perched on small benches and gentle slopes carved out of otherwise sheer mountainside. Soils are shallow, fractured shale and sandstone, very well drained through gravels, and generally less than three feet deep; over half are less than a foot deep. The terrain is steep enough that contiguous vineyard plots larger than 20 acres are rare, and most plantings sit between 5 and 20 acres. The highest ridges receive snow most winters.
Climate at this elevation produces a remarkable inversion. According to the TTB petition for the AVA, bud break occurs two to three weeks after vineyards on the valley floor below. Days are roughly 12 degrees cooler at the AVA's center than down on the Alexander Valley floor, yet because cool valley air drains downhill at night, vineyards on the mountain experience warmer nights than the valley does. Sitting well above the fog line, the AVA receives three to four more hours of sunlight per day than the valley below. Cabernet Sauvignon accounts for roughly 80 percent of plantings, producing wines of vivid fruit, deep color, and assertive tannic structure. Merlot, Malbec, Syrah, Sangiovese, Sauvignon Blanc, and unusual varieties like Tannat, Teroldego, and Lagrein round out the diverse small-lot plantings.
Because of the AVA's remote nature, there are no public tasting rooms within its boundaries; growers outnumber wineries by a wide margin. Silverwood Ranch, run by Barry Hoffner, sells Cabernet and Merlot to Francis Ford Coppola Winery for the Archimedes label and to Miro Cellars. Upper Ridge Vineyard, also Hoffner's, supplies the Benziger family's Imagery Estate program with an unusual roster of Mediterranean varieties. Jackson Family Wines has invested in a 100-acre vineyard within the AVA. Wines bearing the Pine Mountain-Cloverdale Peak appellation appear from Miro Cellars, Imagery Estate, Murphy-Goode, Edmeades, and Respite, among others.
For buyers, this is California wine country at its most rugged and least developed. Properties are large by necessity, true seclusion comes built in, and the only practical neighbors are the redwoods, oaks, and the occasional cow.
