How Green is the Valley?
Savoring the cool, damp varietals of the Green Valley of the Russian River Valley
By CHRISTIAN KALLEN
Pride is based on whatever makes you unique, and for the Green Valley appellation, it’s right there on the home page of the Green Valley Vintners: “The coolest, foggiest region of the Russian River Valley.” Where else does cold weather and limited visibility add up to a positive?
Fact is, cool weather and fog can make for good grapes, if your goal is world-class pinot noir or chardonnay. That probably explains why over 100 growers work the soil of Green Valley in that cold, damp weather, including some of the premiere names in pinot noir: Dutton-Goldfield, De Loach, Iron Horse and Marimar Estates, among others.
The “Green Valley of Russian River Valley” (its fully descriptive name, adapted just last year) AVA is found west of the Santa Rosa plain between Forestville and Sebastopol, riding between two low-lying ridges. You can get there along Highway 12 out of Sebastopol at the south end, 116 at the north, or directly bisect it in a meandering excursion via Graton Road and Occidental Road that ends up in the woodsy Occidental valley.
If you’re a long-time Sonoma county resident, you may know this region for something else: this is apple country, Gravenstein apples to be specific. Highway 116 is popularly named the Gravenstein Highway, after the tart green fruit prized for apple pies, apple sauce, and apple cider. Sebastopol’s signature community event is the Gravenstein Apple Fair, which will be held August 9-10 this year.
Although 15,000 tons of apples are still grown in the county, that number has dwindled in response to the explosion of grape production: at last count, 19,000 acres are now given over to vineyard. The grapes grown are primarily those that favor the cool, foggy climate so proudly boasted: pinot noir, chardonnay, and small lots of syrah and zinfandel.
So far only a handful of wineries in the little-known appellation have opened their doors to visitors, so travelling Green Valley is like an old-fashioned journey on the ‘blue highways,’ the two-lane blacktops of California’s farm country. There are no barrel-tasting weekends here – at least not yet – no wine & chocolate festivals, no winter winelands; just slow moving meanders between vineyard, orchard and farm, on roads which as often as not degrade into narrow two lanes, then gravel, then dirt driveways.
What makes the grape
Just why these grapes are so perfect for this sort of wine is a conflux of factors that include the weather, the growing season and the soil. The appellation is located right in the path of the Petaluma Wind Gap, also known as the Estero Gap, where fog and cold air sweeps in from the Pacific to cool and dampen the morning hours. (Those of you who live in Sebastopol know this all too well.) This chill delays ripening and causes a longer hang-time on the vine, which in turn means fruit intensity is deeper and more flavorful. But despite the relatively late harvest in some vineyards, the fruit is rarely high in sugars, and thus not overly alcoholic: the hottest part of the day just doesn’t last as long as it does in Dry Creek, say.
The soil is mostly a sandy loam riding on a denser layer of clay; this so-called Goldridge soil provides excellent drainage, so despite higher-than-normal (for Sonoma county) rainfall the fruit doesn’t become water-logged. Meanwhile the heavy earth down below gives the plants incentive to sink their roots deep, which means stronger plants that, in many areas, don’t even need watering.
This is roughly the same climate found in the Carneros region of the Napa-Sonoma border, and for that matter in the Champagne region of France or the Rhine in Germany, but Dan Goldfield is one winemaker who eschews the comparison. “I hate to make comparisons like that, because flavor-wise wines from different regions are very different,” he told me during a swerving drive on the appellation’s back roads. “We’re probably more like Anderson Valley here – but again it’s different, because the hills are bigger up there so the fog doesn’t penetrate as much.”
Goldfield’s name is all over the appellation, as is the family name of his partner, Steve Dutton. Their Dutton-Goldfield label is perhaps the signature brand in the valley, spearheaded by the Rued Vineyard Chardonnay and Sanchietti Vineyard Pinot Noir. A former chemist-philosophy double major (“Good combination for a winemaker, don’t you think?” he observes), he’s also the winemaker at the Orogeny Vineyards label, based in Napa but specializing in Green Valley wines.
The Dutton name also appears on Dutton Estate wines, run by Steve’s brother Joe; both are fifth generation farmers in Sonoma County, and second-generation grape growers. It was their father Warren who purchased a Green Valley farm in 1964 with 20 acres of French columbard, and on the advice of seminal grape cultivator Rodney Strong laid out a planting of chardonnay in 1967. Thus was born, some might say, Northern California’s most distinctive appellation.
Two other wineries that are key to the increased appreciation for Green Valley wines are Iron Horse Vineyard and Marimar Estate, both family businesses as well. Iron Horse is the pet project of Barry and Audrey Sterling family, whose spread is at the end of Ross Station Road in the heart of the valley. Founded in 1976, it’s still a family affair: son Laurence is the operations manager, and daughter Joy Sterling is now CEO, and an aggressive advocate for the wine who has created an Earth Day in Green Valley tradition.
Marimar Torres is also a family affair, but from a completely different direction: the Torres dynasty has historic vineyards in Spain dating to 1800, and their Sangre de Toro line is well known (and easily available locally). In 1979 the family branched out to Chile, opening a winery in the Central Valley near Santiago, and a few years later daughter Marimar moved from San Francisco to Sebastopol to create her own label of Green Valley wines. Here, as she likes to say, she’s created “a small piece of Catalonia under California skies” in Marimar Estate, specializing in the favored varietals of Green Valley, chardonnay and pinot noir.
Touring the Green Valley: Santa Rosa to Forestville
If you want to see this bucolic vale of wines yourself, it’s no more difficult than heading west from Santa Rosa on Guerneville Road, making a right on Olivet Road, and keeping an eye out for De Loach Vineyards. Cecil De Loach founded the winery in 1976, and his early releases of zinfandel and chardonnay became cult favorites. Competition in the increasingly competitive landscape forced De Loach to sell the brand in 2003, about which time their juicy zins became available at drastic discount in your local Trader Joe’s. (De Loach, a former fireman, now runs the Hook & Ladder Vineyards, also on Olivet Road.)
The current headquarters of De Loach vineyards is about a mile up the road on your left, a low-lying tasting room with picnic tables in the shaded courtyard. The brand has regained strength, and this new designer tasting room is evidence. Though technically we’re still in the Russian River Valley AVA, the staff prominently pitches their Green Valley of the Russian River Pinot Noir release, a good introduction to the mystique of the appellation.
Continuing westward we come to Highway 116, the Gravenstein Highway, running along what’s called Laguna Ridge, the rise that marks the eastern edge of the appellation. If you want to diversify your drinks drop into the Ace in the Hole, and sample their homebrewed ciders made with apples (of course), pears, and even berries. Good pub food and local music acts make this a home town favorite, from Forestville to Sebastopol.
From this point, you can either head north, toward the Russian River on 116, or west on Graton Road to Occidental. Let's take the route down-valley first, in this case along the Atascadero Creek drainage to Monte Rio, the north side of the designated appellation.
There are a couple key Green Valley wineries near Forestville. First up is the Dutton Estates winery at the corner of Green Valley Rd. and the Gravenstein Highway. This tidy tasting room and production operation of Joe Dutton, the other son of Dutton Ranch founder Warren. This is one well-kept facility, with nice gardens and picinc tables amid floral beds; the fact that it's on the "wrong" (east) side of the highway from the Green Valley demarkation is forgiveable.
A little farther on, don't miss the shy left onto Ross Station Rd., for at the end of this spur is the Sterling family spread and their Iron Horse Vineyards. Great valley views from the tasting room complement the wines -- try the Wedding Cuvée blanc de noir if they're pouring it, it's a delicios sparkling wine that showcases the Green Valley's terroir.
Back on the Gravenstein, pass through Forestville with a quick glance in either direction (the funky Forestville Club on the left, friendly Mosaic Restaurant on the right) to Hartford Family Winery on Martinelli Rd. home of single-vineyard pinot noirs and chardonnays and an old vine zinfandel. Like many Green Valley wineries, Hartford's wines are usually designated Russian River Valley, much better known on the market, and since the sub-appellation Green Valley is entirely within Russian River Valley they are entitled to do so. Ask at the tasting room where the vineyards are, however, and you'll find that most of these bottles could claim the GV AVA, if they choose.
Touring east to west: Graton to Occidental
Graton has become the little town that could. Two restaurants face off across the town’s main intersection -- the one with the stop sign -- the Willow Wood Market Café (breakfast and lunch) and the Underwood Bar & Bistro (dinner and drinks). But it’s hardly a face-off, since they’re both owned by the same guy, Matthew Greenbaum (stepson of actor George Segal, who voices the Willow Wood radio ads). Funky yet flavorful, these are local hang-outs for the cognoscenti.
But we’re not here for scrambles, oysters and spirits – are we? – so we head down Graton Road into the heart of the valley. When the road bends left we’re in the midst of the Dutton Home Ranch, ground zero for the distinctive chards and pinots of the AVA.
A little farther down the road the Spanish-style Marimar Estate rises up on the hill, a great place for views as appetizing as the wines. The winery only recently opened for daily tastings (11 a.m. to 4 p.m. -- days are short here in Green Valley), and all the wines, largely pinots and chadonnays, are estate grown, biodynamic and organic. Pick up a copy of doyenne Marimar Torres’ classic cookbook, “The Catalan Country Kitchen,” and enjoy some of her tapas and wine in a pairing experience for $25.
To make the most of your drive, take a right onto Harrison Grade Rd. and crawl to the top of Stoetz Ridge, the western demarcation of the appellation. Up here you may find the secret vineyard of 100-year old knotty vines, source of the Morelli Lane Zinfandel that Dutton-Goldfield sells at its tasting room (shared with Balletto Vineyards). True story: this is pure Green Valley zinfandel, but the label markets it as Russian River Valley, because who’d believe that cold, foggy Green Valley could produce a good zin?
From here it’s a short steep spill to Occidental, the woodsy resort town in the Freestone Valley. Grab a beer at the new Barley & Hops Bistro on the main drag, in the old two-story yellow house that used to house Pignole and the Bohemian Cafe, or go trendo at Bistro Des Copains on the north end of town for French provincial fare.
If you're hosting out-of-town visitors, consider a drive down to the redwood-forested Freestone-Occidental Road to Wild Flour Bread, a bakery that always has either a) a line outside the door, or b) nothing left on the shelves. Their sticky buns are the stuff of legend.
But whether you're planning to end your Green Valley day in Occidental or following the road through Freestone back toward Sebastopol, be sure to bring along a sweater or even a raincoat. That cool, damp climate comes in on its little cat feet early, and on silent haunches moves on only when it's ready.
Carl Sandberg said that, or something like it. We say: Enjoy the wines.
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The scenic vineyards of the Green Valley appellation in the often cool, foggy region between Forestville and Sebastopol.
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ABOUT THE APPELLATION
Official name: Green Valley of the Russian River Valley
Established: 1983
Total Area; 19,000 acres
Vineyards: At least 1,200 acres
Location: Western Sonoma County, between Hwy. 116 (Gravenstein Hwy.) and the Freestone-Occidental Road, between Highway 12 and the Russian River.
KEY LINKS
Green Valley Vinters group
Gravenstein Apple Fair
Interactive map of the Green Valley appellation
VIDEO: Earth Day in Green Valley
GREEN VALLEY WINERIES
DeLoach Vineyards, 1791 Olivet Road, Santa Rosa; (707) 526-9111
www.deloachvineyards.com
Dutton Estate, 8757 Green Valley Road, Sebastopol, (707) 829-9463
www.duttonestate.com
Dutton-Goldfield, 5700 Occidental Rd., Sebastopol, (707) 829-6766
www.duttongoldfield.com
Hartford Family Winery, 8075 Martinelli Rd., Forestville, (707) 887-1756
www.hartfordwines.com
Iron Horse Vineyard, 9786 Ross Station Road, Sebastopol, (707) 887-1507
www.ironhorsevineyards.com
Marimar Estate Winery,11400 Graton Rd., Sebastopol, (707) 823-4365
www.marimarestate.com
RESTAURANTS
Ace in the Hole, 3100 Gravenstein Highway North, Sebastopol, 829-1101
www.acecider.com
Bistro des Copains,3782 Bohemian Hwy, Occidental, (707) 874-2436
www.bistrodescopains.com
Mosaic Restaurant and Wine Lounge, 6675 Front St., Forestville, 887-7503
www.mosaiceats.com
Underwood Bar & Bistro, 9113 Graton Road, Graton, (707) 823-7023
www.underwoodgraton.com
Willow Wood Market & Café, 9020 Graton Road, Graton, (707) 823-0233
www.willowwoodgraton.com
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Winetravel Regions
- Sonoma
Sonoma Valley, Sonoma, Kenwood, Glen Ellen
- Napa South
Carneros, Yountville, Napa, Rutherford
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Russian River, Santa Rosa
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Calistoga, St. Helena, Spring Mountain
- Dry Creek
Healdsburg, Alexander Valley, Chalk Hill,
Dry Creek, Diamond Mountain
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Stag's Leap, Yountville
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