New winemaker at Benziger

The Benziger family searched the world to find Rodrigo Soto, who was, as they went looking for him, contentedly tending the organic vineyards and wines of Matetic Vineyards, in the town of Casablanca, Chile.

By looking for Soto, Benziger Family Winery in Glen Ellen, long a family-run operation spread among five Benziger brothers, two sisters and related spouses and children, was starting to take a good look at itself, re-examining some priorities and setting in motion actions needed to preserve and enhance its legacy.

"I was attracted by how passionate he was about winegrowing and winemaking," said Mike Benziger, executive winemaker and director of winegrowing for Benziger. "But also about how detail-oriented he was. He's a master of detail without getting bogged down by them."

A familiar name on supermarket shelves as well as restaurant lists, with some 65,000 people a year passing through its popular tasting room, Benziger more recently had become a brand synonymous with biodynamics, a holistic farming approach developed in the 1920s by Austrian scientist and philosopher Rudolf Steiner.

Biodynamic farming encompasses many of the same principles as organic farming, eliminating chemicals, for instance, but it goes further, focusing on the varied forces of nature that can influence the vines, from water and air to the elusive "spirit."

It's controversial in some circles. Nonetheless, Mike Benziger in particular has been an undaunted biodynamics proponent, working tirelessly with his own vineyards and those looked after by local growers with whom he has relationships, to become biodynamic, organic or, at very least, certified as sustainable.

And yet somewhere along the way, people stopped thinking about Benziger as being more than the sum of its farming, forgot that its wines were good, in some cases great, and could be even be better. To its credit, Benziger never forgot.

Enter Soto as the new director of winemaking and Signaterra, a new line of vineyard-designated wines made under the Benziger Family umbrella. Soto's first wines are set for release in March, beginning with a 2007 Russian River Valley Shone Farm Sauvignon Blanc and 2006 Russian River Valley Bella Luna Pinot Noir.

"The idea is to lift the quality and have better raw materials to work with and refine our winemaking techniques," said Soto. "We're investing quite a bit in the winery and trying to be consistent in all the steps. It's not just about asking certain things of our growers."

The search for the very best among Benziger's vast vineyards was just starting to get interesting when Soto came along in 2006. It had been exactly 10 years since the 85-acre Benziger estate on Sonoma Mountain had begun the process of becoming biodynamic.

It has since been officially certified by the Demeter Association, an international certifying body. Three more of Benziger's estates have also been certified: 25 acres on the Sonoma Coast (de Coelo) and another almost 60 acres across two vineyards (Imagery Estate and Sunny Slope) in the Sonoma Valley.

Part of Soto's mission is to find his own sites for Signaterra, and to also work with growers to become biodynamic, organic or certified sustainable, a rating also granted through a branch of Demeter. As of the 2008 vintage, all Benziger bottlings will display one of these designations.

"We're looking to make our wines taste like the site," Soto said, "like the appellation and like the variety at a very high level."

One gem of a site Soto was fortunate enough to already have is de Coelo, a 25-acre pinot noir vineyard five miles from the coast in the hills of Bodega.

Certified biodynamic, de Coelo encompasses an adjoining vineyard called Terra Neuma, which has earned some renown with the pinots produced over several vintages by Eric Sussman for his brand Radio-Coteau. It's a wine celebrated for its earthy, truffle-tinged, dark fruit complexity.

Soto is seeking his own renown by making two pinots from the property, the de Coelo Terra Neuma and de Coelo Quintus. The wines are produced from different clonal selections and fermented individually -- the de Coelo Quintus quite delicate, the Terra Neuma more structured, broader. Only 1,000 cases each are made.

"It's at the edge of where you can grow pinot noir," Soto said. "You can see the ocean from there, there's a 360-degree view, it produces a very un-Californian pinot. With the slow ripening season, it can be under 14 percent alcohol no problem, and you have a very earthy wine -- the way it should be, in my opinion."

The estate is off the Bodega Highway, up a hill across from Watson School. Kistler Vineyards is a neighbor as is Platt Family Vineyard, which supplies chardonnay grapes to Ramey Wine Cellars and pinot to several producers, including Radio-Coteau, Red Car, Scherrer and Littorai.

Soto also is making single-vineyard pinot noirs from Bella Luna, an Occidental vineyard in the process of becoming biodynamic; the sustainably farmed Guisti Vineyard in the Russian River; and Ricci Vineyard, also certified sustainable, in southern Carneros.

He described how difficult it can be to hone in on the right sites within such a large, varied appellation as the Russian River Valley.

"One of my surprises when I first arrived was you have a vague idea of the size of the Russian River appellation and you realize it's pretty big and has some warm spots in it, some more inland spots, some really true cool sites," he said. "I would define Bella Luna as a true cool site."

His first Signaterra sauvignon blanc is sourced from Shone Farm, the Santa Rosa Junior College's 365-acre agricultural teaching facility off Eastside Road in Forestville. Soto says the blocks he gets are close to the river, in a very windy area with moderate fertility for the varietal, resulting in a wine with texture and perfume.

Soto also plans to make a Bordeaux blend and a chardonnay under the Signaterra name in 2009. A syrah will also eventually come -- Soto's specialty at Matetic -- with fruit from Dragonsleaf Vineyard in Bennett Valley, which has supplied syrah in the past for Benziger Family Winery port.

Soto's mission is to focus in on quality across the roughly 155,000 cases put out under the Benziger name every year, doing less while aiming for higher quality, a mission many speak of but not all take as seriously as Soto does. It's something he and Benziger family members have discussed a lot.

"Nobody can complain about having too much focus," Soto acknowledged, echoing a concern voiced by the Benzigers while they were interviewing him. "The only alternative is to succeed.

"Ideally it brings back the romanticism of wine. It's something we should all be having fun with and creating special moments around."

Virginie Boone is a freelance wine writer based in Sonoma County. She can be reached at virginieboone@yahoo.com or visit wineabout.pressdemocrat .com.