the vineyards of brue skok cellars
Sonoma County is in Northern California, about 45 miles north of San Francisco, and it extends to the Pacific Ocean to the West, The Mayacamas mountains and Napa Valley to the East, Mendocino County to the North, and Marin County to the South.
Sonoma County is home to a diversity of climates, topography, geology that is unique in the world. It is here that we craft our wines, from micro, small vineyards that take advantage of these unique attributes, planted to varietals that are able to best convey the unique "terroir" that each of these sites has to offer.
This is a map of Sonoma County, with all of its different "sub-applellations" or AVA's (American Viticulture Areas), which are similar to defined regions in other wine growing areas of the world. Each AVA has a typicity of climate and soils, defining its "terroir", which in turn leads to it being known for specific varietals and styles that do best in that region.
Brue Skok Cellars Wine Primer
Click here to read our Wine Primer to discover our 7 secret steps to differentiate BSC from the large production commercial wines.
Sonoma Valley
Herman Vineyard
Sonoma Valley-Carneros, Sonoma County
A combination of three blocks near the town of Sonoma, just above sea level, these vines have an average age of 35 years, and express the terroir of where they are each individually located. Syrah, Chardonnay and Cabernet Sauvignon are each cared for and let to ripen at their own slow pace. The cool morning fog settles over the vineyards to develop structure and acidity, while the warm afternoons bring bright fruit.
Bottlings: Chardonnay (2012, 2013, 2014, 2015, 2016), Syrah (2012, 2013, 2014), Cabernet Sauvignon (2012, 2013, 2014, 2015 )
Bennett Valley
Judge Family Vineyard
Bennett Valley, Sonoma County
Located on the western slope of this cool climate AVA, sitting at 500-600ft elevation, facing northeast, this 20+ year old vineyard of Sauvignon Blanc, Grenache and three clones of Syrah is a jewel of Sonoma. Joe Judge and his family look after this property with a labor of love to ensure that this basalt gravel and clay soil combines with the climate to produce stunning grapes one vine at a time.
Bottlings: Judge's Verdict (2013, 2014, 2015 ), Mistelle (2017)
Petaluma Gap
Petaluma Gap is a new appellation in Sonoma County, as of December 2017.
We are excited to have a small vineyard of Pinot Noir on top of a hill in this AVA, which gathers filtered morning sunshine at a diagonal northeastern exposure. Sitting 150 ft above the adobe plain, next to Christine's chardonnay vineyard, the vines can rest during the foggy nights and sleep in on late foggy monday mornings, to give it a nice gentle ripening season. The adobe clay and sandy loam soils allow for a long growing season with slow balanced ripening.
Our First bottling is the 2016 Stony Point Pinot Noir
Dry Creek
The Andolsen vineyard sits on the southwest end of the Dry Creek Valley, sitting 300 ft higher up on the western ridge, closest to the ocean and its maritime fog and cooling influence. This location also allows for earlier hours of gentle morning sunlight, and less hours of intense afternoon heat. Farmed by a retired physician, his "patients" are beautiful old vines planted on steep slopes of rocky, gravelly loam soils at various expositions on the hillsides of his property.
Look for this wine in future bottlings of our "Cuvee"
Chalk Hill
The Pool Creek Vineyard is an old vine merlot vineyard planted in an appellation that has great volcanic ash and clay soils, with a temperate inland climate, similar to those influences that make a great "right-bank" bordeaux wine, such as Merlot from Pomerol and Cabernet Franc in Saint Emilion.
Look for this wine to come in our "Cuvee" in future bottlings.
Alexander Valley
Alexander Valley is rich in volcanic soils, higher elevation vineyards, warm sunny days, and cool breezy afternoons. This valley is great for Bordeaux varietals such as Merlot, Cabernet Sauvignon, Cabernet Franc, Sauvignon Blanc and Chardonnay.
Look for wines from this vineyard in future bottlings of our "Cuvee".
Anderson Valley
Roma's Vineyard, Anderson Valley, Mendocino County
Roma's vineyard was a find, only accessible by four wheel drive. It is located at the northern slope of Anderson Valley above Boonville, tucked above the Champs de Reve vineyard, at 1850ft. This site was planted with Pinot Noir, Pommard Clone from Navarro in the 1990’s in loamy goldridge soils.
Bottlings: Pinot Noir (2013, 2014)
Dry Creek/Russian River Valley/SC
Our Estate vineyards are nestled at the overlap of the Russian River Valley, Sonoma Coast and Dry Creek Valley appellations, with a wonderful diversity of micro terroirs and climates. With cool breezes and tall trees to the west bringing a Sonoma Coast influence, we have an old vine block of chardonnay. With temperate days, cooler nights and ample sunshine; we have a blend of Bordeaux varietals planted in clay soils for delicate fruit development in a Russian River Valley environment. Finally, to the north; with warmer days, well-drained alluvial soils, and a few cypress trees; the Dry Creek Valley opens its influence on our blocks of Zinfandel and Sangiovese.
Bottlings: Chardonnay, Zinfandel