Let me introduce you to Sorella Ridge, our humble little residential winery and estate vineyard located in California’s Sierra Foothills.

The name Sorella Ridge represents the terraced hillside where our Barbera vineyard is planted. The vineyard has three long terraces, or blocks, where each is named after one of our daughters: Block J is the bottom terrace, Block M in the middle, and Block R is at the top. Since the word “sorella” means “sister” in Italian and we planted an Italian variety, the name just works. Although my girls are just 4, 7, and 10 years old at this point and still prefer to watch dad tend their vines, my hope is that they will grow to care for their little parcels and get involved in future harvests and the winemaking process. And if along the way I inspire one of my girls to become the next Heidi Barrett, my cellar will be flush with world-class wines for life. Not a bad plan, eh?

We planted our vineyard last June with the help of family and friends (the photo above is from May, 2006). As the name of this blog testifies, the vineyard is in its second leaf, or second year of growth. There are five rows with a total of 50 Barbera and 6 Petite Sirah plants. Sure, Petite Sirah isn’t exactly Italian but I’m hoping that this little bit will add some structure and color to my finished wines. All vines have been grafted to 1103P rootstock because it is well suited to hillside locations, is drought tolerant, and has a high resistance to disease. My plan is to field-blend and co-ferment the fruit from both varieties at harvest. We are expecting our first harvest to be in 2007.

Thus far the focus has been to get the roots established and the vines trained to the eventual vertical shoot positioned (VSP) bilateral trained trellising system. This just means that the vines will grow up to a horizontal wire where a cordon will be trained in both directions along the wire toward their neighbor (forming a “T”). From there, spurs or canes (I haven’t decided which yet), will grow up from the cordons to the next horizontal wire above where shoots will be tied and draped back down. The fruit will grow from the shoots and the foliage will form a shade canopy for the grapes. This is a very standard trellising system used in California and throughout the world.

The picture to the left is of a few of our Barbera clusters going through veraison in August of this year.

While waiting for the vineyard to mature to the point where we can harvest its fruit for wine, I have been making wine from other local vineyards. Our first release will be a 2005 El Dorado Zinfandel made with fruit from the dry-farmed Merrill vineyard in Mt. Aukum. This wine has been tasting very nice and is a true representation of a foothill Zinfandel with bright red berry flavors, a peppery spice, and a rich, round mouthfeel. It will be bottled within the next week or so.

For 2006, I am making a Barbera from the Johnson vineyard and more Zinfandel from the Merrill vineyard. The Barbera has already been harvested and is busy fermenting as I write this post. The Zinfandel is almost ready and will probably be picked within the next few days. I will surely be posting on the progress of both wines in the coming weeks.

So far we have been enjoying the vineyard immensely. Sure, it’s a lot more work than just throwing some plants, trees, and bark on our hillside but nothing can compare to eating dinner in our backyard on a warm summer evening and looking up at our little piece of Italy.