The vineyard was developed and planted personally by the owners of the vineyard Lester and Linda Schwartz and their small crew over a period of ten years starting in 1994.

Lester and Linda met when they were both students at the University of Cape Town, South Africa in the 1960s. Lester, the son of a lawyer and a farmer, was studying geology at the time while Linda, a pianist and composer, was studying music.

While some of their contemporaries were indulging in the more illicit substances of the day, they spent their limited budget and leisure hours eating at restaurants and drinking the local wine. Subsequently, Lester graduated as an attorney and Linda completed her degree in music composition and music theory. They were married in 1967. Nine years later the couple moved to California where Lester practiced law as an attorney in San Francisco and Linda became involved in Arts Administration and international trade.

In 1988, Lester, longing for the country life he had experienced as a young boy, found an enchanting property in the high coastal ridges overlooking the Pacific Ocean, just south of the small town of Fort Ross. He and Linda purchased the land and built an unusual home, featuring round and oval rooms that offered dramatic views of the surrounding terrain.

The vineyard project began with Lester ordering two dozen dormant rootstocks. When these initial plantings proved successful, they decided to plant a test vineyard with 16 different varieties, three different trellis systems, assorted clones and different rootstocks. After four years, they concluded the area was ideal for growing Pinot Noir and Chardonnay.

To learn more about local growing conditions and vineyard practices, Linda studied viticulture at Santa Rosa Junior College in Sonoma County and attended classes at U.C. Davis. Although this was a dramatic change from music theory and composition, Linda discovered she had a green thumb and an affinity for heavy machinery. She bought an old backhoe, a bulldozer and other heavy equipment and, with Lester as the operator, they began developing the vineyard in 1994. Then over the next ten years they personally with their small crew installed sub-surface drainage systems, a pond and drip irrigation system, vertical shoot position trellis systems, miles of fencing to keep out the deer and wild boar and finally after planting selected rootstocks field grafted scion budwood of those varietal clones and field selections that they had carefully chosen to best reflect the terroir of each vineyard block.

Lester and Linda remembered the Pinotage from their early years in South Africa, where Pinotage is to South African wine what Zinfandel is to California wine. They sourced bud wood from two of the best blocks in South Africa and were the first private growers to bring these cuttings through the Foundation Plant Services that operates alongside the U.C. Davis School of Viticulture and Enology.

Prior to their first harvest, they started looking for a winemaker and were excited to meet Fred Scherrer, identified as the “winemaker’s winemaker” by many knowledgeable producers in Sonoma County. Fred, who had previously been the winemaker at Dehlinger, was very familiar with Sonoma County Pinot Noir and Chardonnay. He also had experience with grapes from the “True Sonoma Coast” having vinified fruit from a famous vineyard a few miles to the north of Fort Ross Vineyard. Fred enthusiastically agreed to make their wine.

As the vineyard production increased from the initial 100 cases to the present 2,500 cases, Fred realized he could no longer accommodate the production from the vineyard. In 2003, Lester and Linda were introduced to Ed Kurtzman, who had been making wine at Chalone and Testarossa, and he agreed to become their primary winemaker. Ed’s experience with cool-climate Pinot Noir and Chardonnay, plus his talent, zeal and dedication, made him the perfect winemaker for their unique site above the Pacific Ocean.