History

My father breaks into a smile when he begins to talk about making wine. He has always said that winemaking is such a simple, elegant process when you rely on native yeasts and bacteria to transform grapes into wine. “And yet what excites me each year at harvest, when I look down into one of our fermenters, is that there is still enough magic at the heart of this process that no amount of theory or science could ever hope to explain.”

Steve Kistler received a B.A. in Creative Writing from Stanford University, studied at U.C. Davis for one year, and was an assistant at Ridge Vineyards for two years before founding Kistler Vineyards in 1978.

I asked my dad to recount what led him out to the coast many years ago:

“I started to develop a passion for the wines from coastal vineyards during my time at Ridge.

During my first harvest in 1975, one of my jobs was to drive the Ridge flatbed truck to a small zinfandel vineyard located on Harrison Grade, just west of Sebastopol, to pick up the bins of zinfandel that had been picked early that morning. Ridge had named this site “Occidental Vineyard” because it was Ridge’s most coastal site. Occidental was arguably Ridge’s most prized zinfandel vineyards and quite distinct from their zinfandels from Geyserville and Lytton Springs, which were grown in warmer sites farther inland. Working at Ridge for over two years, I developed a distinct preference for the coastal character of the Occidental Vineyard zinfandel when compared to the other zinfandels in the cellar.

In the mid-1970s when I began my career at Ridge, there was very little pinot noir planted along the western reaches of the Sonoma Coast, and in particular on Taylor and Fitzpatrick Lanes. Then in 1992, I tasted a pinot noir that truly caught my attention – a Summa Vineyard pinot noir, from one of the first pinot noir vineyards planted on Taylor Lane. It had vivid aromatics, a bright natural acidity, and a more pronounced “cool climate character” than the Russian River Valley pinot noirs I had been tasting. This wine convinced me that many of California’s most compelling pinot noirs one day would come from these maritime sites. And so soon thereafter, I began looking to purchase potential vineyard land along the coastal ridges near Taylor Lane.”

Today, there are many small plantings of pinot noir on Taylor and Fitzpatrick Lanes, on the ridges surrounding Freestone Valley, and on the ridge overlooking the town of Bodega where Occidental’s winery and vineyards are located. But this was once an area considered too cool to successfully ripen pinot noir; the risk of extreme weather and tiny yields outweighed any potential reward for most.

Starting in the early 1990s, my father played a leading role in planting new vineyards here, eventually pushing the boundary westward all the way to the coast. I asked him to highlight a few key dates in that journey:

1993

I began producing a series of pinot noirs from the Flowers vineyards on Camp Meeting Ridge and the Hirsch Vineyard, both in the Ft. Ross-Seaview area. I was eager to compare these two coastal pinot noirs to those I was making at Kistler Vineyards from some of the best sites in the Russian River Valley.

1995

Together with Warren Dutton, I planted a four-acre pinot vineyard on Taylor Lane directly across the street from the Summa Vineyard. I named it “Occidental Vineyard” because it overlooked the Pacific and reminded me of my time at Ridge harvesting old vine zinfandel from Harrison Grade.

1998

I had the rare opportunity to taste the coastal pinot noirs I was making from the Flowers and Hirsch vineyards alongside the first pinots produced from the Occidental Vineyard on Taylor Lane; also included was the Littorai pinot from the Thieriot Vineyard next door. These comparative tastings were invaluable in guiding the direction that Occidental’s future vineyard development would take.

1999

The 100-acre Bodega Headlands property was purchased. 20 acres of pinot noir were planted in 2001.

2008

The 250-acre Bodega Ridge property was purchased on the same ridge as Bodega Headlands. 65 acres of pinot noir were planted between 2012 - 2015.

2011

I founded a new wine business dedicated to the production of world-class pinot noir from the Freestone-Occidental area.

2013

A small, state-of-the-art winery on Bodega Ridge was completed in time for the 2013 harvest.

2017

Our oldest daughter Catherine joined me full time, gradually assuming winemaking responsibilities and learning to run our family business. A great satisfaction for me as a winemaker and father is passing the torch to a new generation who have their own energy and dreams of great accomplishments.

Mark Bixler passed away unexpectedly in November 2017 after working closely with me from the very beginning.

2021

I purchased a property northwest of the town of Bodega on a dramatic marine terrace overlooking the ocean. Today, I am busy overseeing the development of an exciting new pinot noir vineyard here.

For the past twenty years, my family has lived in a home we built in the redwoods at the top of the Bodega Headlands Vineyard. There is nowhere else I would rather be.