Creating Depth and Breadth

One of the most fun things about La Rochelle from a wine-making standpoint is the sheer number of different Pinots there are to make and drink. Pinot Noir is perhaps the best argument for the French notion of terroir, that hazily-understood notion that says that all aspects of the vineyard site (temperature, soil type, sun exposure, wind, rainfall, etc) have a significant and unduplicate-able effect on the final outcome of the wine. Each of our Pinots is a physical manifestation of the vineyard site, vineyard practice, winemaking philosophy, and vintage.

La Rochelle was founded on a passion for Pinot Noir and with a mission to show as many of the facets, beautiful and idiosyncratic, of this noble variety. Consequently, the search for great vineyard sites in as many of the great growing areas in California and Oregon as possible consumes a lot of our time. Currently, we have sourced fruit from nine different appellations:

• Monterey
• Santa Lucia Highlands
• Arroyo Seco
• Santa Cruz Mountains
• Chalone
• Russian River Valley
• Sonoma Coast
• Anderson Valley
• Umpqua Valley of Oregon

The first releases of wines from Chalone, Sonoma Coast, and Anderson Valley will be in 2009/10. There are still a number of appellations that we are on the prowl for: Willamette Valley, Santa Rita Hills, and Santa Maria Valley.

We will never (at least I can't conceive of doing this) produce large lots of Pinot Noir. We want to continue to scour the landscape for great vineyard sites farmed by people as passionate about growing Pinot as we are in making it. This is the only way have to guarantee that our wines have the quality we expect of them.