Hirsch Vineyards, San Andreas Fault, Pinot Noir, Sonoma Coast 2020

Perched on a ridge overlooking the Pacific Ocean at Fort Ross, Hirsch Vineyards is the birth ground of great pinot noir on the extreme Sonoma Coast. David Hirsch founded the vineyard in 1980 to grow fruit and make site-specific wine. From the start all efforts have been on the growing of fruit that makes wines profoundly characteristic of the site vintage after vintage.

The wines from Hirsch Vineyards give the passionate drinker an experience of the clash of opposites meeting in Nature and Life: the edge of the continent washed by the sea; the eviternal grinding of the North American and Pacific plates along the San Andreas Fault; the wet winters and dry summers caused by the ocean and desert climates; the dripping rainforest and parched pastures; the contact and intermingling of cultures: Native American, Mexican, Russian, European; the change in rural economy from logging and ranching to winegrowing.

In the wines of Hirsch Vineyards you find a natural balance and consistency in the harmonious resolution of these opposites. This complex, unique site produces fruit and wines of unusual acidity and balance with a vintage specific concentration of pinot noir or chardonnay fruit. These are wines to be enjoyed now or laid down for future consumption.

The San Andreas Fault is Hirsch Vineyards’ signature Pinot Noir and is crafted to represent the entirety of this multifaceted vineyard. It is the flagship wine from Hirsch, and the wine that represents the summation of their complex vineyard.

Over 37 years of farming and winemaking on the True Sonoma Coast, David Hirsch’s accumulated wisdom has shown us that the dominant influence on our farming and winemaking is the San Andreas Fault, which lies just half a mile from the Hirsch Vineyard. The wine that captures the complexity, power and energy of this geologic phenomenon is our San Andreas Fault Estate Pinot Noir, the wine that David calls “the Hirsch Hirsch”.

Hirsch Vineyards is comprised of 72 acres, divided into 67 individual farming blocks, corresponding to the dramatic and sudden changes in soil and aspect created by the Fault. This degree of fragmentation is unmatched even by the famously subdivided vineyards of Burgundy’s Côte de Nuits. The vineyard has a fearsome diversity of soils, aspects, elevations and microclimates. This complexity defines our farming and winemaking practices: each block was individually developed and is now farmed, harvested and vinified separately.