Driven By Climate
Sustainability does not start at the winery.
It starts in the vineyard.
Each bottle is born from the vineyard, and each bottle has a story to tell. That’s why we are so particular about how we farm and the time of harvest. The grapes must be exceptional yet protected, no amount of knowledge, effort, time or craft will change the climate we farm our grapes. As we get closer to harvest, we have to dance with the climate which sometimes forces us to harvest on particular days over others. This reminds us every year how we are not fully in charge of our most important leader, mother nature, as it is the final say in our wines.
Farming Grapes
Our vineyards sit in the Yorkville-Highlands AVA, a small region in the southern border of Mendocino and Sonoma County. The climate in our estate vineyards varies to coastal influenced cold, foggy and rainy, while some days are hot, dry and windy. Even with these extremes we take great pride and honor that the wine is made entirely with grapes from our Estate vineyards.
Buying Grapes
Yorkville Cellars is proud of the fact that mostly all it's wine is produced from it’s Estate vineyards. As our growing mission of offering sustainable wine, we plan to source grapes from the region’s most respected grape growers to expand our offering of sustainable farming and wine making practices. Some are neighbors, located right here in the Yorkville-Highlands, AVA. Others will be vineyards in Sonoma and Mendocino counties. Each has something unique to contribute; all are committed to producing sustainable wine grapes and appreciation to our climate.
Rennie Estate Vineyard
Yorkville sits at the beginning of the Navarro River Watershed. It is cooled on summer nights by windborne coastal fog, yet will quickly be removed by sun, followed by the dry heat of Northern California. The convexity of temperatures produces variable ripening, good flavors and balanced acidity. The latter assures ripeness and adequate flavor without any overdone flavors typical of hot climate vineyards.
Rennie Estate Vineyard is located on the flat valley of Yorkville-Highlands, AVA. Visiting us as you drive though our vineyards you first must pass through Rennie Vineyard, in order to join us at our tasting room. Rennie will give you a close look at our red wines from Cabernet Sauvignon to Carmenere or Petit Verdot and Malbec.
We invite everyone to walk through our Rennie Vineyard and see if you can guess the different varietals. At our vineyards, this an opportunity to see the wide variety of grapes in a quick outing amongst the estate vineyards.
Experience Yorkville
There is no better way to get to know us and our wines than to visit our tasting room.
Randle Hill Estate Vineyard
When planning the vineyard, great care was taken to maintain the hundred plus year-old oak trees and preserve pockets of natural habitats between and overlooking the property. Carefully trellising around the hills, most vines were positioned north to south and a majority were positioned west to east to allow for even exposure to the summer sun.
The Randle Estate Vineyards provide us with two organic white varietals, Semillon and Sauvignon Blanc. Here our guests can walk up the through the vineyards, pass next by our reservoir and if up for it, hike up to our hidden Oak tree picnic area for overlooking views of both estate vineyards.
