Far Mountain is the newest endeavor of veteran winemakers Mai Errazuriz and Rodrigo Soto. Sourced from the desolate, isolated vineyards of the Sonoma Mountains, these wines are integral to the discussion of Sonoma and California wines in general.
W e believe that some of the greatest potential for wine in California — and anywhere in the world — exists in remote pockets in the mountains of the Sonoma Valley. The growers we work with have taken decades of risks in both planting their vineyards and the farming choices they make today. Our work is to channel the drama of these surroundings into wines that dazzle with energy and stand out immediately. Wines that bring a sheer pleasure in their flavors and textures, as well as unfold slowly, with never- ending detail and fascination. It is a specific vision, literally chiseled by the landscape. Isolated. Awe-inspiring. Pulsing with beauty. If you have walked in the mountains of the Sonoma Valley, you know the feeling: warm sunlight filtering through groves of redwood and oak. The mellow golden fields of grass. The coolness in the breeze, an echo of the Pacific. The scents that you seem to absorb through your skin. The theater around you is so immense, yet you feel the scene is intimately yours. You linger because you don’t want to come down. You will not happen to drive by the vineyard sites that we work with and, in some cases, you will have trouble even finding them on a map. They are each tucked away and part of a greater environment, with both extreme beauty and extraordinary winegrowing characteristics that have us shaking our heads in wonder every time we set foot.
As you leave the town of Sonoma and head north into the hills of the Mayacamas mountain range that separates Sonoma from Napa, within a mile and a half you are on a narrow, rutted road at the bottom of a valley, sparsely populated, and then you start climbing, and find yourself almost entirely surrounded by forest, scrub and rock. When you close the car door and turn to look up at the Alta Vista vineyard, it’s like striding across a stage and looking up at the lights and rising rows of an audience. It is, in one word, dramatic. The vines are thick. They are old — fifty years old — which is exceptional by California standards. They come from a different era, but it’s difficult to argue with the choices made at a time when scientific understanding of viticulture was almost primitive compared to today. Because these vines have still never been irrigated (also extremely rare in California), they produce beautiful fruit at twice the age most vines in California must be replanted. They adapt to the heat better, and their deep root systems (20-40 feet down) bring more complexity to the fruit development. Alta Vista is the kind of place where everything feels immediately right. It’s this effortless natural balance that you notice even tasting berries in the fall. Cabernet Sauvignon doesn’t always taste good in the field, but it does here. The elevation and poor soils result in concentrated berries, but they are not too small, which would make them too tannic; the tannins are plush and velvety, even raw. The clusters are nice. We had the feeling from the start that this vineyard, if listened to and understood, had the potential to produce truly great wine.
alta vista vista vineyard
FISSION CABERNET SAUVIGNON
2020 Fission is a pure mountain wine, with a dark depth of fruit chiseled by the cool elevation of its two vineyard sites. A wine of texture, with the intensity and sappy concentration we associate with old vines, it builds into powerful tannins that remain refined, almost cloaked by the seductiveness of the fruit and the gently building structure. The name Fission was ultimately chosen to reference the textural and mineral characteristics that the unique volcanic soil brings to this wine. WINEMAKING 100% Cabernet Sauvignon, destemmed trying to keep whole berries, with very gentle pressing. Open top, native yeast fermentation with minimal punchdowns and pumpovers; never racked until blending before bottling. Aged 12 months 27% new oak, remainder 1, 2 and 3-year-old barrels Alcohol 14.0%
bald mountain mountain vineyard
Heading west up the Oakville Grade from Napa, or coming east on Trinity Road from Sonoma, is one of the rights of passage when you first visit Napa and Sonoma. Incredibly steep and full of twists and turns, you climb from one valley into the mountains and extraordinary redwoods of the Mayacamas range and come down into the other valley. The 11 miles take about half an hour. Halfway up, at the peak of the ridge, there is a side road that even those who have crossed the pass many times will not have noticed. It already feels remote within the majestic surroundings, but as you take the small side road and head north up the ridge, you feel you are in uncharted territory. The road leads to Bald Mountain, the second highest peak in the mountain range. The vineyard itself is remarkable. In a cool bowl at the bottom of the site we found exactly what we were looking for in Chardonnay plantings. The vineyard is not irrigated — a rarity in California, which we believe leads to more balanced vine health, as well as deeper root systems that bring more complexity to the fruit. Planted in 1972, the vineyard is dedicated to heritage California clones that thrive in poor soils and develop a true depth of texture and flavor. Thornton Vineyard, the second source for Myrna, is one that excites us equally and adds a unique dimension of Pacific Ocean influence and vineyard altitude. The vineyard lies directly west of the town of Sonoma, at the southern base of Sonoma Mountain in an area that falls under both the Sonoma Valley and Sonoma Coast appellations. The vines, nearly thirty years of age, look east and capture a ripeness that balances the wine on a knife’s edge.
2020 MYRNA CHARDONNAY
Myrna’s focused intensity of fruit and texture reflects its two extreme mountain and hillside vineyard sites. The word Myrna translates to “beloved”, a reflection of Far Mountain’s feelings about truly great Chardonnay: wines that can translate from their sites intense minerality, texture and a dazzling spectrum of flavors. WINEMAKING 100% Chardonnay, 71% from Bald Mountain and 29% from Thornton, whole cluster pressed by fractional pressure into barrel. Native yeast fermentation in barrel followed by lees contact throughout aging, with occasional stirring; never racked until blending before bottling. Aged 12 months 18% new oak, remainder 1, 2 and 3-year-old barrels Alcohol 13.5%
THE 2020 VINTAGE
2020 was a dry growing season. The winter saw moderate temperatures, with just above 10 inches of rain, setting off budbreak 10 days earlier that usual. A mild spring slowed things down allowing healthy canopy growth. Hot summer days encouraged the vines to ripen slowly and clusters to develop their signature mountain complexity. Harvest began 10 days earlier than previous years. From the very beginning, the vines self-regulated and showed lower yields, again with signs of concentration and density that amplified the character of the mountain site. Dry farming, high elevation, and older vines have become the signature of these wines, allowing the team to offset the many challenges and variabilities of the growing season.
Far Mountain is a name we chose in trying to describe the vineyard sites we work with and the greater settings in which those vineyards lie. There is a beautiful symmetry in these places, in that they are not only special sites for wine growing, but places we are physically drawn to because of their splendor. We wish we could take everyone who tries our wines and bring them up, for example, to Bald Mountain. It is truly one of the beautiful places on this planet, a place that for four decades we have passed within three miles of on a nearby road but never had an inkling existed. Those last three miles took a lifetime to travel, but from the first visit that place gave us the same sense of elation we’ve felt traveling around the world and coming upon other areas of extreme beauty. A hyper awareness of the physical present, of the sound of shoes on dirt and stones, of the direction of the wind. In that sense, the name Far Mountain also represents a journey for us. It came about because of an almost far-fetched opportunity that we dove into without second thought. And it’s a new journey now, seeking to make wines that bring that sense of wonder that truly great wine can achieve - a pure physical pleasure, and also a summation of place, experience, planning, and chance.
Over the last three decades, Mai Errazuriz and her husband Rodrigo Soto have worked for a number of leading wineries in North and South America. A last- minute dinner in Napa with longtime friends led to a deep discussion about the direction of wine in California. The discussion was more than deep; it touched on life values, and for a group obsessed with wine, led to a series of questions. And like that, Mai and Rodrigo started. We are so proud to share Far Mountain with you, and look forward to adding this unique layer to the discussion around wine in Sonoma and California.
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