Popular culture has long perpetuated the idea that the California coast is all sunshine and bikinis. And while Baywatch and others may have had a point when it comes to coastal Los Angeles and San Diego, anyone living in Northern California knows that the beach is where you swaddle yourself in sweaters and blankets. 

But this climate, it turns out, is a really great set of circumstances for growing Pinot Noir, and the Sonoma Coast is a particularly sweet spot for the noble grape. 

That said, what’s ideal for wine grapes isn’t always ideal for people. We wouldn’t have wine grapes so close to the coast if it weren’t for the people willing to ignore the naysayers and venture deep into the woods.

Among the first of these stubborn visionaries is David Hirsch, who in 1978—with no background in wine except as a drinker—purchased 800 acres of an old, remote sheep ranch. It was entirely off the power grid, three miles from the Pacific Ocean and eight miles north of Russian River, and accessible only via a treacherous dirt road.

“The site met his criteria for the antithesis of civilization,” as John Winthrop Haeger put it in his book Pacific Pinot Noir. But Hirsch still had to figure out a way for the land to pay for itself. Pinot Noir was suggested, and Pinot Noir was planted, in a series of discontinuous blocks beginning in 1980. 

At the time, this was crazy. Few believed the cold site would ever get warm enough to ripen Pinot Noir. (They had a point: sometimes it didn’t.) But Hirsch’s bet paid off. Producers like Littorai and Williams Selyem used Hirsch’s fruit to make benchmark vineyard-designated bottles, and helped Hirsch earn grand cru status among California Pinot-heads—who remained a rare breed into the early 2000s. 

But Hirsch wasn’t even the first to plant Pinot on the western edges of the Sonoma Coast. (Its denizens often refer to the region as the “true Sonoma Coast,” but more on that later.) Steve Young preceded him by a year, when he planted the ridgetop Summa Vineyard outside the town of Occidental in 1979. That vineyard is now owned by winemaker Thomas Rivers Brown, whose Rivers-Marie label has long made some of the region’s most coveted wines from Summa fruit, which is saying something: A 1991 Williams Selyem Summa Vineyard cuvée was the first bottle of California Pinot to sell for $100. 

It’s a pretty new region. and yet, today the western edges of the Sonoma Coast grow some of the finest wine grapes in the world.

The Second Wave

The Cobb family planted Coastlands Vineyards on a 1,200-foot ridge between Occidental and Bodega Bay in 1989, sited, like Hirsch’s vineyards, just three miles from the ocean. Williams Selyem bought them early on, and, as had happened with other key Pinot vineyards, its endorsement rapidly made the vineyard famous. Even before then, Ross Cobb had spent time working at another pioneering Sonoma Coast producer, Flowers, and when the family was ready to launch its own Cobb Wines, he was ready to take what he learned and apply it to Coastlands.

For its part, Flowers planted its estate vineyards on the first ridge inland from the ocean between Jenner and Fort Ross—not far from Hirsch—in 1991. (Before then, it made wine with purchased fruit.) Grapes from those two estate vineyards, Camp Meeting Ridge and Sea View Ridge,  produce wines full of coastal elegance and minerality, and remain West Sonoma Coast standouts year in and year out.

Steve Kistler first fell in love with coastal vineyards when he worked at Ridge in the 1970s. His success with Sonoma County Chardonnay through his years at Kistler informed his next phase, when, in 1995, he planted Occidental Vineyard entirely to Pinot Noir in Freestone-Occidental, on a coastal ridge with ocean views. He’d been inspired by the Pinot growing at Summa Vineyard, which he found to have an entirely different profile from the Pinots of Russian River Valley. Summa Pinots showed vivid aromatics, bright natural acidity, and what he calls a more pronounced “cool climate character.” 

Defining the Sonoma Coast—and the West Sonoma Coast

The enormous Sonoma Coast appellation was approved by the federal government in 1987. At 750 square miles, it stretched from its northern border with Mendocino County all the way to Marin County to the south, with 76 miles of Pacific coastline along its western edge.

But the AVA’s eastern boundaries rattled winemakers. It stretched over good portions of the Russian River Valley, Chalk Hill, Sonoma Valley, and Carneros AVAs, which, grape growers and winemakers argued, diluted much of the meaning of “Sonoma Coast.”

Knowing that what they had was special, Hirsch and other key winemakers  endeavored to establish the Fort Ross-Seaview AVA in 2012. It carved 27,500 acres out of the bigger Sonoma Coast appellation focusing on the ridges, hills, and mountains at higher elevations—the minimum elevation for Fort Ross-Seaview is 920 feet—along the ocean near Fort Ross and Seaview in western Sonoma County, located between 0.5 and 2.5 miles from the coastline. 

The higher elevations ensured that the appellation was above the fogline, and thus enjoyed more sunlight for grape ripening, thereby separating themselves from the coast’s foggier areas at lower elevations.

But many winemakers still felt that something was missing. Like Ted Lemon, who was always obsessed with the Sonoma Coast. He founded Littorai in 1993 outside of Sebastopol to make wines from star vineyards along that coast, including Hirsch and B.A. Thieriot. He planted his estate Haven Vineyard in 2001 between Sebastopol and Freestone, a small town now within the West Sonoma Coast appellation, a designation Lemon fought long and hard to legally define.

That AVA was finally approved in 2022. It carved out yet another 141,846 acres out of the larger Sonoma Coast, including the boundaries of Fort Ross-Seaview (which still remains its own separate AVA), and extending it farther to the steep, rugged mountains and ridgelines that form the Coast Ranges across Sonoma County, some of which exceed 1,000 feet. The region’s higher peaks lie above the fog layer, while the ridgelines create areas at lower elevations sheltered from the heaviest marine fogs. That means the grapes get enough daylight and sunshine to ripen, though not much heat—which is ideal for Pinot Noir.

The thinking behind the  West Sonoma Coast AVA is to focus on acreage overtly influenced by marine winds and fog, as opposed to the inland regions of Sonoma County—to focus on what many had come to call the “true” Sonoma Coast. Most of its proponents think it does.

Newer residents of the West Sonoma Coast include RAEN Winery, or Research in Agriculture and Enology Naturally, the winery established by Carlo and Dante Mondavi, who are Tim Mondavi’s sons/Robert Mondavi’s grandsons. The brothers were deliberate in wanting to focus on Pinot Noir, from grapes grown on the western edges of the Sonoma Coast. Their grandfather was a pioneer in Napa Valley. They’re hoping to do the same for one of the state’s newest regions. 

Sonoma Coast Pinots to Try

2021 Cobb Coastlands Vineyard Old Firs Block Pinot Noir ($95)

A single-block Pinot named for the two Douglas firs on the property, from a block that is also one of the original plantings at Coastlands. Spicy and savory, it sizzles with pomegranate, cranberry, and clove, is medium-bodied with a sinewy texture, and offers that deliciously compelling hint of sea spray that the finer coastal Pinots often possess.

2021 Gust Pinot Noir ($60)

Gust is a partnership between sisters Megan and Hilary Cline, whose parents continue to run Cline Family Cellars in Carneros. Here, the sisters have teamed with Cline winemaker Tom Gendall to combine grapes from two estate vineyards, Catapult Ranch and Diamond Pile, both of which are exposed to cooling coastal winds and planted to a combination of Dijon and heritage clones. Earthy, spicy, and offering a depth of mushroom and wild strawberry. Effortlessly light, but not fleeting.

2021 Hirsch San Andreas Fault Estate Pinot Noir ($65)

David Hirsch’s daughter Jasmine now makes the Hirsch wines, a wonderful continuity that gives these wines a bit more soul. This is the producer’s flagship wine; its name is a nod to Hirsch’s location, half a mile from the San Andreas Fault. This vintage includes 34 distinct blocks. The result is a study in steely minerality, wild strawberry, and lithe texture, with tannins that show the grape’s resolve against Mother Nature.

2021 Kosta Browne Sonoma Coast Pinot Noir ($120)

Winemaker Julien Howsepian sourced from eight different vineyard sites in the Sonoma Coast AVA, including many that go into single-vineyard designates, to create this stellar appellation wine. Fermented whole cluster in stainless steel with a touch of wood and concrete fermentation, it bursts with fresh berries, forest floor, and an energetic acidity.

2021 Littorai B.A. Thieriot Vineyard Pinot Noir ($110)

Dark and brooding and yet somehow also ethereal and light, this deliciously compelling wine is a study in contrast and coastal influence. Dried herb, black tea, and feral intensity. The fruit is juicy with black cherries while avoiding being too sweet, and follows a throughline of persistent acidity.

2021 Nestweaver Sonoma Coast Pinot Noir ($125)

Brand-new from Arietta co-founder Caren Hatton, with Andy Erickson-disciple Patrick Nyeholt making the wine. Hatton always wanted to make the most Burgundian-style wine possible in California, and felt that the cooler weather and Goldridge soils of the Sebastopol Hills gave her a chance to do so. Tart cherry and pomegranate meet clove, rose, and mushroom in this savory wine that keeps forest floor at its core.

2021 Occidental Freestone-Occidental Pinot Noir ($65)

All the tart fruits are on display in this elegant wine, predominantly pomegranate, rhubarb, and orange, while supple tannins coat the palate and lead to a finishing touch of sea spray and forest floor that lingers. This wine goes on for days, and should age well for years, thanks to its acidity. 

2022 Overshine Gap’s Crown Sonoma Coast Pinot Noir ($70)

Steep and exposed to coastal winds, Gap’s Crown is one of Sonoma County’s most famous vineyards for Pinot. Here, wild-yeast-fermented, 25 percent whole-cluster grapes turn into flavors of wild raspberry and dark cherry dusted in cinnamon and clove. Sam Bilbro of Idlewild makes the wine.

2022 RAEN Royal St. Robert Cuvée Pinot Noir ($75)

Named in honor of Carlo and Dante Mondavi’s grandfather, Robert, this is an energetic, vivacious and dazzling coastal red deep in high-tone crunchy red berries, baking spice, and tea, with an earthiness always at the fore. Made from a selection of its coastal sites, it paints a vivid picture of how close the vines are to the ocean and to the forests that surround them.

2021 Saxon Brown Jasper Freestone Vineyard Pinot Noir ($80)

Saxon Brown’s winemaker/owner Jeff Gaffner has long made the Black Kite wines. This is an inaugural release, from a vineyard planted outside the town of Freestone in 2015 by Black Kite owners Tom and Rebecca Birdsall. The windswept vines are planted in Goldridge soils, and the wine offers depth, complexity, and beautiful aromatics of wild cherry, raspberry, and pomegranate, with complementary seasonings of clove and tobacco.