Napa Valley wine, food company expands in Mendocino County

Long Meadow Ranch in Rutherford has bought a 145-acre parcel in Mendocino County’s Anderson Valley as the farm-to-table food business looks to grow its wine operations with high-end pinot noir and chardonnay in a burgeoning wine region.

Long Meadow Ranch, operated by longtime vintner and former Robert Mondavi chairman Ted Hall, bought the property from the Corby family. It consists of 69 acres of planted vineyards, comprising 50 acres of pinot noir, 17 acres of chardonnay and 2 acres of pinot gris. The purchase price was not disclosed, though a knowledgeable source put the deal at more than $100,000 per planted acre.

The sale is one of the largest transactions in the past decade for the Mendocino County appellation and signifies the growing popularity of pinot noir from the region. Long Meadow Ranch represented itself in the sale while the Corby family was represented by International Wine Associates. In fact, a recent vineyard sale for a premium property in the valley went for $100,000 per acre, said Aubrey Rawlins, executive director for the Mendocino WineGrowers, a local trade group.

“Expanding into estate-grown pinot noir and chardonnay is a natural fit, and we believe Anderson Valley is the ideal location to produce premium, Burgundian varietal wines,” Hall said in a statement.

The property is located near Philo and the Navarro River. It will be an organic estate like other Long Meadow Ranch vineyard properties, which consist of 74 acres in Rutherford and 16 acres in the Mayacamas. The company produces 35,000 cases of wine annually.

Chris Hall, Long Meadow Ranch’s vice president and Ted’s son, said the company had been eyeing property in the area for some time given its terroir where a marine layer regularly blankets the area and produces well-balanced fruit.

As part of the purchase, Stephane Vivier will serve as winemaker for the new Anderson Valley estate. Vivier is a native of Burgundy and the longtime winemaker at HDV wines in Napa. He will work with vineyard manager Paul Ardzrooni of Ardzrooni Vineyard Management in Philo.

In an interview, Chris Hall was extremely bullish on the venture, noting he hopes to replicate with Vivier what his father did with winemaker Cathy Corison in the 1990s with Bordeaux-style wines from the ranch that garnered much acclaim.

The family-owned ranch also produces its own estate olive oil, beef and lamb, fruits, vegetables and eggs as part of its organic integrated farming style with permanent cover crops and homemade fertilizer. It also operates a St. Helena farmstead that has a restaurant, market, wine bar and general store.

Chris Hall said there are future possibilities for the new property as well, such as using apple trees to make hard cider, as both Boonville Cider House and Bates & Schmitt have gained a following in the fast-growing sector.

Approximately 35 wineries are represented in the valley, where the average vineyard is 12 acres in size. They range from well-known vintners such as Kendall-Jackson, Duckhorn Vineyards and Roederer Estate to those who helped pioneer the local industry in the 1970s, such as Navarro Vineyards & Winery.

“I believe it takes a certain kind of family that wants to be here and invest in the area,” said Janis MacDonald, executive director of the Anderson Valley Winegrowers. “It’s very collaborative.”

The area has seen a little controversy lately as one community resident filed a lawsuit claiming that wind machines used to stave off frost in the vineyards regularly violate the county’s noise ordinance, which limits noise to 40 decibels at night.

Residents want to preserve their quality of life in the hamlet and are wary of tourism growth and events that are commonplace in Sonoma and Napa counties, MacDonald said.

One upside, Rawlins said, is that there is very little real estate left on the valley floor for development of new vineyards, which a 2010 count put at 2,244 planted acres. Pinot noir represents the lion’s share of the crop.

“We have a lot of pushback from the locals who don’t want to see here what has happened in Napa,” MacDonald said.

EDITOR’S NOTE: The story has been updated with an estimated price on the transaction.

You can reach Staff Writer Bill Swindell at 521-5223 or bill.swindell@pressdemocrat.com. On Twitter @BillSwindell.