History
The name is older than the vines. Ramon Branch, son of Rancho Santa Manuela grantee Francis Ziba Branch, built the adobe in the early 1860s and called the ranch around it El Rincon, the corner, for its position on the 16,955 acre grant. Oliver Talley began growing specialty vegetables in the valley in 1948; the family bought this property in 1974 for its row-crop land. The 1982 test plot on the west hillside held Chardonnay, Pinot Noir, Sauvignon Blanc, Riesling and Cabernet Sauvignon; the Cabernet's failure in the cold settled the question. The 1986 debut, roughly 450 cases, was made in a makeshift winery beside a vegetable cooler; an 8,500 square foot winery went up at the vineyard's base in 1991, the year Brian Talley became general manager. Steve Rasmussen made the wines from 1986 to 2006, Eric Johnson has since 2010, and the fourth generation, four members strong, now works seven family vineyards in two appellations.
The Site
Rincon climbs from the valley floor in tiers behind the adobe, about seven miles northeast of the Pacific, reaching roughly 400 feet. Fog fills the corridor most mornings and marine air follows through the afternoon; Rincon is the warmest of the Talley sites, a relative title on ground that killed Cabernet. Soils are shallow calcareous clay and weathered sandstone, the oldest vines own rooted. Talley farms the two flanks, West Rincon and East Rincon, as separate vineyards; the parcel Au Bon Climat buys faces southeast, Testarossa's Chardonnay rows west-southwest. Published plantings for the full site run from the mid 80s to 95 acres, roughly 49 of Chardonnay and 38 of Pinot Noir with small lots of Syrah and other varieties. Farming is SIP Certified; picking is by hand at night.
Vines and Blocks
The Pinot Noir is dominated by the Wädenswil selection UCD 2A; the Chardonnay is largely Clone 4, with Robert Young material in some rows Testarossa buys. East Rincon Block 2, planted by Don Talley in 1984, is the oldest block the family still farms, the closest to the winery, and among the property's best Pinot Noir by their own account; the 1982 test rows themselves did not survive. West Rincon Block 5 ripens first, opening the harvest in both 2024 and 2025, on August 25 in the latter year.
The Wines
Talley's Rincon Pinot Noir is the supple, savory pole of the estate range: native yeasts in small open-top fermenters, hand punchdowns, about 30 percent whole cluster and 16 months in roughly a third new French oak in recent vintages, the top wines generally unfined and unfiltered. Rincon Chardonnay runs mineral and firm, and a small Rincon Syrah persists. More than twenty wineries buy Talley fruit; the designates carrying this name include Au Bon Climat's Talley-Rincon Pinot Noir, bottled across at least the 2005 to 2023 vintages, half whole cluster in mostly new Francois Freres oak, and Testarossa's Rincon Chardonnay, five to twelve barrels in most years. Au Bon Climat's library bottles are the standing evidence for the family's claim that these wines age.