History
George Vare, a co-founder of Luna Vineyards, planted the property in the mid-1990s. In 2001 he took cuttings from Josko Gravner's vineyard in Friuli and carried them into the United States in his own luggage rather than through nursery quarantine, establishing what is generally recorded as the first commercial planting of Ribolla Gialla in the country. Vare died in 2013 and the Bengier family bought the property, which now operates as Bengier Family Vineyard while the wines are still widely labelled Vare. Steve Matthiasson farms it under CCOF organic certification.
The Site
A gentle southwest-sloping alluvial fan on Dry Creek Road at the base of the Mayacamas, in the western corridor of the Oak Knoll District, with the blocks backing onto the forested lower hillsides of Mount Veeder. That position is the point of the site: the mountain's canopy cuts off the late afternoon sun that bakes the rest of the valley floor, which slows sugar accumulation and holds total acidity high. Soils are gravelly clay loam over volcanic tufa and sandstone.
Vines and Blocks
The flagship Ribolla Gialla block dates from 2001 and is planted at high density to force competition and thicken skins. Adjacent micro-blocks carry Tocai Friulano and Pinot Grigio, with Cabernet Sauvignon on the deeper clay channels.
The Wines
Arnot-Roberts makes the defining bottling: brief skin contact, native fermentation in stainless steel and ten months in neutral oak, giving a pale, phenolic white around twelve per cent alcohol with jasmine, green apple skin, kaffir lime and a dusty tannic grip. Arnot-Roberts now labels it Bengier Vineyard, which is the same ground under the current owners' name.