History
Hirsch purchased the former sheep ranch in 1978 and planted the first vines in 1980. For two decades the property sold fruit to a roster that shaped modern California Pinot Noir, including Williams Selyem, Littorai and Failla, with the Hirsch designation appearing on some of the most influential bottlings of the 1990s. The family built an estate winery on the ranch in 2002, and the estate program, now led by David's daughter Jasmine Hirsch, has since become the main event.
The Site
The county records the core of the ranch across three parcels totaling 261 deeded acres along Bohan Dillon Road, within a property the family counts near 1,000 acres. Roughly 72 acres are planted, divided into some 60 small farming blocks between about 900 and 1,500 feet, above the marine fog layer. The San Andreas fault runs through the property, and the soils are fractured and jumbled along the plate boundary, changing block to block.
Vines and Blocks
Pinot Noir dominates, with a smaller planting of Chardonnay. West Ridge is the exposed ribbon north of the winery, taking Pacific wind and fog without shelter, and yields the estate's most perfumed, tension-driven wines. East Ridge sits on the more sheltered eastern flank near 1,350 feet with some of the ranch's oldest vines, giving the darkest and most structured expression. Block 8, at the northwest end below the old Chardonnay hill, grows in reddish iron-bearing Boomer soils and was planted in 1993 to Pommard and Wadenswil selections; the family has long regarded it as the grand cru of the property. Raschen Ridge and a constellation of smaller blocks complete the mosaic, and the San Andreas Fault bottling draws across them.
The Wines
The house signature is red-fruited and savory Pinot Noir of medium body, saline coolness and acid-driven structure, with block bottlings from West Ridge, East Ridge and Block 8 in strong vintages. The estate Chardonnay is lean and mineral. Beyond the estate, Littorai, Failla and Lioco designations from the ranch appear in the review record.