History
Paul and Vicki Michalczyk planted the vineyard on ground that had been considered unsuitable for grapes twenty years earlier. Margaret and Bill Yarak own and farm it now. It has been a grower's property throughout, and the list of wineries that have bottled from it is long; Anthill Farms' founding trio took their first-ever vineyard designate from here.
The Site
A 24.9-acre property with about eighteen acres under vine on the ridge above the town of Freestone, running from 386 to 610 feet, on Goldridge fine sandy loam. The site's position lets its fruit be labelled Sonoma Coast, Russian River Valley or Green Valley of Russian River Valley, and different producers use all three, which makes it the textbook example of overlapping Sonoma appellations rather than a filing error.
Vines and Blocks
Chardonnay in the Wente selection, clone 5, alongside Pinot Noir in Pommard clone 4 and Dijon 115, trained on a modified Scott Henry system.
The Wines
Freeman, Joseph Swan, Lynmar, DeLoach, Anthill Farms and Williams Selyem have all made Hawk Hill designates, and the appellation on the label tells you as much about the producer as about the ground.