History
David Cobb, a marine biologist, and Diane Cobb, sometime surfboard shaper, pilot and 25 year art director of Practical Winery and Vineyard magazine, bought the ridgetop in 1988 and planted five acres of Pinot Noir in 1989, when far-coast Pinot was still an experiment. Williams Selyem released the first Coastlands vineyard designate from the 1994 vintage and farms a relationship with the site to this day. Son Ross Cobb, after Williams Selyem and a winemaking run at Flowers, co-founded Cobb Wines with David in 2001 to make the estate wines.
The Site
About 14 acres of vines stand at roughly 1,000 feet, some four miles from the Pacific, on Yorkville clay and sandy loams with rocky uplifted marine-terrace ground in places. The parcel traced here is one section of the family holding.
Vines and Blocks
The 1906 Block, four acres of Pommard and Mt. Eden planted in 1998, takes its name from the date the original rancher carved into an oak above it during the San Francisco earthquake. The Old Firs Block of 1999 grows Wadenswil and Martini selections among Douglas firs nearly three centuries old. Diane's nursery block, grown from a half acre to over twenty own-rooted selections she chose at UC Davis in 1988, yields the rare Diane Cobb bottling from some of the region's oldest own-rooted Pinot vines. Younger blocks carry Dijon 115 and 777 with 02A, 15 and 23 on 101-14 and 5C rootstocks, cane pruned under native grass and clover.
The Wines
Coastlands Pinot Noir defines the Occidental ridge style: low alcohol, red fruit, forest-floor savor and long, cool-vintage aging curves, split between the Williams Selyem designation and Cobb's own block bottlings.