History
The name honors "Doc" van Alstyne, a longtime resident who once held vast acreage across this ridge. Bryon and Andie Sheets bought the original blocks off Doc's Ranch Road in 2005, inheriting a 1999 planting of Swan clone Pinot Noir, and added the neighboring parcel in 2008. Evening Land bottled the fruit from 2006 to 2009, Red Car from 2010, and in 2017 Ross Cobb of neighboring Coastlands took over the farming on a long-term lease, making Doc's Ranch functionally Cobb Wines' second estate vineyard.
The Site
Nine acres of densely planted vines on a property of about 21 acres, at 1,000 to 1,200 feet some four miles from the Pacific with views to Point Reyes. The site sits just over the ridgeline from Coastlands on the leeward east and southeast faces, slightly warmer but still fog-ruled, on marine sedimentary soils with the old Swan block on Yorkville loam.
Vines and Blocks
Eight acres of Pinot Noir in Swan, Calera, Pommard and 114 selections plus one Chardonnay block, JoAnn's Block, named for Bryon Sheets's mother. Farming is organic, sustainable and fish friendly under Ardzrooni vineyard management.
The Wines
Cobb's Doc's Ranch bottlings, including a Swan and Calera selection made with generous whole cluster, show the Occidental ridges' delicate, red-toned Pinot with a shade more flesh than Coastlands across the hill.