History
The vineyard was planted in 2004 to Red Car's specifications, and Red Car has leased and bottled it since 2007 as the principal producer. James Laube gave the 2007 Heaven & Earth ninety-seven points, and Wine Spectator ran it as a 2009 cover story; the front label carried no Red Car branding at all, only a photograph. Red Car itself was founded in 2000 as a Syrah label before Pinot Noir became its centre of gravity, and moved into a converted Sebastopol tractor dealership in 2010.
The Site
Four and a half acres less than a mile northwest of Occidental, on Yorkville loam, farmed organically.
Vines and Blocks
Pinot Noir in Calera, Pommard and 828 selections, planted at over two thousand vines to the acre on seven by three spacing on 420A rootstock. Yields average under two and a half tons per acre, which the density is designed to enforce.
The Wines
Red Car's Heaven & Earth Pinot Noir is the principal wine from the site (Arnot-Roberts also bottles a small parcel), and remains the label's benchmark bottling.