History
Ted Klopp began planting Thorn Ridge in 1995, completing a second block in 1996 on ground that had been an apple orchard. He farms it with his daughter Lauren Klopp Williams, and also farms the older Klopp Ranch and the much younger H. Klopp, three separate family sites that are regularly confused with one another. The vineyard sells fruit rather than making wine.
The Site
A steep, eastward-sloping hillside property of about twenty-seven acres on fine Goldridge sandy loam, around 600 feet up and roughly nine miles from the Pacific. It is dry-farmed. Producers split on the appellation: most bottlings read Sonoma Coast, but at least one current label uses Russian River Valley, so this is a genuine two-AVA site rather than a settled one.
Vines and Blocks
Pinot Noir from the 1995 and 1996 plantings, in a wider clonal spread than the Pommard and Dijon 115 pairing usually quoted for it.
The Wines
Kosta Browne, LaRue, Gary Farrell and Freeman all bottle Thorn Ridge designates, and Claypool Cellars uses the fruit in its CC Pachyderm blend.