History
Ulises Valdez Sr. planted the vineyard in 2001. Valdez arrived in California as a teenager and built one of the most respected vineyard-management businesses in Sonoma before his death; the family still owns and farms the site. Mark Aubert leases the fruit rather than owning the land, and UV has become one of the defining wines in his range. The separate UV-SL vineyard at Valdez's home estate on Stoetz Lane is a later and different site, and study material regularly merges the two.
The Site
About thirty acres near Sebastopol, roughly six miles from the Pacific, on a mix of sand and dense clay that Aubert calls the Sebastopol clays. The wines are labelled Sonoma Coast.
Vines and Blocks
Chardonnay across the site, planted in 2001, on ground whose clay content is the usual explanation for the weight in the wines.
The Wines
Aubert's UV Vineyard Chardonnay is the best-known bottling, but the vineyard is not exclusive to him: Tamber Bey and other producers also buy here.