History
The vineyard was planted in 1954 near the historic Buena Vista site that Agoston Haraszthy founded, on Castle Road above Sonoma. Natalie Compagni and Stephen Portis own it. Phil Coturri farmed it for years, and Bedrock Wine Co. took over the farming from the 2010 vintage; Bedrock manages the site but does not own the land, a distinction worth keeping straight. The Historic Vineyard Society certifies it.
The Site
About six acres in Sonoma Valley, dry-farmed and organically worked. Yields run under a ton per acre, which for white varieties this old is less an achievement than a condition of survival.
Vines and Blocks
An interplanted white field, unusual in a valley that replanted almost everything to red. Gewurztraminer, Trousseau Gris, Riesling and Burger are the confirmed varieties, and a number of vines in the planting have never been identified.
The Wines
Bedrock Wine Co. and Carlisle both bottle a Compagni-Portis white. The wine is a co-ferment of the field rather than a varietal, aromatic and dry, and it exists at all because two owners declined seventy years of advice to pull it out.