I took pics in this vineyard two years ago (notice the age of the vines) but I don’t know which one it is. It’s on the west side of HWY 12 a bit (maybe a mile) south of Kenwood and just north of Ranch Rd. Can anyone help?
Rossi Ranch???
Pagani?
That’s Pagani for sure. A friend lived in the little house in back in the late 70"s. IIRC the fruit goes to Ridge and the vines are pushing the century mark. Salud! Bob
That’s Pagani Ranch in the Sonoma Valley AVA! Most of the vines are over 100 years old. I was just there yesterday as we will be buying the Mourvedre from the vineyard this year. The Mourvedre vines are also over 100 years old and we are very excited about being able to use this fruit in a GSM blend we are planning to make this year.
Thanks, all. I suspected it was Pagani by process of elimination but wanted to know for sure.
Obviously the above is from Google Maps, but here are a couple of pics I took. Note the size of the cluster!
I’m late to the party but yes, that’s unquestionably Pagani Ranch.
Nice pics Bob. Some of those old boys could tell some stories I’m sure.
Putting the Google maps in the corner takes the fun away 
Google who? Head-trained vines were the ticket for me. Its beautiful when the leaves go red…
Ridge and formerly St. Francis; starting vintage 2010 look as well for Bedrock and Carlisle 
Those close-ups don’t look like Zin. one looks like Alicante, the other a bit more like Carignan.
You’d know better than I. I just snapped shots of big ol’ gnarly vines and big clusters, not knowing all of what was in the vineyard.
Both of these images are of Alicante Bouschet. Alicante, which is a cross between Petit Bouschet and Grenache is certainly showing it’s Grenache like cluster shape and propensity to crop here. Pagani is a gorgeous vineyard with two rather distinct soil types. The more impressively statuesque vines which line Highway 12 are on deeper Tuscan Red Hill Series soils typical of those found at Kunde or up along Nelligan Road at Frederick (formerly Weiss) and Kistler Vineyard. However, due to the amount of virus (which turns the vines a brilliant red in late fall) this is actually not the best quality section of the vineyard. The jewels are the 1880’s plantings beyond the railroad tracks near the old winery that are very mixed (lots of Pets, Alicante, Grand Noir, Lenoir, Burger, Mission, Muscadelle, Semillon, and more) and planted on soils much higher in ash and clay (resembling Sonoma Mountain soils found at Pickberry, Farina, and Dinner vineyards to name a few). And yes, Mike Officer and I are very luck to be receiving the half of the vineyard that formerly went to St. Francis!
Railroad tracks? I must have missed those. Where are they? I can’t find them via the satellite photos on Google Maps.
PS - This is really interesting.
Bob, the tracks aren’t there anymore, but looking at the satellite images: the path arcs just behind the barn & farmhouse in your picture, until it’s pointing southeast and runs parallel with Hwy 12. You can see a few old vineyard blocks away from the highway, southwest of this line, which are the ones Morgan’s talking about.