The Eric Ross Winery began just east of Occidental, California on the site of an old Italian winery above the Russian River Valley. There two friends, Eric Luse and John Ross Storey, award-winning photographers for San Francisco’s daily newspapers, joined together to produce wines with big personalities and heartfelt passions—characteristics more than skin deep and ones they believed were inherent in California’s soil. Their decision was based on having personally tested hundreds of grapes and having been exposed to the state’s diverse wine growing regions in the course of their journalistic assignments. They knew the Sonoma Valley was the ideal spot to produce their wines.
"The long, cool growing season, just above the fog line, keeps the vines temperate, yet there’s plenty of sun to ripen," Eric explains. "The cool-down at night prevents acids in the skins from dissipating into the air. Grapes ripen slowly, and what we’re getting is a fruit of great concentration".
"You don’t have to coax good fruit into doing what comes naturally; the grapes know what to do," says John, who puts a lot of faith in the harvest of their mountain vineyard. The wine makers interfere with the process as little as possible, but devote copious amounts of personal attention to the final product. The Old Vine Zinfandel, for instance, starts with fermentation in open-topped redwood tanks, punched down by hand twice daily. After pressing, the wine is transferred to American and French oak casks for 18 months prior to bottling, and the two taste every barrel before separating into the Old Vine Zin.
A delicate balance between flavor and oak, intensity and acidity--in other words, not too much of anything--is the key. And a low draw from un-irrigated farming yields less than 1 ton per acre, producing wines with incredible integrity.
Both epicureans at heart, Eric likens the wines to a rare meal: "If you start out with really good ingredients, I mean really good, you have the fundamental components for something extraordinary." Taking advantage of this premium growing region, and by hand-crafting each vintage, Eric Ross Winery produces a small quantity of extremely remarkable wines.
Unfortunately, while the original location lent romance and history to the Eric Ross Winery, as well as a spectacular view, they eventually figured out that looks weren't everything. These two winemakers have since located their operations to more modern facilities, but have not set aside their desire to retain the original "old-winery" appeal for their premium wines.
