Wine & Spirits - Fall 2022 - 36

RESTING aBOVE THE ST.
aNDREaS FaUlT, BlOCK 8 IS
THE PaRCEl DaVID HIRSCH
CONSIDERS HIS GRaND CRU.
CALIFORNIA | SONOMA COUNTY FORT ROSS-SEAVIEW
Hirsch
David Hirsch and his daughter Jasmine work to bring the
intention behind their farming into the wines they bottle.
When DaviD hirsch bought his 1,000 acres of lanD in
Fort Ross, on the far Sonoma coast, he planned to
restore forest to the ridges that had been timbered. He
brought that long-term vision to vines after his friend
Jim Beauregard encouraged him to plant two acres of
riesling and pinot noir in 1980. Since then, he and Everardo
Robledo have planted 70 more, focusing on pinot
noir and chardonnay, farming parcels on ridges facing
east toward Sonoma, and west toward the Pacific two to
three miles away. By 2002, he had established an estate
winery, now run by his daughter, Jasmine, who recalls
a paradigm shift that started in 2011. Ross Cobb, who
was making the wines at that time, started harvesting
earlier and using whole clusters in the fermentations. It
was the first vintage they bottled Block 8 as a single-parcel
wine-a parcel David Hirsch describes as his grand
cru-and the year Hirsch started training his team in
biodynamics. Farming vines in this extreme and unpredictable
climate might take a more pragmatic winegrower
toward conventional, chemical solutions. But the
Hirsches did not set out to make pragmatic wine. They
have worked to establish a grand cru in these Pacific
ridges, an effort that demands vigilance and results in
some extraordinary wines. -J.G
36
WINE & SPIR IT S
F all 202 2
2019 Fort Ross-Seaview Block 8 Pinot Noir ($95, 96
points) The vines at from Block 8 date to 1993, when Hirsch
propagated a selection from his original 1980 planting. He
has traced those plants to Oregon, a mix of material he
believes to be selections of Pommard and Wädenswil clones.
They grow on a western ridge, toward the northern edge of the
Hirsch estate, where this sunny 2019 ripened to golden strawberry,
cool cranberry and fresh cherry fullness. And yet, this
is not a fruity California pinot noir: it's focused on the herbal
complexities of gentle, grape-skin tannins and the earthiness
of their flavor length. David Hirsch describes this parcel as
growing in reddish rock, high in iron oxide; the deep chert and
sandstone gravels underneath provide exceptional drainage.
His intimacy with the site and the vines is no guarantee that
the weather will cooperate to bring them to perfect ripeness.
But when it does, as in 2019, this wine takes its place among
the great pinot noirs of the world.
2019 Fort Ross-Seaview Raschen Ridge Pinot Noir ($85,
95 points) Among the Hirsches' parcel selections, Raschen
Ridge was a standout in 2019. Named for Henry Raschen, an
artist who lived here in the early 1900s, this comes from the
highest sites at Hirsch. The wine captures the power of those
ridgetops, framing the transparency of its wild berry flavor
with scents of spring-meadow herbs. It's rare to find a California
wine with such depth of character presented in this light,
harmonious way.
2019 Fort Ross-Seaview The Bohan-Dillon Pinot Noir
($38, 92 points) The Hirsches might call Bohan-Dillon their
Villages pinot noir, named for the road to their ranch and the
family that ran a sheep station there. Most of the '19 is estate
fruit, with three percent coming from the Hellenthal Vineyard
to the north. Transparent ruby-red in color, this is equally clear
in its cherry flavor, darkening to black currant and morels.
FOUNDED: 1980 (vineyard);
2002 (winery)
WINEMAKER:
Jasmine Hirsch
VITICULTURISTS:
David Hirsch and
Everardo Robledo
OWNER:
The Hirsch family
ACRES OWNED:
1,000; 72 planted
ANNUAL PRODUCTION:
6,240 cases
(2020 vintage)
ESTATE GROWN:
91% (2020 vintage)
FARMING PRACTICES:
Biodynamic, not
certified
Wine & Spirits - Fall 2022

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