HEINTZ RANCH APPELLATIONS
The care of the land is always our first priority and is the most important winemaking decisions we make. Each plot is farmed gently and sustainably to ensure that future generations of the Heintz family will be able to enjoy this special location.

Heintz Ranch is located in the following appellations:

• Sonoma Coast
  The hottest new region in the county is, in fact, its coolest. What’s hot is the recognition that a place so close to the Pacific, with more than twice the annual rainfall of its inland neighbors, can still be warm enough to ripen wine grapes to their fullest flavor potential.

  The answer, simply enough, is that these vineyards rise up above the fogline on slopes once given over to natural forestlands, punctuated by the occasional flock of sheep or herd of cows. On the coast, a thriving seafood industry provides the perfect accompaniment to the region’s vinous offerings. Chardonnay with the crab? Oysters? It’s so deliciously Sonoma County.

  Though at 750 square miles it’s the county’s largest Viticultural Area, it is at present the least planted. But that is changing rapidly as consumers discover the depth of flavors that can be generated when varieties like Chardonnay and Pinot Noir are planted where the end of the growing season is coincident with their fullest flavor maturity. That’s how you come up with Chardonnays loaded with fresh dairy cream and toasted hazelnut character and Pinot Noirs sulky and silken with black cherry fruit and sandalwood spice. (Sonoma County Winegrape Commission )

• Russian River Valley
  The Russian River Valley American Viticultural Area (AVA) is located in the heart of Sonoma County, California, just fifty-five miles north of San Francisco. The seasonal fog and the tempering effects of the ocean to our west give us an uncommonly long growing season, and creates ideal conditions for cool-climate-loving grape varieties, particularly Chardonnay and Pinot Noir.
  These nearly ideal growing conditions result in wines of uncommon depth and richness that still maintain their bright natural acidity.

  Russian River Valley is not only abundant with grape growing and winemaking; it is also rich in history—both geological and man-made. This history makes the Russian River Valley a special place to grow grapes, to make wine, to live or to visit. (Russian River Valley Winegrowers)

• Green Valley
  The apple trees are one clue. Blueberries and tangled thickets of blackberries and raspberries–and the densely-fruited jams, jellies and preserves they produce–are the other. Both reference a climate that is cool enough to bring out the most fully matured fruit flavors that Pinot Noir and Chardonnay can mount.

  Tucked away on the edge of Sebastopol– once the world’s home to the Gravenstein apple–Green Valley offers an admixture of redwood forests, llama and Christmas tree farms, ornamental flower nurseries (even normally fragile orchids thrive here), Luther Burbank’s famed Gold Ridge Farm, old style Italian restaurants … and wine grapes with distinctive “cold climate” identities. Also used for sparkling wine, Pinot Noirs are velvet-textured and supple with spicy black cherry, and local Chardonnays are crisp and creamy, with nutty spices all their own. (Russian River Valley Winegrowers)