Welcome to Landa Vineyards, birthplace of multiple award winning Syrah and Viognier wines. Our vineyards, located just a mile from historic Sonoma Plaza, extend from the Sonoma Valley floor up the western slope of the Mayacamas Mountains. Our location was first identified in the beginning days of the northern California wine industry as premium land for growing grapes.
With its fate seemingly predetermined, the estate entered into viticulture history as one of the very first bonded wineries in the state of California. Over the decades it became clear that our Sonoma Basin Foothills mesoclimate, blessed with the valley heat and the cooling characteristics of the San Francisco Bay, is ideal for growing the highest quality Northern Rhone varieties. Building on top of what others had learned before us, we’ve spent the past 10+ years matching the perfect old-world grape varietal cuttings to our unique and very special vineyard microclimates.
Haraszthy Creek (named after Agoston Haraszthy, one of the founding fathers of the California wine industry), dry during the growing season, runs through the lower elevation blocks of our vineyard allowing for the evening and morning fog to envelope our award winning whites (Viognier, Roussanne and Marsanne). This area at the very base of the foothills creates the perfect temperature profile for these classic Northern Rhone white varieties. The vineyard acreage further up the hillside has a warmer, more gradated profile with great southwestern sun exposure, perfect for our Syrah, Grenache and Mourvedre plantings.
Our estate is blessed with a wonderful gravelly and sandy top layer of soil combined with a fractured volcanic (Rhyolitic) rock base. This particular composition of rock, sand, silt, ash and gravel allows for ideal root penetration and the necessary drainage to grow wine grapes of the highest quality. This special soil, along with the specific temperature profile of the estate, creates the perfect “terroir” for producing traditional red and white Rhone varietal fruit.
Once the terroir has ripened the fruit to the perfect levels of flavor and sweetness, we carefully hand pick the grapes in the cool temperatures of the pre-dawn morning and move them immediately to the winery. Once in the winery, Patrick Saboe (our winemaker) and his team work their magic, handcrafting the grapes into fine wines in small lots using traditional Rhone Valley fermentation techniques and French oak barrel aging. The Final results being out selection of rich, complex yet smooth Landa Vineyards’ wines.