Home of Extreme Viticulture
History
There is viticulture, and then there is extreme viticulture. Sometimes the most distinguishing element of a vineyard is the intense nature of its site. Audelssa Estate has one of the most distinctive vineyard sites in California. Cascading some 1,200 vertical feet down the Sonoma slope of the Mayacamas Mountains, this fascinating hillside location shows extreme diversity over 80 planted acres. Its southwest facing perch on the Sonoma side of Mount Veeder provides an amazing view of San Francisco and wines that are elegant, complex and sophisticated.
Dan and Jeanne Schaefer began to plant vines on this site in 1990 after searching exhaustively for the ideal conditions in which to grow world-class Cabernet Sauvignon and Syrah. During the vineyard’s formative years, Audelssa’s wines were made by the iconic Richard Arrowood at nearby Arrowood Vineyards & Winery. Arrowood’s Erich Bradley thought Audelssa would benefit from producing their wines in a more artisanal fashion, enabling them to capture the essence of the terroir. His dream, albeit unorthodox, was to produce Audelssa’s Bordeaux and Rhone wines in the Burgundian winemaking tradition in order to create the most graceful and seductive expressions of this special place.
The second generation of Schaefers, Dan Jr. and Gloria, asked Erich to become Audelssa’s winemaker in 2002 and together they examined the complex, hillside vineyards. They noted the two soil types that span the acreage, rhyolite and basalt, and intuitively felt that each must influence the grapes in powerful and unique ways. Immediately after the 2002 Harvest it was evident to all who tasted them that the wines made from the different soils were vastly different. The one thing they shared in common was a smooth, silky texture that is best attributed to the gentle approach taken in the winery.
Audelssa – the name, an abridgement of the Schaefer daughters’ names – is a winery that truly echoes its circumstances. The dramatic vineyards are inimitable thanks to restrictions on the development of hillside vineyards that went into effect in Sonoma County in 2000. Even the label reveals an image that could either be the extreme elevation or the strong winds that blow intensely over the terrain. These forceful conditions ultimately produce Audelssa wines. A worthy goal of a winery with moxie.
