Camp Meeting Ridge was the first vineyard Walt and June Flowers planted on the far Sonoma coast, on a ridge southwest of Hirsch. In the early 1990s, the area was still largely unexplored by vines, and Camp Meeting Ridge...
Camp Meeting Ridge was the first vineyard Walt and June Flowers planted on the far Sonoma coast, on a ridge southwest of Hirsch. In the early 1990s, the area was still largely unexplored by vines, and Camp Meeting Ridge became an experimental station for any number of winemakers who are now important players in Sonoma Coast pinot noir. Between the extreme nature of the site, the diversity of the blocks and the shifting perspective of the winemakers, Camp Meeting Ridge pinot occasionally hit some highs, but never with the consistency of the Flowers’s later plantings. But in years when the site hit, the wine’s beauty has been immediately apparent. Dave Keatley was the winemaker in 2015, working with Matt Osgood, the viticulturist on site, and the Huneeus family, who partnered with the Flowers in 2009. The team produced a fresh, lively vintage, the fruit fully ripe, even as it maintains the foresty cool of the surrounding hills. Notes of oregano and sassafras add another layer to the scents of roses and orange spice. It’s clean, sustaining its brightness and building flavor complexity over the course of several days, continuously calling for roast duck. And it has the stamina to age well.