Mary Elke Vineyards in Anderson Valley

Harvest 2011.  It's early morning and I'm driving from San Francisco, across the foggy Golden Gate bridge, north on hwy 101.  After Hopland, I hang a left at hwy 128.  Headlights are on because of the fog.  The drive takes about an hour just on the narrow twisting part of hwy 128. This feels like a different world.  A secret back country.  Tree-studded mountains embrace the valley.  Little creeks criss-cross and join the Navarro River that burgeons to the Pacific Ocean.  At Boonville, I make a few wrong turns and every time I get curious looks from locals trying to assess my intentions.  It's a rural valley and outsiders are not insiders. I eventually pull into Elke's Donnelly Creek Vineyard where the deeper into the vineyard I go, the darker the shade of red the rich earth becomes.

The historic Donnelly Creek Vineyard is on elevated sandy loam benchland with a perfectly sloped and well drained Southwest exposure.  It's fruit is sought by Mumm Napa, Roederer Estate, Radio Coteau, Copain Wine Cellars, Londer Vineyards, Au Bon Climate, Mendocino Wine Company, Far Niente, ICI/La Bas, Franciscan, Goldeneye (part of Duckhorn), and Breggo Cellars.

The fog is lifting now.  Mary greets me and digs her toe into the dirt to show me the large round stones that are everywhere. The vineyard is planted to Chardonnay, Pinot Gris, and Pinot Noir.  The Pinot Noir is Pommard 5, Dijon 113, Dijon 115, a field selection called the "Elliott", and another called the "Stang" ("selection massales" or field selections are colloquially called "clones" but there is a difference).  The Elliott clone is an old heritage vine from Napa Valley named after its grower; it has similar traits to the Martini clone.  Most Pinot Noirs are a blend of Dijon/Pommard clones from France.  The Stang and Elliott clones are what give the Elke Pinot Noirs their distinctive nose.  The Elke "Blue Diamond" Pinot Noir is a blend of 50% Pommard 5, 25% Stang and 25% Elliot (same blend for the last 15 years!).   Mary is proud of and responsible for both the Stang and Elliot clones grown only here, as far as anyone knows right now.

The vines are cane-pruned to four positions, 4 spurs and 2 canes (except the Pinot Gris which is cordon-trained). The whole Elke family used to live on the property when it was an apple orchard that Mary converted to an organic orchard before planting it to grapes.  Today, three of her employees and their families live on-site, so she keeps the vineyards and property as free of chemicals as possible.  While I'm there, fat happy chickens run around scratching between the vines, testament to a good ecosystem.

The Elke approach to winemaking is to keep it as natural and simple as possible. The winery consists of a small red shack without climate control and an outdoor concrete pad with an overhanging roof.  The interior of the red shack doubles as the tasting room and cellar.  A young winemaker from New Zealand, Matthew Evans, has been making Elke wines since the 2010 vintage.  His name serendipitously is the same as Mary's son's.

The grapes are hand sorted and destemmed into fermentation vats where minimal sulphites are added.  A specific strain of yeast isolated in Burgundy is added.  Punchdown frequencies follow heat temperatures - more punchdowns when the temperature is hot and fermentation is active (maybe 3x/day), fewer at lower temps (maybe 1x/day).  Since gentle extraction is important, all punchdowns are done by hand.  Once fermentation is complete, the must is pressed in a manually operated wooden basket press directly into 30% new french oak barrels where malolactic conversion happens.  Aged about 16 months in barrel, handling is kept to a minimum, ideally no racking until bottling, which is the "burgundian" reductive technique. 

Mary Elke is a hands-on grower, winery owner, business woman and seems like everyone's mother. Jesus, her vineyard foreman, has been with her from the beginning and takes care of the vineyard as if it were his own. She met him when he was harvesting apples at age 21. Now he is over 50 and his two children come to lend a hand during grape crush. In 1990 when Mary heard the Stanford graduate housing trailers were going to be moved, she rallied to have them brought to Anderson Valley, which is remote, and before then had very few places to stay. Now harvest workers at Roederrer, Scharffenberger, Navarro and even I have a place to stay thanks to Mary.

Elke wines are extremely food friendly.  The Pinot Gris is a dry style I pair with citrus salad.  The Rose of Pinot Noir is also dry and perfect with light meats.  The sparkling brut is ever so slightly sweetly orange blossom flavored, I paired it with pumpkin apple soup.  I had the Pinot Noirs with Thanksgiving Dinner turkey and fixings.  The winery is closed during Winter, but here's some sugestions for your next trip to Anderson Valley and Elke Vineyards.

Current wines available at the Elke Winery
Elke Wine Pairing Menu
Winter Alsace Festival in Anderson Valley
Spring Pinot Noir Festival in Anderson Valley
Suggested Google Map tour of Anderson Valley