Our family took over as caretakers of Griffin’s Lair in 2018. We represent three generations committed to growing high-quality fruit and working with world class winemakers to produce outstanding wines.
While we are recent transplants to the Petaluma Gap, our family has a long history of farming. Susan, our matriarch, was born and raised on her family’s ranch in the Casablanca Valley of Chile. Although originally American, her family has lived in Chile for almost 100 years. As a child she milked cows, reared chickens and trained her own horses. The majority of the family ranch in Chile is still cattle and forestry, but in the mid 90s the family planted a vineyard. Similar to Western Sonoma Country, the Casablanca Valley was historically a dairy and traditional farming region. Our family was the first to identify the unique opportunity presented there to grow cool-weather Pinot and Syrah. John, her son, dug some of the very first irrigation trenches of our vineyard in Chile (it is backbreaking work, if you ever wondered!). Today, our family’s label, Kingston Family Vineyards, produces extraordinary wines while an array of other local winemakers also produce excellent wines from the grapes.
We ended up the stewards of Griffin’s Lair through an unlikely series of twists and turns. Susan and her husband Norm retired in 2017, and as they were contemplating retirement homes, they decided that Sonoma County would provide the perfect balance of space and urban proximity. John and his wife and daughter live in San Francisco, having moved from London a few years earlier, which provided an extra perk. After announcing their intention, we decided that retirement homes seemed a lonely concept, and why not instead create a multigenerational space where we could spend time together? We almost immediately found Griffin’s Lair, and were floored by the similarities between Griffin’s Lair and “the farm,” as our family calls the ranch in Chile. It started with the massive and aged eucalyptus which line Lakeville Highway and are eerily reminiscent of a Eucalyptus forest that Susan’s father planted in Chile leading up to the family home (“Casa Patronal”) and was later made into a state park. This coincidence continues with the locations of the properties, where each is 12-15 miles from the Pacific Ocean, granting stunning similarities between the Petaluma Gap and Casablanca Valley in terms of annual temperatures and rainfall. The landscape, vineyard, garden and horses on the property all evoked memories of Susan’s childhood home. We knew immediately that we wanted to recreate this for her and grow our family on this unique plot of land (“La Parcelita,” as we call it).
But what really sold Griffin’s Lair for us was an incredible coincidence in the vineyard. Kingston Family Vineyards was planted in 1995, and as our family was undertaking this project, we found two individuals in Sonoma who we brought on to help us develop the land and wines. Those people were Byron Kosuge and Ann Kraemer. Can you guess who Joan Griffin worked with when developing Griffin’s Lair in 1999?! That coincidence sealed the deal for us, and we realized that it was our provenance to care for this wonderful gem. We can’t describe what a joy it was to host Susan’s whole family in May 2019 for our annual family “Farm Meeting” and to have everyone understand the incredible mirrored life we have found in Sonoma County.
Today, we are focused on meticulously farming this land with the utmost of care and under sustainable growing practices while cultivating relationships with the finest winemakers in California.
We are here to play our small part in making world class wines that you will enjoy, will make you think and will demonstrate both a taste of our land as well as the artistic expression of the winemaker. We relish our family walks through the vineyard throughout the changing seasons to monitor the health and growth of the vines. Everyone has a special role to play on our farm… Tigger, the family dog, takes his job of chasing rabbits out of the vineyard very seriously, Chester and Tess, our cats, watch over the vegetable garden, and our daughters are chief sugar-content tasters for the ripening grapes!
Thank you for taking the time to read our story. Please share your story with us and of course let us know what you think of the wines!
Susan, John, Alix, Leila and Claire
Leila, Alix, Claire and John
Chester, our vineyard cat!
Susan and Tigger
John - leader of the pack!
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