Griffin’s Lair is a 35-acre ranch located in Sonoma County in the hills running west down to the Petaluma River Valley about 40 minutes north of San Francisco. We are less than 15 miles from the Pacific Ocean and less than 5 miles from the San Pablo Bay. Together these bodies of water create a very unique cooling effect, which results in protracted ripening and amplified complexity in our fruit. Our estate and surrounding areas are protected from development, creating an oasis of classic California farming heritage and wide expanses of land. We live on the property, which also includes a horse pasture (currently populated with a friendly array of ponies), olive groves, a pond, streams, ancient eucalyptus and gorgeous all-season gardens by our home.
The vineyards were originally planted by Joan and Jim Griffin in the late 1990s, one of the early pioneers of what is known today as the Petaluma Gap AVA. With 15 acres of Pinot Noir, 6 acres of Syrah and a smattering of Viognier for blending, we are a boutique grower in Sonoma focused on cultivating the highest quality fruit.
Farming
Griffin’s Lair is farmed to the highest standards with meticulous and laborious focus on each row and each plant. We are certified sustainable and we are organic by ethos, with our vines individually tended to and harvested by hand. We believe that the most interesting and expressive wines come from vines which are farmed to generate low yields and with limited watering to concentrate the taste of the land and the vine captured in the fruit. This is our farming philosophy, and we are grateful for the efforts of the dozens of skilled individuals it requires to care for this small plot of land.
Clones
We believe strongly in partnering with world class winemakers to generate creative and limited-production expressions of our terroir. The Griffins had a wonderful sense for the artistry of winemaking and planted a lovely mix of clones, including four each for our Syrah and Pinot Noir.
This mixture of clones allows our winemakers to not only benefit from our unique geological location and meticulous farming standards, but also to each receive a unique collection of clones to express their individual creativity.
This way even if isolating for varietal and vintage, you will literally never taste two Griffin’s Lair wines which are alike, and when comparing them side by side, you will be able to isolate the creative expressions of our talented winemakers.
In Pinot, our clones range from the exotic Swan to heartier Dijon 115 and 667 and are anchored by Pommard at the top of the knoll. This fruit exhibits bold and ripe flavors with an exotic nuance of the cool evening sea breeze and our 20-year-old vines. The soil under our Pinot varies from loam under the Pommard, Swan and 115, to heavier clay-infused soils under our Dijon clone 667, and all of it is planted on 101-14 rootstock.
Griffin’s Lair produces some of the finest Syrah in the world across four clones: Syrah Noir, 470, Alban PB and 877 clones on 101-14 and 3309 rootstock. This fruit is on the Northwest end of our property running down a knoll in front of our home. In this location, the vines bask in the late summer sunlight at the same time as the fog begins to roll over the mountains, creating a unique warming and cooling event for the vines. This cool weather results in extended ripening with harvest typically well into October, enabling the fruit to pick up extraordinary nuances from the vines, soil and the cool Pacific Ocean fog.