Limerick Lane Cellars

1910 Block Zinfandel — From the original Del Fava planting, the oldest and most storied block on the estate.

Estate Cuvée — The flagship estate red.

Marquis Zinfandel — A blend drawing on historic vineyards including Bedrock, Maffei, and Monte Rosso.

Syrah–Grenache — Rhône-style reds from the rocky estate.

Dry-farmed and increasingly organic, Limerick Lane’s 2021 Zinfandels drew the highest collective scores of any Zinfandel producer in California from Wine Spectator.

Limerick Lane occupies a rocky, well-drained corner at the northeastern edge of the Russian River Valley, just south of Healdsburg, where the AVA runs up against the hills and the fog stops short. In an appellation built on Pinot Noir, the estate is famous instead for Zinfandel — specifically the 1910 Block, a field blend the Italian Del Fava family planted that year and that still bears fruit. Brothers Tom and Michael Collins bought the land in 1977 and began bottling under the Limerick Lane name in the mid-1980s; Jake Bilbro revitalized it after 2009, and the 2012 Zinfandel landed at number twelve on Wine Spectator’s Top 100. The site is distinctive enough to read like its own appellation.

The estate changed hands again in 2022, when Karen Francis DeGolia bought it — closing a circle that began in the early 1990s, when she was engaged to founder Tom Collins before his sudden death sent her into a career running the Oldsmobile division at General Motors and a vice-presidency at Ford. Winemaker Chris Pittenger, who trained under Helen Turley at Marcassin and spent eleven years making Rhône wines at Skinner, dry-farms the old vines as they were planted a century ago. Tastings are set outdoors among the rows, at wooden tables between the vines, without music. Some of these vines have outlasted Prohibition.

Chris Pittenger found winemaking through a viticulture course at Cal Poly San Luis Obispo and a first job at Wally’s wine shop in Los Angeles. He interned at Robert Biale, made wine at Torbreck in Australia and Williams-Selyem in Healdsburg, spent four harvests under Helen Turley at Marcassin, and then eleven years making Rhône wines at Skinner Vineyards in El Dorado. He returned to Healdsburg for Limerick Lane, drawn to the historic site, and also owns his own label, Gros Ventre Cellars.

Karen Francis DeGolia first knew Limerick Lane in the early 1990s, when she was engaged to founder Tom Collins and spent her hours on the ranch. After his sudden death she left for a career in the automobile industry — economics at Dartmouth, a Harvard MBA, general manager of Oldsmobile at General Motors, and a vice-presidency at Ford. She returned to the Bay Area, bought an adjoining vineyard in 2021, and purchased Limerick Lane itself in 2022.