Stone Edge Farm Estate Vineyards & Winery

Stone Edge Farm has roots that go deep into California wine history. Founder Mac McQuown was a 1970 investor in the Chalone Wine Group and its Carmenet project on Moon Mountain. In 2004, McQuown launched his own venture nearby, partnering with friend and former Mayacamas winemaker Jeff Baker on a small estate dedicated to first-growth Bordeaux-style wines from mountain fruit. The Silver Cloud estate sits high on Moon Mountain, just down the road from the original Carmenet vineyards, with 18 acres of certified organic vineyards alongside olive groves and orchards. A complementary 4.5-acre estate on the Sonoma Valley floor anchors the program from below.

Today Stone Edge Farm operates as an integrated estate of wine, food, and agriculture. Phil Coturri (Sonoma's most respected organic viticulturist, who farms over 700 organic acres across Napa and Sonoma and helped designate the Moon Mountain District AVA in 2013) oversees the vineyards. Alejandro Zimman is the winemaker, succeeding Jeff Baker; the wines have earned Wine Enthusiast scores up to 97 points for the Mount Pisgah and Silver Cloud single-vineyard Cabernets. The hospitality program is uncommonly serious: a culinary program led by John McReynolds (whose 2014 cookbook won the IACP's top prize), the two-Michelin-starred restaurant Enclos in downtown Sonoma led by Chef Brian Limoges, and now a new Stone Edge Farm La Maison tasting lounge. Tastings at La Maison, in the heart of Sonoma, are by reservation: the 60-minute Signature Tasting for two to four guests, or the 90-minute Library Tasting, designed for collectors, for up to ten, each a guided look at the estate's farming and winemaking.