Trattore Farms sits on a hilltop at the north end of Dry Creek Valley, forty steep acres planted to vines and olive trees with the valley opening up on every side. Trattore is Italian for tractor. Owner Tim Bucher collects them, and a few red ones stand in the tasting room. Bucher grew up farming in Healdsburg and growing grapes from the age of sixteen, then built a career in Silicon Valley before moving his family back to the land in 2004. When he cleared the hillside he found Mission olive trees more than a century old, and kept them.
Stone Soup: the estate’s Rhône field blend, and its signature red.
White Rhône Blend: Roussanne and Marsanne off the hilltop vineyard.
Michelle’s Rosé: a dry pink of Grenache, Syrah, and a little Petite Sirah.
Estate Syrah: the backbone grape of the Dry Creek hillside.
Alongside the wine, the Dry Creek Olive Co. mills award-winning estate extra-virgin olive oils on site.
The farm is fully vertical: vineyard, olive groves, winery, and mill all on site, solar-powered, with an on-site water plant and compost made from grape and olive pomace. The wines are Rhône in style, made by winemaker Craig Strehlow: a white blend of Roussanne and Marsanne, the Stone Soup field blend, a rosé of Grenache and Syrah. Mary Louise Bucher runs the Dry Creek Olive Co. as master miller, pressing estate oil from century-old trees. Tastings are on the terrace, reached by a ‘get your boots dirty’ tour that runs an open-air mule through the vines and the mill.
