Wild Hog Vineyard was planted by Daniel and Marion Schoenfeld in the hills above Cazadero, making it one of the earliest coastal Sonoma vineyards in what would eventually become the Fort Ross-Seaview AVA. The operation remains tiny and family-run, producing small quantities of estate Pinot Noir and Zinfandel that carry the character of old vines and decades of farming knowledge. Not well known outside the region, but historically significant and worth seeking out.
Estate Pinot Noir, Fort Ross-Seaview: the flagship; organically farmed, dry-farmed estate Pinot from the remote Sonoma Coast hills.
Estate Zinfandel: a concentrated, balanced old-school Zinfandel.
Petite Sirah: a dark, structured red in the winery's minimalist style.
Carignane, Dry Creek Valley: a 100% varietal bottling from sourced Dry Creek fruit.
Wild Hog is a 110-acre family farm between Cazadero and Fort Ross, run by Daniel and Marion Schoenfeld: certified-organic, solar- and hydro-powered, minimalist winemaking.
Daniel and Marion Schoenfeld have been farming their 110-acre homestead at the headwaters of Wild Hog Creek since the late 1970s, opening the solar- and hydro-powered winery in 1990, making them some of the earliest "minimalist" winemakers in California. The vineyard sits at 1,400 feet elevation, 5 miles from the ocean, east of Fort Ross, above the summer fog. Farming is certified organic (CCOF, since 1983): permanent cover crop, dry-farmed mature vines, no synthetic chemicals. Production focuses on estate-bottled Pinot Noir and Zinfandel plus small lots of Carignane (Dry Creek source), Syrah, Cabernet, and Petite Sirah. There's no formal tasting room. The winery is 45 minutes of cross-country travel from Cazadero on narrow dirt roads, and visits require weeks of advance arrangement. One of the last genuinely wild corners of California wine country, and a rare window into pre-industrial coastal viticulture.
