Grand Cru Level Vineyard Shows Prowess and Elegance With New 2021 Releases

Signal Ridge Vineyard , a boutique family-owned winery in the heart of the Mendocino Ridge appellation—a region being hailed as one of the next critically acclaimed California AVAs for Pinot Noir and Chardonnay—releases its 2021 Flagship Pinot Noir and first-ever 2021 Chardonnay.

These two wines exemplify the quality of the Signal Ridge Vineyard estate and begin to define its legacy. Tastings of current and past vintages reveal beautifully consistent aromatic and flavor qualities that, in the Chardonnay, call to mind white floral notes nuanced by fresh herbs, with a balance of textural richness on the palate, fuelled by citrus and orchard fruit, all culminating with bright and racy acidity.

The Pinot Noir exhibits a stunning mix of Moroccan spice, spearmint, and conifer, complemented by notes of pomegranate, blood orange, and sous bois (a French term that encompasses the fragrant undergrowth of a deep forest floor). Finely woven, rustic tannins and deep mineral intensity promise a long evolution in both the glass and the cellar

Click here to purchase 2021 Signal Ridge Chardonnay & Pinot Noir

Signal Ridge Vineyard resides at an elevation of 2,742 feet on weathered-in-place mountaintop soils nine miles from the Pacific Ocean. The site falls within the Mendocino Ridge AVA, a truly unique American viticultural area that encompasses a series of non-contiguous peaks all rising above 1,200 feet elevation. The estate, perched on a ridgetop peak named Cold Spring Mountain, encompasses 40 acres with only 18 plantable vineyard acres. Original Zinfandel plantings were replaced by Pinot Noir and Chardonnay grapes.

Get to know Signal Ridge's Owner/Proprietor Roger Sommegna & Winemaker Joanna Wells

They recently spoke with Nicole Muscari of Grape Chic about their history and 2021 vintage:

Can you share the journey and inspiration behind establishing Signal Ridge Vineyard in the remote mountains of the Mendocino Ridge?

ROGER: I’d built a career in television production and real estate. I was a co-founder of realtor.com and when we sold it in the late 1990s, I was ready to do something unconventional. I had discovered wine early in life, and like any of us who fall into wine, I started dreaming about making my own. But I tend to like a real challenge. So, I trekked up and down California looking for a piece of land that I felt could produce the kind of wine I wanted to drink—a wine full of power and grace, elegance and tension. I wasn’t seeing the right terroir on the valley floor and I thought about the great vineyards in Piedmont, Tuscany, and Burgundy, and realized that if I wanted a site that could produce fruit on par with some of the best in the world, I needed to look at a high altitude land.

I’d gotten word that there was a property on the top of Cold Spring Mountain in the Mendocino Ridge AVA and went to check it out. I was immediately struck by its ruggedness and terrifyingly steep slopes. It was west of Anderson Valley, and so close to the Pacific Ocean (nine miles as the crow flies). There was no vineyard planted, but I could see the potential. And I don’t think I blinked. I bought it and that began a twenty-five-year journey to get where we are today. Twenty-five years of bumps and bruises along the way—but a unique terroir like Signal Ridge takes time to tame, and I feel like it’s only in these past few years that we’ve truly begun to arrive.

Why did you decide to dry-farm and what benefits have you seen in the vineyard and in the winery?

JOANNA : Water is precious in California. We have been lucky to have received adequate rainfall the last couple seasons, but were in a historic drought for many years recently. We have a pond at the vineyard that can serve as our irrigation source, but it is never a guarantee. We also tend to get snow in the winter and spring at our elevation, which is unique to most vineyards in California, and allows for added natural ground water. We wanted to establish resilient, deeply rooted vines that can forge for that water. This creates more intensely concentrated fruit that ripens earlier, making for full flavored wines with low alcohol. It is a win, win.

Can you talk briefly about the climatic conditions of 2021? Was there anything that made it unique?

JOANNA : 2021 was a real standout year. After the wildfires and challenges of the 2020 vintage, most of the industry was grateful to just have a harvest in 2021 and didn’t actually realize how good of a vintage it was until the wines were in the bottle. It was a very cool, steady season without any major heat events. This meant we were able to pick at a variety of ripeness levels without our hand being forced. This is always what we wish for but rarely get! The wines are delicate yet deep, and are showing great intensity in their youth. There is a very old-world soul to the 2021 vintage. They should age very gracefully.

How does the unique terroir of Signal Ridge influence the character and flavor profile of your wines?

ROGER : First and foremost, it’s about altitude. “Taste the Altitude” isn’t just a slogan—you really can taste it! There’s a kind of ethereal quality to the wine, with its high-toned fruit that is profoundly flavorful, yet delicate. It’s like a bright ray of high-altitude sunlight. You taste our Pinot Noir and you’re immediately struck by the tension and balance of bright fruit and crisp acidity, and then there’s an aromatic rush of all these high-mountain elements—the redwood trees, and garrigue, and mineral notes. The soils are these loamy, maritime soils—coastal mountaintops on the ridge which, eons ago were somewhere beneath the sea. But the soils retain the signature of the sea, rich in this deep ocean minerality, and the combination of the elevation and these mineral-rich soils makes for an incredible growing environment for grapes. I can’t sugar coat it — the vine struggles up there because we dry farm the vines, and they have to battle the constant Pacific breezes, plus dig deep into those soils to find the nutrients they need. It’s almost a matter of survival of the fittest. The grapes that make it have small clusters of tiny, thin-skinned berries, with high natural acidity and they’re incredibly delicious. We started to say that we “Farm the sky,” and it’s no joke—I think you can taste it in each and every bottle.

Click here to purchase 2021 Signal Ridge Chardonnay & Pinot Noir

The Signal Ridge Vineyard was established in 1999 by Roger Scommegna and is among the first wineries to recognize the potential in the remote mountains of the Mendocino Ridge AVA. The name is derived from an abandoned fire watch tower that still adorns the estate's apex at 2,742 feet. Today, Signal Ridge is the highest-elevation vineyard in all of Mendocino, Sonoma, and Napa counties. (For reference, Hirsch hovers at 1,600, and Kongsaard caps out around 2,300 feet.) Signal Ridge can be found online at signalridge.com , and on social media @signalridgevineyard .