Meet the Wineries of Olivet District

Battaglini Estate Winery

Since leaving his native Italy and coming to America in 1956, it has been a dream of Giuseppe Battaglini to recreate the exotic beauty and peaceful tranquility of his youth spent in the vineyards of Italy. Joe (as his friends call him) has finally come home at the Battaglini Estate Winery at 2948 Piner Rd in Santa Rosa, CA. The winery actually has its roots in 1985 when Bartholomew Lagomarsino (also an Italian immigrant) first planted Zinfandel and Petite Sirah grapes on the premises. At its zenith, the winery was producing over 130,000 gallons of wine per year.

By the time Joe and his wife, Lucia, purchased the property in 1988, however, it was no longer a functioning winery, although those original vines first planted in 1885 were still producing good quality grapes. The winery was still standing with the old pipes and signs of harvest with aged picking baskets lying on the floor. Yet, the rundown rambling building needed to be brought back to life.

Joe and Lucia were able to make their first wine from the 1994 vintage of Zinfandel and Petite Sirah grapes. Focusing on making fantastic wines, they only made 250 cases that first year with that same focus on producing high quality, intensely flavored wines.

DeLoach Vineyards

DeLoach has a proud history, being one of the front-runners of sustainable farming in the Russian River Valley. Learn about our history, philosophy, winemaking techniques, and commitment to organic and Biodynamic® farming as you leisurely tour our idyllic twenty-acre organic estate in the heart of the Russian River Valley thriving with Sonoma’s agricultural bounty.

Guests are treated to limited release offerings of DeLoach’s vineyard-designate wines, each with as little as fifty cases produced while enjoying tours of the Biodynamic garden as well as picnic grounds, cheeses from local purveyors, and an intimate look at the winery’s Burgundian winemaking techniques.

As a pioneering producer and winegrower of Pinot Noir, Chardonnay and Zinfandel in Sonoma’s Russian River Valley, DeLoach Vineyards has been experimenting with and perfecting the best combinations of soil, rootstock, and clones for over three decades. In 2003, the Boisset family brought two generations of sustainable winemaking experience from Burgundy, France to California’s Russian River Valley and pulled up the estate vineyards that had just produced Wine Enthusiast magazine’s 2004 wine of the year: DeLoach Vineyards’ 30th Anniversary Cuvée Pinot Noir. The award-winning vineyards were replanted with cover crops in order to revitalize the soil and in the meantime, DeLoach partnered with winegrowers equally dedicated to and passionate about eco-friendly farming practices and the production of high-quality wines. Wine & Spirits magazine named DeLoach Vineyards a Top 100 Winery for the twelfth time in the winery’s history in 2012.

Harvest Moon Winery

Our grape growing/winemaking philosophy combines two traditionally separate tasks-growing quality wine grapes and then making them into wine-into a single principle called WineGrowing. As both grower and winemaker, Randy Pitts ponders on the winemaking as he cultivates the vineyards throughout the growing season.

We feel our wines represent an elegant approach to the cool-climate Russian River Valley and greater Sonoma County. As aspiring foodies and purveyors of homegrown produce, we enjoy these wines as they complement our nightly meals rather than compete with the food as the high alcohol wines tend to do. With the natural growing conditions of the Russian River Valley, we’re on our way to crafting wines that whisper.

Harvest Moon farms nearly 85% of the grapes that go into our wines so we spend many months each growing season among the vines.

We are committed to sustainability both in the vineyards as well as in the cellar and believe this balanced approach is the future in Wine Country.

We proudly invite you to visit our Estate tasting room and winery to experience the next echelon of full-service Sonoma County wine country!

Our simple circular brushstroke logo is an ancient Chinese symbol that has been contemporarily adopted as the circle of life. Our logo, like our vineyards, represents a semi-closed system; The Circle of Life starts out slowly and builds to high productivity, only to level out and enjoy a slow, gradual decline. Just before the circle is joined, there’s a brief pause – a quietness of sorts – and then begins the cycle anew. This is life… These are our seasons… This is wine.

Hook & Ladder Vineyard & Winery

In 1970, San Francisco firefighter Cecil De Loach and his wife Christine purchased the prized Barbieri Ranch in Russian River Valley’s coveted Olivet Road district. Both came armed with advanced degrees in anthropology but no background in farming or grape growing. That said, they had long dreamt of finding land their family could own and work together. For his part, Louis Barbieri, whose father Itilo planted the vineyard in 1905, was gratified to pass the vineyard on to a family committed to honoring its past and stewarding its future.

In 2003, they launched Hook & Ladder Winery on Olivet Road, just down the street from their original De Loach Vineyards. Named for Cecil’s 17-year career as a San Francisco firefighter, Hook & Ladder is helmed today by grandson Jason De Loach, an accomplished winemaker who joined the winery in 2006.

Hook & Ladder is an “estate” producer, specializing in small bottling’s of Pinot Noir, “Old Vine” Zinfandel, Chardonnay, Cabernet Sauvignon and Bordeaux-style blends sourced from the family’s sustainably-farmed vineyards in Russian River Valley and its sub-appellation, Chalk Hill.

These days, Cecil and Christine can often be found at the winery they founded, helping out in the office, cellar and occasionally in the tasting room, which is festooned with fire station t-shirts given to the winery by visiting fire fighters from all around the world.

We are located on the beautiful and historic Olivet Road in the heart of Sonoma County’s Russian River Valley. Our tasting room is situated inside the winery’s production facility surrounded by some of the Russian River Valley’s oldest vineyards, many dating back to the early 1900s.

We offer private tastings and tours of the winery and surrounding vineyards, by appointment.

Lauterbach Cellars

With land purchased in 1992, founders Stew Lauterbach and his wife, Barabara Swary, planted Pinot Noir in 1996 and Syrah in 1998 in the heart of the Russian River Valley. Since 2003, production began in their garage where they have been making their wines ever since. “We have never purchased a grape and currently nearly all of our wines are made on site in our garage and are estate bottled”. Stew is a retired emergency physician with 33 years experience at the local trauma center, and Barb retired from the Council on Aging as the legal director. We continue to make small batch premium “garagiste” wines in our retirement. “We love the Russian River Valley Wine area. The wine industry in this area is always helpful and friendly. Although we are all in competition, we each want the other to succeed as well, in what is the most collegial of competition”.

In 2006, Barb said, “We don’t grow white grapes but we need a summer wine, so why don’t we make a RosÈ?” In 2008, Barb said, “I’m buying too much port,” so Stew got out the books and produced the first barrel of our “port” (Syrah Dessert Wine). In 2015, Barb said, “Why don’t we make a sparkling?” And as every husband knows, “happy wife, happy life,” so Stew got out the books and made the first batch of a Pinot Noir “noir de noir,” a red sparkling pinot noir.

This has received rave reviews from our friends and wine club family.

Our educational winemaking tour on a Garagiste scale takes about an hour and a half. We usually include barrel tasting and sometimes some blending and are always willing to modify to meet your interests.