David Low, Anthony Filiberti and Webster Marquez formed Anthill while on a road trip through the Willamette Valley of Oregon. The three had met while working at Williams Selyem Winery, and the idea of launching their own winery struck them after the vintage of 2003. Each founder had his own wine background in vineyards from the West Coast to Virginia.

The trio united in their shared vision for Pinot: avoid the overripe style and retain freshness and acidity. New oak is is sometimes used, but no more than 30%. They play around with whole cluster fermentation (throwing whole bunches of grapes into the fermentation vat—a practice exercised in some top domaines of Burgundy—to give the wine a green edge with a bit more structure and earthiness), and do not utilize racking or filtering.

This remote vineyard is located in a small natural clearing above the town of Comptche, just inland from the northern Mendocino County coast. Owned and managed by the Weir family, Comptche Ridge is dry-farmed on a complex mix of fine sandy-clayey Franciscan soils, and is ringed completely by high redwoods and Douglas-fir. This vineyard is planted primarily to Swan clone.

Made with organic grapes. 

Varietal: Pinot Noir

Region: Mendocino, California