Red Car Wine

For nearly 20 years, Red Car has been on a journey—one that started in sunny Los Angeles and marched steadily northward toward a vision of cooler vineyard sites and the complex, aromatic wines they can express.

Red Car was founded by Mark Estrin, Carroll Kemp and Richard Crowell in 2000 with 50 cases of wine made from a single ton of Syrah grapes vinified in a Culver City garage. In a nod to their California roots, the new venture was named Red Car after the trolley line that ferried riders across Los Angeles for the first half of the twentieth century. “While our wines were met with early critical acclaim, we knew that to truly excel we would need to farm our own vineyards, and in a cooler climate location,” says Richard. “So, we started looking.”

In 2004, the partners purchased 125 acres of land and began developing vineyards in the wild coastal ridges north of Sonoma County’s Bodega Bay, a region now known as the Fort Ross-Seaview AVA. Here, the interplay of warm sunshine, cool Pacific breezes and sandstone soils would yield the age-worthy wines of structure and complexity that had captured their imagination. Unfortunately, in 2005 the three were reduced to two with the passing of their inspiring friend Mark Estrin. He is deeply missed to this day. It was Mark who led Red Car to produce Pinot Noir, Chardonnay and Syrah on the West Sonoma Coast, and it was Mark who exhorted his partners to develop the Estate vineyard as the heart of the winery. Fittingly, the oldest Syrah vines from the Estate vineyard are now classified as the Estrin Block and are the cornerstone of Cuvee 22, a limited-production lot dedicated to Mark. In 2017, Carroll left Red Car to pursue a personal project.

Richard and his wife Alison, now the sole remaining founders, are focused on promoting Red Car’s wines and the excellent people who make up the team including General Manager Jesse Mackey, Winemaker Tanner Scheer and Viticulturist/Farming Manager Greg Adams.

Our original estate vineyard, planted in 2005, crowns the northwestern corner of King Ridge Road above Fort Ross on the coastline of Sonoma County. It sits at 900–1000 feet and is defined by giant coastal redwoods and the fog-laden Pacific Ocean. This proximity to the ocean moderates temperatures and makes it susceptible to rain and fog during the flowering season, which keeps yields very low.

The vines are planted in fractured marine sandstone that weathered over millions of years from an uplifted seabed known as the Ohlson Ranch Formation. This soil offers the same viticultural advantages as the oft-referenced Goldridge series found in the lower West Sonoma Coast elevations around Sebastopol, yet differs by including less clay and more stone than sand in its composition.

The vineyard is densely planted to multiple “clones” of Pinot Noir, Chardonnay and Syrah. Over 90% of which are actually heritage field selections such as Jackson 16, Calera and other special “suitcase” budwood. The Chardonnay is 100% from an old Wente “clone” that was chosen over the course of decades by Larry Hyde specifically for the small size of its clusters and mineral flavor profile.

It is generally thought that Northern California saw its first wine grapes when the Spanish brought up the Mission grape through their iconic missions. However, Russians got a good jump on the Spanish in 1817 when they planted wine grapes at Fort Ross, then a Russian fur-trapping outpost situated directly on the Pacific. English settlers were next, planting vineyards in the area in the late 19th century that supported a robust winemaking community until Prohibition, when all known vineyards in the area were converted to orchards. In the 1980s, the hills above Fort Ross regained notoriety for winegrowing and are now considered one of the most exciting enclaves for world-class Pinot Noir and Chardonnay in America. The TTB responded in 2011 and granted the region its own AVA entitled Fort Ross – Seaview.

We are hands-on farmers, part of a small cadre of wineries in our region who are fortunate to grow a large majority of our own fruit. For several years now we have worked hard to go beyond sustainability and have integrated the concepts and principles of organic and permaculture systems into our farming as we search for nature’s ideal pathways.

Red Car produces site-specific wines, focused on achieving bright acidity and lively aromatics. Sustainability is at the core of why we exist. We operate each part of the business from the belief that less is more. We are stewards of the land and of the people who consume our wine to ensure harmony with the Earth. We farm organically to protect the soil and our consumers from artificial chemical intervention. At each harvest, this philosophy makes its way into the cellar where we allow our wines to purely express each vineyard’s unique character. We achieve this by using native yeast fermentation and minimal intervention practices.