DEHLINGER WINERY

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PROFILE OF THE DEHLINGER WINERY

Dehlinger Winery is located in the heart of its 45 acre vineyard on a ridge of red gravelly soil in Sonoma County's cool Russian River Valley. The alternating influences of California sun, and fog from the Pacific Ocean 13 miles to the West, create a hybrid climate favorable for hillside grape growing. Started by Davis-trained enologist Tom Dehlinger with the planting of the initial 14 acres of vineyard in 1975, the first vintages were made from purchased Chardonnay, Cabernet Sauvignon, and Zinfandel grapes from other Sonoma County vineyards. From the start, the emphasis has been on small amounts of hand-worked, barrel-aged wines made with the aim of extracting, developing, and preserving the maximum flavor from the grapes.

With the passage of time and the planting and maturing of all of our available acreage, the focus is now entirely on Estate Grown wines. Annual production averages 7000 cases. Wines produced are Estate Bottled Chardonnay, Pinot noir, Syrah, and Cabernet Sauvignon. A portion of the grapes are actually sold to other wineries.

Dehlinger Winery is more interested in perfection of technique and the balance and intensity of flavors than in making large amounts of wine. Each small part of the vineyard is thinned, harvested and fermented as an individual in order to monitor the unique qualities of its wine. The growing techniques of pruning, canopy management, and thinning are adjusted to bring out the potential of each piece of soil. The entire vineyard has been retrained to a split-canopy, vertical shoot-positioned trellis system which allows for superior light penetration to the fruiting zone and systematic hand care of the vines. Our crushing equipment allows for very gentle handling of the grapes.

Besides owner-operators Tom and Carole Dehlinger, the staff includes veteran vineyard manager Martin Hedlund and a year-round vineyard crew of five. Four to six additional vineyard workers are employed seasonally from budbreak through harvest. Ken Brandt works as a part-time cellarman during harvest, its aftermath, and at bottling. In July of 2005 Tom Klassen joined us in the position of enologist.

Dehlinger Winery has a national reputation among wine connoisseurs that outstrips its physical size. Critical publications have consistently given strong reviews for close to thirty years. Wine writers have praised the winery for its uniqueness, quality, consistency and value. The winery engages in no expensive promotion or publicity so that prices remain reasonable. We do not offer on-site tasting.

Over three quarters of Dehlinger wines are sold through a mailing list, with small amounts placed in top restaurants and a few wine shops. Due to the high demand for the limited amount of wine, the mailing list has been capped at 2500 participants. A handful of new people are added each year to balance natural attrition. The mailing list sign up form can be found here. A newsletter is published twice yearly, in mid-January and July. The wines are allocated giving preference to steady, established customers, but with smaller amounts available for newcomers. Actual shipment occurs in the moderate climate windows of March/April and October/November. Normally the red wines are completely sold out with the initial newsletter offering. The larger Chardonnay bottling, however, is often available for sale by contacting the winery. In addition, from January first to fifth of each year, a small January Library Release, featuring small amounts of red wines at least five years old, is conducted through this web site.