Tricycle

Within the greater Poseidon’s Vineyard, there are two magical hills from which we harvest the fruit for Kazmer & Blaise: Primo’s Hill (Pinot Noir) and Boon Fly’s Hill (Chardonnay). Think of Kazmer & Blaise as “block” specific wine rather than vineyard specific. These sights are that tiny, and that special.

Carneros soils began as the bed under San Pablo Bay. The silt of decomposing marine plants and animals integrated with the finest particles of eroded rock became clay. This dark and  heavy soil comprises most of the vineyard land in Carneros, but as the bay retreated and the drainage of Napa and Sonoma Valley cut through the clay, deposits of pebbles and gravel accumulated on the embankments. One such accumulation lies under Poseidon’s Vineyard, and the gravel and pebbles are actually exposed at Primo’s and Boon Fly’s hills. Grapevines like good drainage and these hills, which are the gravelly remains of the old Carneros Creek river-bank, formed sometime at the close of the last ice age. Their drainage is unsurpassed in the Carneros area.

Boon Fly’s Hill, at the southernmost corner of the vineyard, is an approximately four acre hill planted to Chardonnay. Boon Fly was a legendary, colorful character in Carneros history. He used to own the land which was this vineyard, complete with a house with 16 fireplaces (long since burned down). And, it is rumored that his grave was somewhere near the cypress tree that grows from what is now Boon Fly’s Hill (we’ve never found the grave). The hill echoes the current oxbow bend in the Carneros Creek, which has retreated fifty yards to the east over the last thousand years.

Primo’s Hill is named for the gentleman from whom Nicholas Molnar purchased the property in 1973. We considered calling it “Nicholas Hill” but it just didn’t have the same ring to it. Planted entirely to Pinot Noir, Primo’s Hill is approximately seven-acres that follow a former bend in the river, with both east and north facing aspects. If you view the vineyard from a distance, the difference in vigor is striking; here the vines truly struggle.