Steve Kistler and Mark Bixler believed that remarkable and charactered Chardonnays of site could in fact be grown and produced in California. It was a notion ahead of its time. For the last forty years this pursuit continues without compromise. Bill Price, longtime owner of Durell Vineyards purchased an interest in Kistler Vineyards from Steve in 2008. Jason Kesner joined Steve in the cellar in 2008 in order to begin to lay the groundwork for the next forty years. Steve retired from Kistler Vineyards at the end of 2017.
They work with a single heritage Californian selection of Chardonnay planted across fifteen vineyards, from Carneros to Sonoma Valley, to the Russian River Valley and Sonoma Coast. They produce eleven vineyard designate Chardonnays and are wholly dedicated to the ideal of wines of site. The Pinot Noirs come from a pair of specially selected clones propogated for over 25 years from materila gathered from a Burgundian Grand Cru. All wines ferment with wild yeasts.
