Get to Know the Pinot-Loving Duo of Sojourn Cellars

"Obsessed with Pinot Noir, this small, direct-to-consumer winery turns out about 11,000 cases a year of site-specific, vineyard-designated Pinot Noir, Chardonnay, and some Cabernet Sauvignon, made at the Vinify custom-crush facility in Santa Rosa. Co-founders Erich Bradley (winemaking) and Craig Haserot (business) source fruit primarily from top Sonoma sites, with a few Napa vineyards for Cabernet, including Reuling, Sangiacomo, Rodgers Creek, and Roberts Road. Born in the early 2000s from their Burgundy-inspired fixation—“Pinot Noir was our addiction”; “Sojourn was how I could scratch my Pinot Noir itch”—the project quickly grew from 210 cases of Roberts Road Pinot to 3,000 cases, buoyed during the 2008–09 downturn by a nimble DTC model. The house style prizes authenticity of site; lots are vinified block by block and clone by clone (90 fermentation lots last year) because “you can’t manufacture good Pinot Noir” and “a great wine communicates what happened in the vineyard that year.”" - Erin Brooks