About
The three of us crossed paths while working at Williams-Selyem in 2003 after a few years as cellar rats in California, Oregon, and Virginia. We started Anthill Farms in 2004, making eight-and-a-half barrels of wine our first year. Today, we make eight single-vineyard Pinots and two appellation wines every year; depending on the vintage, we’ll also produce two or three Syrahs and a Chardonnay. We release the Sonoma County Pinot Noirs and Chardonnay to our mailing list members in spring; fall sees the Mendocino County and Syrah offering. Outside of our mailing list, a small amount of wine is released every year to restaurants and wine shops.
Randy Peters and his father-in-law, Tom Mukaida, farm this vineyard outside of Sebastopol in western Sonoma County. The southern slopes of these hills form the northern edge of the Petaluma Gap, which rushes cool, marine air from the Pacific Ocean inland. The vines, a mix of Pommard and 777 planted twenty years ago, produce grapes that ripen unusually slow due to the oft-present morning fog.
The Anthill Farms Peters Vineyard Pinot Noir is very pretty, if a touch ethereal. Crushed flowers, dried red berry fruit and dried flowers are all nicely lifted throughout. Perfumed and airy, the Peters is perhaps just a touch fragile, its considerable beauty notwithstanding.