2026 Spring Release Newsletter

We are proud to announce the Occidental 2026 Spring Release, featuring our five single-vineyard pinot noirs from the remarkable 2023 vintage.

The 2023 growing season unfolded slowly. Generous winter rains were followed by a cool spring. Budbreak and bloom arrived later than usual, setting the stage for how the rest of the season would progress. Temperatures rarely rose above seventy degrees in our coastal vineyards for the entire summer; many days, the sun would come out for just a few hours before the marine layer, lurking just off the coast, returned to blanket the vineyard. These conditions encouraged slow, gradual phenolic development and flavor evolution. By the time harvest began, a full five weeks later than in 2022, fruit had reached peak levels of maturity while sugar levels remained quite low.

The long, cool growing conditions in 2023 amplified the style of pinot noir we hope to make every year and furthered our understanding of the wines we have the unique ability to produce from our coastal sites. After months of meticulous care in the vineyard, our reward is these pinot noirs that are so precise, brimming with energy and extraordinary definition. They are like a perfectly tensioned violin string, ringing out with a clear, powerful voice. Each has its own personality, and for all their intensity, manage to be light on their feet and very fine. Our 2023 pinot noirs once again remind us how special these vineyard sites are that can produce such wildly expressive, mouthwatering pinot noirs at such low alcohol levels - their coastal signatures, unmistakable.

There is no other place where we would like to be growing pinot noir. Since Catherine’s first vintage in 2017, each vintage has had its own set of challenges - some imaginable and some unimaginable. While 2023 ultimately yielded incredible wines, it wasn’t without its own drama.  The record-long growing season required extra patience and constant attention to the conditions in the vineyard, particularly after veraison. This was especially true for our vineyards on the coast where the weather can be so wild and the conditions everchanging. But this is the place we love. Our family chose to make our home at the top of our Bodega Headlands Vineyard and built our winery right next door. We are in the vines every day and have developed an understanding of our sites that comes from daily interaction. It is a kind of connection that cannot be hurried and is only achieved gradually, over time.

The 2023 Occidental Pinot Noirs: Our brief tasting notes

2023 Bodega Headlands Vineyard Cuvée Elizabeth
A particularly pretty expression of this site with aromas of red raspberry, crushed stone, and fresh rose petal. Just-ripe red fruit meets a delicate but bracing saline edge, with notes of hibiscus and strawberry adding lift. Seamless and elegant, with a mouthwatering and very long finish.

2023 Running Fence Vineyard Cuvée Catherine
A distinctive, marine-influenced pinot noir with red and black fruits, violets, and blood orange peel aromatics. A wine of contrasts: electric red berry flavors are the light, and briny undertones are the dark. Highly detailed and powerful, tensile and exuberant. The persistent finish is perfectly fitting for a wine so dynamic.

2023 SWK Vineyard
Driven by almost wild, savory notes like black tea and sea spray. Small alpine strawberries, red currants, and freshly crushed flowers lead into intense, chiseled red fruit flavors. Finely etched, a wine of total precision and resonance.

2023 Bodega Ridge Vineyard
Piercing, high-toned black raspberry and black cherry aromatics. Like a sheet of polished marble, sleek. For aromatics so pure and fresh, the incredibly concentrated purple berry flavors rule on the palate. All this is underpinned by a salty element. Completely captivating.

2023 Occidental Station Vineyard
Striking aromas of blackberry, cassis, and boysenberry, accented by graphite and violets. Vibrant purple berry flavors, minerally backbone, laser-focused acidity in equal measure. For a wine so dramatic, there is true harmony and balance of each of its elements.

We encourage members to begin enjoying our 2023 pinot noirs soon after they arrive, as we like to do here at the winery. We find that opening the bottle a day in advance, or decanting for an hour or two before service, will enhance each wine’s compelling primary aromas and flavors. Although they have much to offer soon after release, the 2023 pinot noirs will be quite long-lived and will certainly reward extended aging. Over time, these wines will develop complex secondary and tertiary flavors and character in bottle and will age gracefully for two decades.

Looking Forward
In December, we bottled our 2024 pinot noirs. Mother Nature is fickle and always has the last word. In 2024, she smiled on us and the weather during flowering couldn’t have been more perfect. This led to healthy crop levels in both our coastal vineyards – a welcome sight. The rest of the growing season was mostly uneventful: mild but dry and warm enough to begin harvest as we usually do in mid-September. Temperatures moderated at just the right moment, giving us a long picking window. This allowed us to pick each one of our vineyard blocks at exactly the right moment, at the intersection of the early edge of ripeness and when coastal character was at its peak. The 2024 pinot noirs are incredibly fine and some of the most transparent to site wines we’ve ever produced, all with alcohols under 12.8%. Quite remarkable.

Much more about our 2025 pinot noirs, which are now resting safely in barrel, at a later date. What we can say today is that the 2023, 2024, and 2025 vintages are without question the best back-to-back-to-back vintages of pinot noir we have ever produced. We are striving to make purer, more expressive, site-driven wines every year, and we can’t wait to share these with you.

Also noteworthy in 2025, we finished planting rootstock in our newest vineyard on a marine terrace northwest of the town of Bodega. Some grafting has already begun, and young vines are being carefully trained up the stake. Our first fruit is still several years away. No doubt this site will test us and all we have learned to date about farming at the extreme western edge of the Freestone-Occidental area.

Your Allocation
Your allocation is based on your length of time on our list, purchase history, and the production level of each wine. Regrettably, in years when the yields are painfully low at Bodega Headlands such as 2022 and 2023, we are not able to offer SWK to every member on our list. The good news is that in 2024 and 2025, we enjoyed healthy crop levels and will be able to resume offering SWK to a wider audience in our upcoming releases in 2027 and 2028. In 2023, there was particularly cold and wet weather at flowering that impacted the yields at Bodega Headlands Vineyard. Production was limited for both the SWK Vineyard and the Bodega Headlands Vineyard Cuvée Elizabeth in 2023. Thankfully, our Running Fence and Bodega Ridge vineyards next door, which usually flower 10-14 days after Bodega Headlands, set a normal crop.

Drastic swings in crop level from one vintage to the next are a fact of life when growing pinot noir on the coast. No one regrets this fact more than we do and we are grateful for your patience and understanding.

Once again, we have been conservative with our initial allocations to give all members an opportunity to purchase our wines. The Occidental pinot noirs are offered on a first-come basis, which means that the release will likely proceed at a fast pace. If you wish to purchase additional bottles, please make a Wish Request. We will grant as many requests as possible at the end of the Release.

In this release, we will be offering a small number of magnums of 2023 Running Fence Vineyard Cuvée Catherine and 2023 Bodega Ridge Vineyard. Again this year, these magnums will be Wish Request Only for all members.

Please take a moment to review and update your personal and shipping information before the release starts. If you have any questions, please phone 707-827-1655 or email us at info@occidentalwines.com. We will be happy to assist you with your order or any special requests.

Best wishes for a healthy and happy New Year. We appreciate your support of our family winery.