Cobb Wines

Superlative wines reflecting cool Sonoma Coast terroir

After a career as a marine biologist, owner Ross Cobb's father, David, was looking for a new place to spend his second life. He had long dreamed of making wine, and after many trips up the California coast to the Oregon border, he and his wife, Diane, settled in 1989 on the western edge of Sonoma County near a red cedar forest with views from Mount Tamalpais to the mouth of the Russian River Valley. With no electricity or running water, everything had to be done from scratch, but David's knowledge of oceanography and ecology convinced him that the soil and climate of the site could produce world-class Pinot Noir. With the help of his son Ross and friends, he planted the first four acres of Pinot Noir. This was the birth of Coastland Vineyards.
Williams Selyem was the first to recognize and adopt the high-quality Coastland grapes and designated it as a single vineyard in 1994.

After graduating from college in Santa Cruz, Ross studied agroecology and helped his parents in the vineyards, He went to work for Ferrari Carrano near his parents, where he started the soil science lab and worked as a technician all while continuing to support the family business. His winemaking career began in earnest at Williams Selyem in 1998, followed by an assistant wine maker position at Flowers in 2000, head winemaker position in 2004, and then six years at Hirsch Vineyards. While making the Cobb brand at Flowers and Hirsch, he was contemplating how to grow his family brand. Cobb Wines inaugural release was in 2001. In 2003, it was time to hit the pavement, Ross set off with a Zagat Restaurant Guide in hand and visited 75 of the finest restaurants in the San Francisco area, carrying six bottles of the first 2001 vintage. His efforts paid off and the wine is now placed in 120 restaurants in the Bay Area.

In between harvesting and vinifying in California, he traveled to Burgundy with as much Sonoma Pinot Noir as he could carry to be tasted by local winemakers. He also worked in their cellars as much as possible, tasting local wines and exchanging opinions with Burgundian vignerons on the wines of the United States and France. François Leclerc was so impressed with Ross's energy that he organized a joint tasting with more than 25 producers. At the young age of 30, Ross has established a solid relationship between Sonoma and Burgundy, and their high regard for Sonoma Pinot Noir, including Coastlands, has given him great confidence. Even today, as Sonoma's premier wines are listed in many of Sonoma's finest restaurants, Ross continues to travel to Burgundy on an irregular basis to study the possibilities of making even better wines.