SONOMA COUNTY, Calif. – July 12, 2023 – MacRostie Winery and Vineyards (www.macrostiewinery.com) is excited to announce the wholesale debut of its 2021 MacRostie Nightwing Vineyard Chardonnay and 2021 Nightwing Vineyard Pinot Noir. Crafted by acclaimed winemaker Heidi Bridenhagen from the estate vineyard that she helped to design and plant, both wines will be available in select US wholesale markets (CA, TX, FL, NY, MA, DC, MD, VA, NJ, WA, NC, SC) beginning this month, with expansion to additional markets in future vintages. Reflecting MacRostie’s belief in the exceptional quality of its new estate vineyard in the Petaluma Gap AVA, moving forward the Nightwing Vineyard Chardonnay and Pinot Noir will be a core part of MacRostie’s DTC program, becoming the winery’s exclusive single-vineyard wines released in the wholesale market.
“When Steve [MacRostie] and I first saw the property that would become Nightwing Vineyard back in 2017, we immediately fell in love with it. Great Pinot Noir and Chardonnay land in California is becoming more and more rare, and Nightwing is Pinot and Chardonnay nirvana,” said Bridenhagen, who personally selected Nightwing’s nine clones of Pinot Noir, nine clones of Chardonnay, and seven rootstocks. “After spending years developing the vineyard, we were confident about the quality of the wines that would come off Nightwing. Even so, they’ve exceeded all of our expectations. Young vines often give lots of robust fruit, but I’ve never seen such character and complexity from a vineyard this young. It’s something special.”
In partnership with Atlas Vineyard Management, which farms the nearby Gap’s Crown and Sunchase vineyards, Bridenhagen and MacRostie oversaw the design and planting of Nightwing Vineyard, which features numerous elevations, exposures and soil compositions. To take full advantage of this diversity, the vineyard was planted as a mosaic of 35 blocks featuring 44 acres of Pinot Noir and 30 acres of Chardonnay. Located at the mountainous eastern edge of the Petaluma Gap AVA, where Bridenhagen has been sourcing fruit for many years, Nightwing features some of the highest planted elevations in the region, with vineyard blocks established at elevations reaching 1,300 feet.
“Founding Nightwing Vineyard and the release of these wines represent an important new chapter in the MacRostie story,” says Brand Director Don Davis. “In addition to helping to pioneer what we believe will be California’s next great cool-climate AVA, we have ensured that we will always have a dedicated source of extraordinary estate grapes. Everyone who had a hand in shaping Nightwing Vineyard knows that they contributed to creating something remarkable that will be here long after we are gone.”
MacRostie Winery and Vineyards
Founded in 1987 by Sonoma County winemaking pioneer and Chardonnay and Pinot Noir specialist Steve MacRostie, MacRostie Winery and Vineyards has established itself as one of Sonoma Coast’s defining wineries, and a leader in a bright, balanced and age-worthy style of Chardonnay and Pinot Noir. Using grapes farmed by legendary winegrowing families, including the Duttons, Sangiacomos and Martinellis, and from MacRostie’s own Nightwing, Wildcat Mountain and Thale’s vineyards, MacRostie has assembled one of the Sonoma Coast’s most acclaimed and diverse vineyard programs. For more information, please visit www.macrostiewinery.com.
