Carlisle Winery & Vineyards

Carlisle Winery & Vineyards is a small Sonoma County winery best known for its single-vineyard, old-vine Zinfandel, while also specializing in reds from the Rhône varieties. More recently the estate has added two vineyard-blend white wines, and a varietal Grüner Veltliner – the first made in Sonoma County. Many of the wines are produced in limited quantities and are initially only available via the twice-yearly mailing list – for which there is a waiting list.

The company was founded in 1998, although owners Mike and Kendall Officer had been making "garagiste" wines for several years before that. Carlisle works with a select band of vineyard owners to source fruit, including multiple old-vine Zinfandel vineyards. There is also an estate-owned plot in the Russian River Valley planted in 1927, mostly with Zinfandel but with more than 40 other varieties identified to date. After 15 years making the wines in a custom-crush facility in Santa Rosa, in 2013 production moved to the former Robert Mueller winery, also in the Russian River Valley.