SONOMA VALLEY'S MICROCLIMATE
What Makes Our Location Unique :
Next year we will be celebrating our 25th Anniversary at B.R. Cohn Winery and our 35th year of establishing Olive Hill Estate Vineyards. After a quarter century of making wine and growing grapes I would like to please take a moment of your time to tell you what separates B.R. Cohn Winery and Olive Hill Estate Vineyards from other wineries and makes it unique within Sonoma Valley.
 Allow me to provide some brief history on the property: When I bought this property in 1974 it had 14 acres of grapes planted on the original 46 acres, half of the four-year-old vines were dead. I initially thought it may be due to a frost problem. I found out from the previous owner that in fact he had never experienced a frost in the growing season for the 34 years he owned the property. The vines which were dry farmed were dead simply due to lack of water caused by a line of huge eucalyptus trees which bordered the vineyard. I remedied this situation by removing the trees and adding a drip system for irrigation. After my 35 years of growing grapes here and experiencing no frost growing season as my predecessor did, I can attest that this is a very small and unique micro-climate in Sonoma Valley about two square miles in size.
Over the years I have learned why we don’t experience frosts in the growing season enabling us to produce ultra-premium Cabernet Sauvignon year after year. While putting the drip system in and replanting the dead vines back in 1974, I found out that the Artesian Well on the property was, in fact, geothermal. The well is connected to an aquifer that spans from the Sonoma Mission Inn Hotel in Boyes Springs to my property two miles away. The geothermal effect has resulted in 71 years of documented frost free growing seasons so far. It warms the soil which in turn results in an earlier bud break and a harvest that is ten days to two weeks earlier than the rest of the Cabernet grown in Sonoma Valley. This was an immense benefit in years that experienced early rains such as 1989 and 2007. Olive Hill Estate Cabernet grapes are in the fermentors by the time the rains hit with very good sugar, PH and acid levels.
An additional large influence on the micro climate at Olive Hill Estate Vineyards is the backdrop of Sonoma Mountain, which is not only picturesque but has a huge impact on the climate here at the winery and vineyards.
Olive Hill Estate Vineyards and B.R. Cohn Winery are in the lee of or eastside of Sonoma Mountain. The mountain diverts the incoming cold coastal air and fog which hits the west slope of Sonoma Mountain diverting them around our vineyard into Sonoma and Kenwood. This hastens the ripening in August and September at Olive Hill Estate Vineyards but slows that process in other parts of Sonoma Valley. The additional sunlight hours and the 7-10 degrees warmer air temperature are instrumental in our ability to grow consistent high quality Cabernet Sauvignon at our unique location in the Sonoma Valley.
I have been fortunate enough to have had a string of superb winemakers in these 25 years; starting with Helen Turley in the 80’s, Mary Edwards in the 90’s, and currently Tom Montgomery in the 2000’s who oversees the winemaking efforts at B.R. Cohn Winery. All of these winemakers have been recipients of high quality Cabernet Sauvignon grapes from Olive Hill Estate Vineyards which over the past 35 years has grown from 46 to 90 acres.
The reason that I have written to you is to show how substantially microclimates can change the quality of grapes grown in any given region and how Olive Hill Estate Vineyards stands apart from the rest of Sonoma Valley in that process.
When planning a visit to Sonoma Valley please don’t hesitate to call me for a private tour and barrel tasting. In the meantime, thanks so much for reading this and I hope you enjoy our wines in the future.
Best Regards,
Bruce R Cohn,
Proprietor
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