Photo courtesy of Occidental Vineyards
Kistler’s Occidental Vineyards
Pinot Noir Sonoma Coast
Steve Kistler, the founder of Kistler Vineyards, is a master of Chardonnay across California’s beloved Sonoma. Focused on a singular clone of Chardonnay, Kistler explored the micro-climates across Sonoma producing a vast array of single vineyard wines showcasing the breadth and quality of Sonoma’s finest sites.
While Chardonnay is what made Kistler famous, where there is Chardonnay there is bound to be some Pinot Noir along the way. The truth of the matter is that Steve Kistler has long been enamored with Pinot Noir and dedicated decades to cultivating vineyards that has culminated with Occidental Wines.
As Steve brilliantly states on the Occidental website, the coastal vineyards of the Freestone-Occidental area caught Kistler's attention back in 1975 when he worked for Ridge Vineyards. Then in 1992 Steve was convinced of the potential of Pinot Noir planted along these ridges. In 1993 Kistler began to produce Pinot Noir from Flowers’ Camp Meeting Ridge and Hirsch Vineyards. This quickly led Steve to purchase a site in 1995 and begin his estate Pinot Noir project - Occidental Vineyard.
A few short years later, Steve went all in on Sonoma Coast Pinot Noir, purchasing a 100-acre property and subsequently planting 20-acres to Pinot Noir. All the while, Pinot Noir was the passion project of Kistler and never the focal point in the sales and marketing. In 2008, Steve Kistler secured another 250-acre and plants 65 of those acres to Pinot Noir. However, it was not until 2011 that Steve Kistler launched Occidental. Over fifteen years in the making, Steve Kistler the master of Chardonnay unveiled his true passion and life’s work.
Occidental Pinot Noirs have become one of the finest examples and benchmarks for Sonoma Coast Pinot Noir. The Freestone-Occidental area is Kistler’s backyard, and his single vineyard expressions of Pinot Noir are absolutely stunning. Occidental is the definition of a passion project. The decades of work poured into this by Steve and his family is admirable. Today, Kistler is joined by his two daughters in building the next legacy for the Kistler Family Vineyards.
Occidental has become the Kistler family home and their singular focus. Steve has left Kistler Vineyards to his partners to manage and has dedicated himself solely to Occidental since 2017. The results have been a consistent collection of Pinot Noir vintage after vintage.
At Occidental, Kistler maintains the sensibility to produce exceptional quality wine that is approachable, and obtainable. The Freestone-Occidental Pinot Noir is the workhorse of the winery and one amazing introduction to this project. A blend of the single vineyard sites, this cuvee delivers one of the finest expressions of the Sonoma Coast year after year. Perfumed and aromatic, the Freestone-Occidental consistently shows a lavender and rose petal nuance supported by red berry fruit. The palate and texture is round and fresh with a salty stony finish. This is the wine where Kistler shows you just how magnificent these vineyards are and how adept he and his team are with Pinot Noir. This is the sum of their work and these vineyard sites. The balance and depth of the blended wine yields one of the most trustworthy wines in California today.
The 2022 vintage of the Freestone-Occidental is back in-stock after selling out almost immediately this spring. The previous vintage of 2021 was of course a stellar wine and one that garnered some serious praise from wine critics along with being named Wine Spectator’s #2 Wine of the Year for 2023! While the 2022 vintage is not yet reviewed, as noted above, the Kistlers have consistently turned out a great wine year over year with this cuvee. The 2022 vintage is no exception, and a great example of what this estate and team are achieving today. This is without question another great wine from the Kistlers and one that will be bringing in a ton of praise shortly. The problem is if you wait for the critics to publish, this wine is surely going to be sold out just like it has the previous three vintages in a row!
Along with the Freestone-Occidental we are able to offer an additional collection of the 2021 Bodega Headlands and Bodega Ridge Pinot Noirs. These single vineyard expressions from Occidental are some of the most sought after and collected Pinot Noirs of California. The critical acclaim for these wines is on par with Grand Cru Burgundy and once again a 2021 Occidental Pinot Noir landed in the Top 10 of a Top 100 list. Jeb Dunnuck and Audrey Frick picked the Bodega Headlands as their #3 Wine of the Year!
This is a stellar set of wines from the Kistlers and benchmark wines for the Sonoma Coast.
Cheers,
Jeremy | 
