Don & Jennifer Hartford tend this head-trained vineyard in the backyard of their home on Wood Road in the Russian River Valley AVA. Planted over 100 years ago, these low yielding vines produce as little as a half ton an acre in some vintages. Intense blackberry, anise and allspice aromas and a supple texture are signatures of this unique terroir.
Wood Road has well-draining, low fertility, sandy loam soils about two to three feet in depth over deeper layers of compacted sandy loam of about four to six inches. Because the Italian immigrants who planted the Wood Road Vineyard in the early 1900s wanted to ensure long vine life and moisture for their dry-farmed vines, they placed a blasting cap where each vine was to be planted and blasted through the compacted layer. Today we continue to enjoy the fruits of their ingenuity and celebrate the legacy of "dynamite" Zinfandels.
