Donnelly Creek Vineyard

Mary Elke, the managing partner of Donnelly Creek Vineyards, has been a fixture in Anderson Valley since the 1970s. She bought an old apple orchard across from the elementary school long ago, and still grows several heritage varieties of apples today. In the early 1990s, Mary and a group of partners purchased a much larger orchard across the Anderson Creek from Boonville, bordered across another creek by Ferrington Vineyard. She named the farm after that second creek: Donnelly Creek Vineyards.

Her lower vineyard, up against the creeks, contains thinner top-soils drained by cobbles not far below the surface, stretching ten feet deep. Think of Graves in Bordeaux. A knoll overlooks the entire property. In the mid-1990s, she terraced the hillside and planted it to a Pommard clone of Pinot noir, giving way to Dijon clone 113 at the top of the knoll.

Breggo has contracted for several “choice” blocks of Mary’s Donnelly Creek Vineyard — the well-drained creekside, the terrace, and the base of the hill form the backbone of our Anderson Valley Pinot Noir. In the three vintages we’ve worked with Mary, we have instituted by-the-acre contracts. We’ve changed the pruning practices from quadrilateral to bilateral cane in our blocks to reduce production while absolutely maximizing quality. Every year we’ve seen increased concentration in the fruit and improved quality.