Carlisle Winery & Vineyards
Mike Officer started in 1987 with a hundred pounds of Zinfandel in a food-grade trash can in a Marina apartment. He is stopping after the 2024 harvest, and he would rather shut the winery than sell it.1
Why go
Officer bought an abandoned vineyard on Willowside Road in 1998, planted in 1927 by Alcide Pelletti, and named it Carlisle after his wife Kendall's maiden name.12 He cut leaf samples from the shoot tips and sent them to UC Davis, and the DNA came back 87 percent zinfandel with the rest spread across Alicante Bouschet, Petite Sirah, Grand Noir, Peloursin, Trousseau noir, Tempranillo, Muscadelle, Malvasia Muscat and some thirty more.2 He was still commuting to a software job in San Francisco until 2004.1 He helped found the Historic Vineyard Society in 2011 to document and protect California vineyards over fifty years old.1
Order this / avoid
- Order: the Carlisle Vineyard Zinfandel while there is any. It is the 1927 field blend, and the 2013 was $47.2
- Order: Compagni Portis, the white. Old-vine Gewurztraminer, Trousseau Gris and Riesling, and Mobley says outright it is the one she has a soft spot for.1
- Avoid: driving to Starr Road. There is no tasting room, 85 percent of the wine went to the mailing list, and the winemaking facility was on the market in 2024.1
What locals & experts say
- Esther Mobley, San Francisco Chronicle Senior Wine Critic (18 July 2024):
I've always had a soft spot for the Carlisle white wine called Compagni Portis, a blend of old-vine Gewurztraminer, Trousseau Gris, Riesling and other grapes.
1 - Mike Officer, on shutting rather than selling: the winery
was all born out of my passion for wine, and that's not something you can necessarily transfer in a sale. It seems appropriate that it ends with us.
1 - Jay Maddox, the winemaker, on the vineyard: he calls it a geriatric ward, and Officer agrees.
Every vine has its own needs. When you prune a vineyard like this, you have to approach every vine like an individual.
2
Good to know
- The 2024 crop was about 2,700 cases against a normal 8,000, made only to finish grower contracts. Mobley reported there would be wine to sell for three or four years after that.1
- Officer on the vineyard's future:
If we do sell the vineyard, I'm not going to do anything to jeopardize it. I'm going to make any buyer sign in blood that the vines are staying in the ground.
1 - Zinfandel is out of fashion and it did not matter here. Red Zinfandel sales fell about a third by volume between 2017 and 2023, and Officer's line was
We can't seem to make enough Zin.
1
Verdict
listed — The wine here is as good as anything in Sonoma County and you still cannot go. Mike Officer started in 1987 fermenting a hundred pounds of Zinfandel in a trash can in a Marina apartment, bought an abandoned 1927 vineyard on Willowside Road in 1998, and had UC Davis DNA-test the leaves: 87 percent zinfandel, the rest spread across dozens of varieties nobody plants any more. Esther Mobley reported in July 2024 that he and Kendall would stop after that harvest and shut rather than sell, because, in his words, it ends with us. There is no tasting room, 85 percent went to the mailing list, and the Windsor facility went on the market. Buy it while it lasts.