Scherrer Winery
Fred Scherrer still sells a 2016 Russian River Pinot Noir that he released in November 2019. Almost nobody holds red wine that long before letting it go.1
Why go
Scherrer made his name on Zinfandel from his father's vineyard in Alexander Valley, and moved from there into Pinot Noir off the Russian River.1 The first vintage was 1991.1 What he says he is after is full-flavored wine that shows the personality of the vineyard it came from, and the way to test that claim is the release list, which is where this gets interesting.1 A dry rose from 2025 came out in April 2026. A dry rose from 2024 came out in April 2025. The Pinot is nine years old and he only released it in 2019.1 Cellaring your own stock that long ties up money most small wineries do not have.
Good to know
- Chardonnay, Cabernet Sauvignon, Syrah and Grenache round out the list alongside the Zinfandel and Pinot.1
- Nothing on the site says whether you can visit, so treat Ross Road as a working winery and call first.
- No critic in the record has tasted these, so the back-vintage argument is his and untested from outside.
Verdict
could-visit — Fred Scherrer sells a 2016 Russian River Pinot Noir that he released in November 2019 and still lists as ready to drink now, next to a rose from last year. Holding red wine in a cellar for three years before release and then holding it longer is expensive and almost nobody does it, so the list itself is the argument. He made his name on Zinfandel from his father's Alexander Valley vineyard before the Pinot, and has been at it since 1991. The rung stops here because the winery is the only witness, because no critic has scored any of it in the record, and because nothing published says whether you can visit.