Limerick Lane Cellars reaches its 40th harvest in the Russian River Valley
The Healdsburg estate began picking its milestone harvest in August. Its oldest block dates to 1910, and production still runs near 5,000 cases a year.
HEALDSBURG: Harvest number 40 is under way at Limerick Lane Cellars. The winery announced the milestone on September 30, four decades after the estate's first vintage under its own name, and its own posts from August showed the season already moving, with picking begun on the 53-acre property in the northeast corner of the Russian River Valley.
The vineyard's reputation is older than the label. For years the estate sold its grapes rather than bottling them, and the buyers were some of the county's best-known names: Gary Farrell, DeLoach Vineyards, Beringer Vineyards and Davis Bynum. Wines made from those lots helped persuade the wider wine world that the young appellation could produce serious wine.
Much of that early arguing was done by Tom Collins, the estate's first owner, who farmed the property and made its wines. At a time when few in the valley were claiming it could stand with the world's established regions, Collins said this corner of it could, and worked the land on that basis.
Hitting our fortieth harvest is a testament to the resilience of this winery and everyone who contributed to its success along the way. Tom saw what this land could do before most people did, and everything we make here is predicated on that conviction. Our role is to carry forward the vision that began forty years ago and let these vines keep telling their story.Karen Francis DeGolia, owner of Limerick Lane Cellars
A long road back to the Lane
DeGolia first came to the property in the early 1990s, when she was engaged to Collins and working the ranch as the vineyards were brought back. After his unexpected death she left Healdsburg for Detroit and a career in the automotive industry. She returned to live and work at the winery in 2002, and in the years that followed bought two neighboring vineyards, the Ricci vineyard and the 12-acre Cypress Ridge. When Limerick Lane itself came up for sale, she bought it and joined the pieces into the 53-acre estate the winery farms today.
The 1910 block still anchors the estate, producing Zinfandel under winemaker Chris Pittenger. The farming is deliberately spare: little irrigation and frequent dry-farming, no conventional herbicides, and cover crops left standing between the rows. Output stays small by design, roughly 5,000 cases a year, most of it released in lots of fewer than 300 cases.
The winery says the anniversary year will bring a new estate release and a celebration for the many people who have shaped Limerick Lane over four decades, with details to be announced in the coming months.
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