Concannon Estate Vineyards
Concannon’s lush, estate vineyards have grown from its original 47 acres to the 182 acres seen today. Every detail of winegrowing is focused upon bringing out the best in the terroir and fruit from each vineyard block. Our viticulture and winemaking teams work closely with the fourteen varieties planted at the estate: Cabernet Sauvignon, Petite Sirah, Sauvignon Blanc, Sémillon, Malbec, Merlot, Petit Verdot, Cabernet Franc, Viognier, Chardonnay, Zinfandel, Syrah, Mourvedre and Grenache Noir.
We invite you to explore five of the estate’s historic and prized vineyards which produce remarkable fruit for our award-winning, estate-grown, single vineyard and small lot wines.
1893 Concannon Margaux Mother Vine Vineyard
Acres Planted: .59
Varieties Grown: Cabernet Sauvignon
Our historic, 129-year-old, Concannon Margaux, Mother Vine Vineyard is one of the most treasured Cabernet Sauvignon vineyards in California and the only vineyard of its kind in America. This 1893 vineyard is home to extremely rare Concannon Margaux heritage clones propagated from extraordinary Cabernet that James Concannon imported from Bordeaux’s First Growth, Château Margaux in 1893. These vines produce the rare and beautiful fruit for our award-winning and extremely limited-production, Concannon Reserve, Mother Vine, Cabernet Sauvignon. Read more about this historic vineyard here.
Concannon Clone 7 Vineyard
Acres Planted: 15
Last Replanted: 2016
Varieties Grown: Cabernet Sauvignon
In 2016, 18,500 Concannon Cabernet Clone 7 vines were welcomed to their new home. This very special site is the original, Cabernet Sauvignon vineyard where from 1970 to 1974, Jim Concannon first planted the first-released Concannon Clone 7, then 8 and then 11 from UC Davis. Dreams were also planted here as Jim’s goal was to help develop Cabernet clones benefiting all of California winemaking. As a tribute to his father, John has replanted this vineyard with entirely Concannon Clone 7 with future vineyards to be planted to Concannon Clone 8 and Concannon Clone 11. Read more about this vineyard here.
Heritage Vineyard
Acres Planted: 3
Last Replanted: 2003
Varieties Grown: Petite Sirah
The Heritage Vineyard has been planted to Petite Sirah since 1884 when James Concannon first imported it from the Montpellier Nursery in France. This vineyard sits on a well-drained, alluvial plain with deposits of gravel and rock helping to produce, year-after-year, outstanding Petite Sirah grapes with singular concentration and distinctive sense of place. Planted in 4’ x 8’ rows of head-trained vines, this vineyard is exposed to consistently sunny climate. Warm days followed by the cooling maritime influences of the Pacific Ocean cultivate flavor, complexity and beautifully-balanced acidity, a hallmark of our Heritage Petite Sirah wines.
Ranch Creek Vineyard
Acres Planted: 46
Last Replanted: 1995 and 2003
Varieties Grown: Sauvignon Blanc, Sémillon, Viognier, Merlot, Petit Verdot, Mourvedre, Petite Sirah
Planted along the southern bank of the Arroyo Mocho Creek, this vineyard site has well-drained gravelly silt loam derived from river sediments. Here, the vines are naturally stressed from the gravelly loam that encourages deep root growth resulting in complex flavor development in the fruit. The vineyard’s north-south orientation allows the vines to savor hours of warm sunshine during the long growing season as well as the cooling evening breezes from the San Francisco Bay.
Big Rock Creek Vineyard
Acres Planted: 10
Last Replanted: 1995 and 2017
Varieties Grown: Syrah, Chardonnay
Just north of the Arroyo Mocho Creek, this vineyard features 2 blocks with an east-west orientation. For this site, the vines are VSP trellised (Vertical Shoot Position) to gain uniform sun exposure for even ripening. The vineyard gets its name from the big rocks left behind from this ancient tributary when a millennia ago, it was considerably grander in scale. The terroir is unique to the area with elevated water-retaining gravel and clay soil making it ideal for growing Chardonnay and Syrah.
1883 Concannon Margaux Mother Vine Vineyard
In 1965, and from one of these remarkable vines, the “Concannon Mother Vine,” Jim Concannon and UC Davis developed the renowned Concannon Cabernet Clones 7, 8, 11. The Concannon Clones soon became the industry standard and played an invaluable, distinctive role in helping California and Napa Valley Cabernet achieve international recognition.
After the 1976 Judgment of Paris, the Concannon Clones quickly became an essential asset to the enormous expansion of Cabernet plantings that ensued from the 1970s to the present. Today, an estimated 80% of California’s 90,000 acres of Cabernet are planted to the Concannon Clones.
“The Concannon Cabernet vine chosen for heat treatment was selected by Dr. Harold Olmo and Mr. Curt Alley, both renowned for their visionary work in clonal selection. I think we owe them a great debt since many of their selections still stand up well to the best clones from around the world, with the Concannon Clones being an outstanding example.”
-Deborah A. Golino, PhD, Director, Foundation Plant Services, UC Davis
Concannon Clone 7
The deep, gravelly soils in the Concannon Clone 7 Vineyard promote low to moderate vigor, encouraging the vines to produce rich, concentrated fruit. Water drains quickly in this soil which compels deep root growth for accessing water and nutrients found in the rich subsoils below. The evening breeze off of the San Francisco Bay grants this site much cooling which provides these vines a daily, 40 degree temperature swing. This cooling also allows for a long, even growing season for our estate Cabernet Sauvignon to develop excellent fruit intensity and well-balanced tannins.
“In this day and age, there’s an explosion of clones, but the solid clones that built the Cabernet industry in California are the Concannon Clones.”
-Deborah A. Golino, PhD, Director, Foundation Plant Services, UC Davis
