About b. wise vineyards

Perfection through patience: a love of land, a way of wine

PEOPLE

You can be at the top of your game with farming and having the best vineyards, but to make it all hang together, it always comes down to people.

ESTATE

We sited B. Wise Vineyards on top of a ridge that looks down over the Sonoma Valley. While this was partly a vineyard decision, it’s also our home. This is a benevolent climate, a place you can live outdoors. I put in peach trees and persimmons, and avocados that everyone says won’t fruit this far north, but I’ve got fruit on them. It comes from being a farmer’s son and grandson. It’s through this bent of farming that we’re able to make wines that satisfy something deep down.

— Brion Wise

WINEMAKING

B. Wise is a wine project that brings together the best that Sonoma and Napa vineyards have to offer. As part of that, we sought winemaking expertise that would allow us to take the best advantage of extraordinary vineyard sites.

COOPERAGE

I often get asked about the role barrels take in the processing of wine. The oak barrel is responsible for half the quality in a Bordeaux-style wine, according to our Winemaker Mark Herold. Put a top-level wine into a lesser barrel and it becomes a lower quality wine. But put a top-level wine into a barrel made of quality French oak and it becomes everything it was intended to be and more.

— Brion Wise

PEOPLE

You can be at the top of your game with farming and having the best vineyards, but to make it all hang together, it always comes down to people.