Boer

Volcanism and tectonic activity define Chalone and Pinnacles National Park, immediately below which lies the exceptionally situated Boer Vineyard, at 1600’ elevation. Dick Graff lived onsite here as he revived Chalone’s fortunes in the 1960s, culminating in his upset victory with his 1974 Chardonnay over the French in the Judgement of Paris Tasting in 1976. The surrounding vineyard was named the A Frame Vineyard for his house, and planted by Dick and his partner Phil Woodward to Cabernet in 1969. Though the house was burglarized and burned to the ground in the 1980s, Richard Boer, a longtime colleague of Dick and Phil at Chalone, purchased the property and built his home here, and a few decades ago grafted over the vineyard on these steep slopes to several selections of Pinot Noir from Chalone. Chalk from an ancient uplifted seabed and decomposing granite here comprise a highly unusual and highly prized terroir.

Sunrise harvest scene with tractor and pickers in amongst the vine rows 1600’ up in the Chalone appellation of the Gabilan Mountains.

Sunrise harvest scene with tractor and pickers in amongst the vine rows 1600’ up in the Chalone appellation of the Gabilan Mountains.

Black and white image of curving rows on hillsides receding into the distance of Pinot Noir at Boer in the Chalone appellation of the Gabilan Mountains.

Black and white image of curving rows on hillsides receding into the distance of Pinot Noir at Boer in the Chalone appellation of the Gabilan Mountains.

John Locke sampling grapes in the distance, visible as a small figure down long vine rows up at Boer Vineyard in the Chalone appellation of the Gabilan Mountains.

John Locke sampling grapes in the distance, visible as a small figure down long vine rows up at Boer Vineyard in the Chalone appellation of the Gabilan Mountains.