MacRostie Winery Unveils New Vineyard in Petaluma Gap

In June, MacRostie Winery and Vineyards unveiled its new Nightwing Estate Vineyard in the Petaluma Gap AVA. The announcement marks the culmination of five years of work developing and planting a virgin site, along the Sonoma Coast. The cool-climate vineyard is located at the mountainous eastern edge of the Petaluma Gap AVA and features some of the highest-planted elevations in the region, reaching heights of 1,300 feet. Nightwing Vineyard was developed in 2017 and planted the following year as a mosaic of 35 blocks, featuring 44 acres of Pinot Noir and 30 acres of Chardonnay.

Winemaker Heidi Bridenhagen and Founder Steve MacRostie first viewed the property in 2017 and immediately recognized its potential to produce world-class Pinot Noir and Chardonnay. Working in partnership with Atlas Vineyard Management (AVM), which has been farming both the nearby Gap’s Crown Vineyard and Sunchase Vineyard (which is contiguous to Nightwing) for the past decade, Bridenhagen and MacRostie oversaw the design of the site, which features numerous elevations, exposures and soil compositions. They also personally selected Nightwing’s nine clones of Pinot Noir, nine clones of Chardonnay and seven rootstocks, with the Pinot Noir largely planted above the fog line, and the Chardonnay predominantly established at lower elevations where it benefits from the cooling influence of the region’s clockwork fog.

“Working with Steve [MacRostie] and the AVM team to establish Nightwing Vineyard has been one of the proudest accomplishments of my career,” said Bridenhagen in a statement. “We have been partnering with vineyards in the Petaluma Gap since long before it became an official AVA in 2017. It is an incredible region for creating the kinds of Chardonnays and Pinot Noirs that inspire us, and have long defined MacRostie.”

The inaugural 2020 MacRostie Nightwing Vineyard Chardonnay is the first wine to be made from grapes grown on the property and is currently only available to wine club members and by direct purchase through the winery. Moving forward, MacRostie will be producing a Nightwing Vineyard Pinot Noir, and will also be using fruit from the estate in its acclaimed Sonoma Coast Pinot Noir and Chardonnay bottlings, as well as other potential wines.

The name Nightwing was chosen as a nod to the Petaluma Gap’s many indigenous birds, including the Night Heron, and to honor Vernon Morelli, the land’s owner, and a WWII pilot who built a landing strip on the site.