The unique bowl shape of the isolated vineyard offers great diversity of terrain. At the top of the "bowl" is an intense hillside vineyard known as “Los Rocas,” so named by the vineyard crew for its rocky soils, and is home to our oldest Cabernet Sauvignon vines. This hillside faces southwest and is blessed with warm sun all day requiring precise canopy management to control sun exposure. This steep section of vineyard is outfitted with an irrigation system that can address blocks as small as 2-tenths of an acre, allowing for targeted watering of the vines only when and where it is needed. In addition, extensive soil studies were conducted throughout the entire vineyard allowing us to partition the vineyard into a total of 42 microblocks and farm with precision on the single vine level. The entire vineyard site produced an exceptionally low average of 1.04 tons per acre in 2008.

A small amount of Viognier is planted in Makena’s Vineyard, a hillside area that has east, west and south facing exposures resulting in great diversity of fruit character. Resting just below Makena’s Vineyard in the benchlands lies Skipstone’s old growth Merlot, and Pond Block, where Cabernet Franc excels.

A large replanting occured in 2007 in the plateau of the vineyard known as North Fault Line, including three acres each of Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot and Malbec, and one acre of Petite Sirah. An adjacent area known as South Fault Line was planted in 2003 completely to Cabernet Sauvignon in four distinct sub-blocks each with unique rootstock and clonal selections. We are excited about the potential these new vineyards will bring to the blend as they mature.