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Company
scales back plan for biggest vineyard on coast Plans for the largest single vineyard planting ever undertaken on the North Coast have resurfaced, targeting 5,000 acres in the coastal foothills of Sonoma and Mendocino counties. The proposal is the latest version of a vineyard cultivation plan conceived four years ago that called for grapes to be planted on 10,000 acres in the same remote area between Annapolis in Sonoma County and Point Arena in Mendocino County. The new plan is being proposed by Premier Pacific Vineyards, a Napa-based winery and vineyard investment company that owns nearly 500 acres of vineyards in Napa and Mendocino counties and in Oregon's Willamette Valley. The company owns Bighorn Cellars, based in Napa, and bought Mendocino County's Parducci Cellars in 1996. It also manages a $100 million investment from the California Public Employees Retirement System. In addition to scaling back the size of the 1999 plan, Premier and its partners are offering to permanently preserve 70,000 acres of North Coast timberland controlled by the group in exchange for permission to plant on mountain ridges. Members of the partnership have met in private with key environmental groups in recent weeks, hoping to generate support before asking local and state officials for approval. So far, however, the arrangement has been met with skepticism. "There're a lot of really significant details that have not been resolved," said Peter Ashcroft, spokesman for the Sonoma County branch of the Sierra Club. "There are some real concerns about how much environmental damage would be caused by planting that much grape in those hills. There's also a question about how much protection is really being offered for the other properties." William Hill, co-chairman of Premier, which would be putting up the money for the project, said there is much to gain by allowing the vineyards. "The most accurate description of this project is as a protection against development," Hill said. "What we are proposing is that all 80,000 acres would always be kept as rural property and that more than 90 percent of it remain in protected forest. We think this has merit." Hill argued that the entire property could be divided into 450 parcels, each of which could support a house, guest home and ranch development. He declined to estimate the property's value. Although
only half the size of the 10,000-acre vineyard proposed four
years ago, Hill's plan dwarfs all other vineyard developments
on the North Coast, where a 500-acre planting is considered
large. Hill, who established William Hill Winery in Napa in 1976, said that despite current conditions, his plan to develop premium pinot noir grapes on the North Coast would make money. He said there will be a shortage of premium wine within five years and his new vineyards would be well positioned to take advantage of the coming demand. Getting approval for the vineyards, however, will not be easy. Most of the land coveted for the grapes is in timber zones that will require approval from the state Department of Forestry to convert to vines. There is a strong likelihood that an environmental impact report will be required for the project, which will mean public hearings and expensive studies. And there is also the possibility that county supervisors in both Mendocino and Sonoma counties will have a say if any of the land needs to be rezoned. No applications for conversion of the property have yet been submitted. The 80,000 acres that make up the deal are owned today by a Portland-based company, Pioneer Resources. Pioneer has an agreement to sell the land to Coastal Forestland, a Willits-based timber company that is one of Hill's partners. Hill said his group would put up the money and would develop the vineyards. Coastal Forestland, headed by Willits lumberman Rich Padula, would retain ownership of most of the remaining property and retain some rights to the timber. As now proposed, the timberland not needed for vineyard would be protected by conservation easements that would permanently limit what can be done on the land. Hill said the constraints on logging and other economic activities on the forestlands would be adjusted depending on how much vineyard property is ultimately approved. "In
order for the deal to work for us, we need between 3,500 acres
of vineyard and 5,000 acres," he said. Ashcroft said the Sierra Club has taken no official position on the vineyard plan and is unsure if any further negotiations will take place between the developers and the environmental community. Along with the 60,000 acres of land along the remote coastline of Sonoma and Mendocino counties, the investment group is including a 20,000-acre ranch, known as Willits Woods, near the Jackson State Demonstration Forest south of Fort Bragg. You
can reach Staff Writer Tom Chorneau at 521-5214 or tchorneau@pressdemocrat.com.
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