Beautiful Kirkland Ranch Winery

Your ordinary winery does not have its own cattle brand, nor a herd of Black Angus roaming the hillsides above the vineyards, but then, Kirkland Ranch Winery is not your ordinary winery. When the Kirkland brothers, Larry and Lonnie, purchased the 2000-acre spread that was part of General Mariano Vallejo’s original Rancho Soscol land grant in 1978 the primary crop on their Rocking LK Ranch was cattle. Grapes joined the mix in 1985 at the suggestion of Larry’s daughter, Chris, and additional vines were planted until, today, there are 138 acres of vineyard containing Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot, Chardonnay, Pinot Noir, Pinot Grigio, Sauvignon Blanc, Gewürztraminer, Syrah, Sangiovese, and Nebbiolo.


Fruit from the first harvests was sold to wineries close to the Jameson Canyon (Napa) ranch. Then Larry learned there was a better market for juice, and finally succumbed to the lure of having a family winery with its own label. In 1998 the winery and its imposing rustic visitors’ center arose just north of Jameson Canyon Road off Highway 12. Visitors often comment that they feel as if they are approaching a magnificent lodge, and the impression is deliberate. The visitors’ complex, which opened in October, 1999, is an imposing and stately structure, supported by and studded with enormous red cedar tree trunks rising three stories high.

The Western ranch feeling is carried through from the retail shop to the tasting room with its two story stone fireplace and deep cowhide-covered couches and chairs. Behind the U-shaped tasting bar is a mural of the annual round-up, and on the lower floor a diorama re-creates scenes of the ranch as it would have appeared in the 1800′s. On the third level are beautifully paneled rooms, which may be rented for meetings and social events.