Collier Falls

Some wine-lovers thrive on seeking out small wineries, with small production of very fine wines. So, here’s one for that list. The winery is Collier Falls Vineyards, located on West Dry Creek Road at the northern end of Dry Creek Valley near Healdsburg in Sonoma, California. Its winery carries the Dry Creek Valley appellation. The first Collier Falls wine, the 1997 Zinfandel (100% estate grapes) was released in spring, 1999. There were only 500 cases, so a good bit of it is already gone. Those who collect numbers will be impressed by the 90 points the wine was given by the Wine Spectator, and the two stars (out of a possible three) granted the wine by Connoisseur’s Guide.


Those are the statistics, the story is more fun. Barry Collier, who grew the grapes, has had a varied series of careers. Once a speech writer for Henry Ford, he was a record and film producer in London and Los Angeles until 1988. So, how did he get to the little hillside vineyard? “One day I left the highway, turned left on West Dry Creek Road, and found heaven,” he says. In 1997, when Barry, his wife, Sue, and sons Adam and Josh bought the property, it contained an eight acre Zinfandel vineyard. They then inter-planted the equivalent of eight additional acres of Zin, and in 1997 added a few more acres of Zinfandel and small plantings of four red Bordeaux varieties.

Collier Falls wine is made at Everett Ridge Winery (formerly Bellerose) by winemaker Alex MacGregor. It is sold in the Everett Ridge tasting room, and by mail. The 1998 vintage of this outstanding Zinfandel was bottled in February and will be released this spring. Be warned. There are only 525 cases of this vintage, and those who took a chance on the unknown and purchased the 1997 Zin will get first choice, so get in line now!