Heintz Ranch has been in the same family for more than a century. Charlie Heintz’s grandparents purchased the land in 1912, farming chickens, berries, cherries, apples, and other vegetables through the early decades. In 1980 the vineyard was planted to Clone 4 Chardonnay. Charlie took over farming in 1984, following his father’s lead, and has spent the years since learning new techniques and updating his approach without losing what the site has always had: elevation, cool air, and patience.
The vineyard sits in Occidental at nearly 1,000 feet in the Russian River Valley. Cool, foggy evenings and warm days allow for extended hang time — the kind of slow ripening that builds natural acidity and gives the fruit its structure. These are not grapes that are rushed. The climate won’t allow it, and the farming philosophy doesn’t push for it.
Heintz Chardonnay is a study in what elevation and hang time can do in the right hands. Charlie Heintz has farmed this ground long enough to know its rhythms, and the Chardonnay that comes off it reflects that knowledge — specific, structured, and shaped by a piece of Occidental that has been growing something worth paying attention to for over 100 years.
