Precious Mountain Vineyard takes its name from its owners — Schatzberg translates from German as “precious mountain” — and the name fits. Donnie and Linden Schatzberg homesteaded 40 acres on a ridge top in 1970 and have been farming it ever since. They have been growing Pinot Noir for Williams Selyem since 1996.
Donnie graduated from SUNY New Paltz in 1967 and learned farming techniques in India with the Peace Corps — an education in working with difficult land that proved directly applicable here. He believed dry farming was the right approach for this ground, and he was right. There are now more than five acres planted to Pinot Noir alongside over 100 fruit and nut trees. The homestead runs on solar power. A sycamore they planted in the early years now shades the house.
The vineyard sits at 1,400 feet, close enough to the Pacific that the wind comes in off the ocean. Vines at this elevation are stressed and slow — ripening takes longer, yields run around a ton per acre, and the clusters are small. What comes off these vines carries the full concentration of fruit that had nowhere to go but into flavor. Donnie continuously experiments with rootstock and clones; some vines grow on their own roots. Precious Mountain is a vineyard shaped by curiosity, patience, and four decades of someone paying very close attention to a specific piece of ground.
