Stuart Bewley is up to his elbows in great grapes

On the hilly 6,000-acre Alder Springs Ranch in far northern Mendocino County, Stuart Bewley has been growing some of California’s most outstanding wine grapes since 1993. At elevations ranging from 1,700 to 2,700 feet, Bewley practices his patented brand of “extremist viticulture” on a patchwork of vineyards perched along the steep sandstone slopes of the Coast Range. The mountainous ranch is a decidedly challenging spot to cultivate grapes, but the results have been superb. The unique growing conditions – bright sun, cool nights, phenomenal low-vigor soils – in combination with Bewley’s obsessive, hands-on attention to each individual vine, yield small, complex, intensely flavorful berries. Alder Springs’ Pinot Noir, Syrah, Bordeaux and Rhone varieties have won a devoted following among top boutique wineries, including Patz & Hall, Behrens & Hitchcock, Arnot Roberts, and Copain. “This is an immaculately groomed vineyard under the supervision of owner Stuart Bewley. It has innovative clones, state of the art rootstock and superior trellising on superior soils,” says Scott Shapley of Roessler Cellars.

The vineyards are just a small piece of the Ranch, where Bewley and his family also have some grass-fed Angus cattle, orchard fruits, and honeybees – all of it with an eye to preserving Alder Springs’ abundant wildlife. The landscapes here range from craggy, snow-capped peaks to lush valleys, salmon streams, trout ponds, chaparral, and evergreen forest, making Alder Springs a vital habitat for an uncommonly rich variety of native California fauna including peregrine falcons, eagles, river otters, black bears, and blue herons.