San Anselmo man the driving force behind Kendric Vineyards

To say that Kendric Vineyards is off the beaten track is a gross understatement. It’s maybe 2 miles west of Highway 101, but that too is deceptive, which becomes readily apparent as the pavement gives way to gravel and the gravel gives way to dirt, and then that dirt gives way to even more dirt. When you have to stop for two gray squirrels fighting over territory in the middle of a San Antonio Creek wash, you will know that you have arrived at the right place.

“Even the road in here is an easement,” says Stewart Johnson, Kendric Vineyards’ proprietor, winemaker and sole employee. “The whole thing is used in the fall by a bunch of deer hunters who’ve been hunting with the same club here for 100 years, and that’s the most traffic that comes in and out. There’s very little in the way of public amenities out here.”

Part of the Petaluma Gap appellation, Kendric Vineyards has the same problem that many West Marin vineyards do. Technically it’s in Marin County, but you have to access it through Sonoma County. And like many of those further West Marin wineries, the 61-year-old grows pinot noir — excellent pinot noir, in fact. But he has branched out, so to speak.

“It’s still mostly pinot, but the (viognier and syrah) are also pushing the pinot up the hill, literally, and it sort of stretches out the harvest,” says Johnson, pointing at the gently sloping vineyard.

Johnson started growing grapes at his family’s property in Amador County in 1994 while he was in college — Kendric is his father’s name — including Sangiovese, which is still the only outside Marin County fruit he uses, bottling a 2020 ($26) vintage from it.

“And then I caught the pinot bug and started looking at cold-climate stuff,” he says. “At that point, Marin was only grazing. And the going rate was something like $30 per acre per year. It was the one area where Marin real estate was still a bargain.”

After digging soil pits all around the county, he found an area that fit his criteria.

“Marin’s got, by and large, terrible soil: a lot of clay, a lot of high magnesium, a lot of serpentine. So, you have to find the little patches that are good soil. And this was the easiest first one to develop, because this was the manure pond for the existing dairy,” says Johnson, pointing to a small pond at the base of the vineyard. “And it wasn’t too steep.”

Buffered from the wind by facing east, his 8.5-acre plot is a bit sheltered from the elements. It’s still cooled by fog coming in off Tomales Bay and is the perfect place to grow cool-climate grapes. It’s no surprise that the tiny San Antonio Creek nearby is a thicket of blackberries. And what’s good for them is probably good for grapes, too.

“It’s all Franciscan layer,” Johnson says. “Sediment thrust up on land. So, it just changes night and day from one spot to 5 feet away. There’s never going to be huge contiguous swathes of good soil.”

Not only was there just enough good soil at the site, but there was also water.

“I’ve got little arroyos on either side that run sporadically in the winter, but they’re not permanent,” says Johnson, pointing to the hillside. “Even this one right here (San Antonio Creek) really doesn’t last the summer. I have running water on three sides. And there are other ponds on the ranch that water flows into too.”

It’s certainly not a lot of water. But grapes that struggle to survive tend to yield better quality fruit — just as long as they don’t struggle too much.

His first fruit was planted in 2001, and, by 2004, he was selling much of it to Flowers Vineyards and Winery for use in their Sonoma Coast pinot noir.

“I was making syrah and pinot at that point, in real small quantities,” he says. “And mostly selling fruit. Eventually it became apparent that selling fruit is not a winning financial agenda.”

Branching out from pinot noir, he began experimenting with a steely crisp viognier, a 100% ML and surprisingly full-bodied chardonnay, as well as sparkling wine.

“The viognier has been a surprise,” he says. “I grafted some, then I grafted more because it turned out to be easy to sell.”

The sparkling wine has sold out, leaving him in a bit of a pickle.

“I just made a block of (pinot-based) blanc de noir that is still sitting on the lees, waiting for something wonderful to happen to it before I pony up to disgorge it,” he says. “I have to farm out the bottling and disgorging to Carboniste (in Sonoma). It’s a pretty specialized skill that I don’t have.”

Johnson says he also has a Marin County sparkling rosé and a chardonnay-based blanc de blanc all ready to disgorge at some point soon.

“I just need to scrape up the money,” he says.

Marin County wines, oddly enough, are often all produced together in a group by one producer. Patrick McNeil in Nicasio at one time produced the most Marin County varietals, then it was McEvoy Ranch. And now it’s Kendric Vineyards. Altogether, Stewart produces a couple thousand cases of wine including a pinot noir (2022, $38), a rosé of pinot noir (2023, $20), a sold-out second label pinot called Loup Solitaire, as well as a syrah (2020, $28) and a viognier (2022, $28), with those three sparklings still in the bottle.

“I used to be out here 90% of the time, when I was only making pinot,” Johnson says. “I had time to be in the winery and out selling, and here. Now, with six or seven or eight different bottlings, something’s always getting ready to bottle, and the winery is taking up a lot more of my time. It’s one too many hats to be a salesman as well. It worked for a while, with one or two SKUs. But now I’m finding it problematic.”

Johnson calls San Anselmo home — his wife, Eileen Burke, has been a longtime San Anselmo Councilmember — and his production facility is on Treasure Island, where he hopes to one day have a tasting room and wine club.

“But I have been saying that for years,” he says and laughs.

In the meantime, he is arguably producing some of the best Marin County wines on offer. And furthermore — which is inarguable — he definitely has the most diverse and interesting Marin County wine portfolio around. And for that alone, one should seek him out.

For more information or to purchase wines, go to kendricvineyards.com.