Producers who have turned the valley's pristine, cool-climate grapes into honest, modestly priced wines for the past two decades now have new neighbors from distant parts who intend to share in the valley's bounty. The mostly well- financed newcomers have brought with them sophisticated farming and winemaking techniques and have planted recently developed clones from France in newly developed vineyards alongside long-resident types of grapevines, changing and enhancing the varietal mix, and with it the character of the valley's premier wine, Pinot Noir.

While Gewurztraminer is still revered here as nowhere else in California, and Riesling retains its local champions, it is Pinot Noir that is the catalyst for change in Anderson Valley. A perfect climate for Pinot was what initially lured the French house of Champagne Louis Roederer to the valley in the early 1980s, when it established Roederer Estate as a sparkling-wine producer with vast estate acreage planted with the kinds of Pinot Noir and Chardonnay clones best suited to make bubbly. Preceding Roederer at the sparkling-wine game, but on a smaller scale, were Handley Cellars and Scharffenberger Cellars, the latter acquired in 1989 by the Champagne house of Pommery and now called Pacific Echo Cellars (as of July 1, Pacific Echo and Roederer Estate are owned by Louis Roederer's Mendocino Land Co.).

But Champagne-friendly clones don't make the better examples of Pinot Noir as a still wine -- they ripen earlier and exhibit higher acidity than later-ripening Pinot clones that deliver richer flavors and denser, velvety textures so prized by Pinot Noir fans. Much of the Pinot Noir initially planted in Anderson Valley in the 1970s and 1980s by growers and producers other than the sparkling-wine houses turned out enjoyable wines that accompanied food nicely, but didn't generate much consumer excitement or critical acclaim.

The Pinot Noir revolution happened fairly quietly over the past decade. Folks close to the action knew that a movement of some magnitude was afoot, but wine lovers were mostly unaware that Anderson Valley was being groomed for Pinot Noir greatness, both by many of the valley's longtime growers and vintners and by newcomers to this peaceful, bucolic region. At the Anderson Valley Pinot Noir Festival in Philo in May, the curtain was drawn back to reveal the valley's collective achievement in Pinot Noir viticulture and vinification. Undeniably, Anderson Valley has emerged as one of California's superb regions for Pinot Noir.

A new generation of Pinots

It's no longer accurate to characterize Anderson Valley Pinots as generally elegant, delicate wines focusing on bright red-cherry fruit and refreshing acidity. While it is hardly demeaning to say that was then, this is now -- charming Pinots in that style are still to be had, prized by many for their vibrant intensity -- but they are now joined by others made from Anderson Valley fruit that offer more depth of flavor, richer, more diversely flavored fruit than ever before (thanks to new clones) and complexities that are dazzling, underscored by that Anderson Valley constant -- bright acidity.

Ten years ago there were 316 acres of Pinot Noir in the Anderson Valley AVA (American Viticultural Area), according to Dave Bengston, the Mendocino County agricultural commissioner. Today there are 1,150 acres of Pinot, he says. In 1995, plantings of the variety grew by about 20 acres, another 70 the next year, 115 in 1997, 126 in 1998. Even larger increases took place at the height of the planting boom -- 1999 through 2001 -- when a three-year total of almost 500 new Pinot Noir acres came into production. Since then, the pace has slowed, almost to a halt -- 9 new acres came on line in 2002 and only 1 last year.

Bob Nye, president of the Anderson Valley Winegrowers Association (AVWA) and the operations manager of Goldeneye Winery, says that "There are currently between 2,300 and 2,400 total acres of vineyard planted in Anderson Valley; we're surveying our members to get an exact figure." Assuming the larger figure, Pinot Noir now accounts for almost half of the AVA's total vineyard acreage. More than 60 percent of all of Mendocino County's Pinot Noir vines grow in Anderson Valley.

Between them, three wineries -- Roederer Estate (242 acres), Navarro Vineyards (31 acres) and Goldeneye (176 acres) -- have almost 450 acres of Pinot Noir vines out of an appellation total of 1,150 acres, or 40 percent of the Pinot plantings.

The annual Anderson Valley Pinot Noir Festival has been held since 1998, produced by the AVWA initially at the county fairgrounds in Boonville and since 2001, under a big, white tent on the grounds of Pacific Echo in Philo. It's the only wine-tasting event for the public in California devoted exclusively to a single varietal wine from a single appellation. Any winery, whether located in the AVA or beyond, may pour its Pinot Noir(s) at the festival as long as Anderson Valley was the source of the grapes.

The festival has grown in attendance each year, but according to Nye, "It's only within the last three years that overall quality of Anderson Valley Pinots has jumped tremendously. We had to arrange for a larger tent this year to accommodate the public, although we did limit the number of tickets to 500 to make it easier and more comfortable for the visitors to taste the wines and talk to the principals." Next year's festival will be held May 21.

Word of grapes is spreading

In the early years of the event, the participating wineries were almost exclusively local. This year, 24 wineries poured their Pinots at the festival, up from 22 the year before, including 11 from outside the AVA. The fact that such renowned Pinot Noir producers as Williams Selyem, Copain, Siduri, Littorai, Hartford Court and Ici/La-Bas are making Anderson Valley Pinots, with many precisely designating the vineyard on the label, speaks volumes about the quality of the valley's Pinot fruit.

Says barrel broker Mel Knox, a partner with winemaker Jim Clendenen and others in Ici/La-Bas, "We at Ici/La-Bas have extensive experience in Burgundy. Two of the owners actually live there and can speak Burgundian with the best of them. Jim and I have worked there and have learned many of the naughty words, mostly from Philippe Engel, and have drunk too much of the local product.

"In terms of flavor and style, Anderson Valley wines can offer a Burgundian profile without the annoying jet lag, language problems (Boontling is much easier than Burgundian) or expense. Once you get over those damned hills -- sometimes a variation on jet lag -- everything is way cool."

The "Boontling" Knox refers to is a sort of argot or private language valley locals developed in the late 19th and early 20th centuries using the syntax of English but substituting parts for wholes or referring to things by their uses or their most famous users. For example, a pay telephone rendered in Boontling is a "bucky walter" because a man named Walter Levi owned the first telephone in Anderson Valley and a call on early pay phones cost a nickel, which in those days was the buffalo nickel, nicknamed a "bucky."

Phone booths on the streets of Boont (Boonville) still bear signs identifying each of them as a bucky walter, such as the one outside the Horn of Zeese Cafe (the name is Boontling for cup of coffee), where a bright- lighter (city slicker) can score some bahl gorms (good food) unless he/she wants to drive the extra six miles to Poleeko (Philo).

The hills Knox complains about are between Cloverdale at Highway 101 and Boonville some 20 miles away, through which Highway 128 twists and turns on a roller coaster of a ride into Anderson Valley, where the road finally calms down and straightens out. Along Highway 128 from the outskirts of Boonville to the westernmost extent of the wine region, split-rail redwood fences, layered with lichen and moss, border pastures, vineyards and orchards as they have for generations.

Within the overall cool, coastal climate of Anderson Valley, two separate and distinct macroclimates exist, both of which are suitable for producing grapes with intense fruit flavors, naturally balanced with higher-than-usual acidity and lower pH.

About midway between Philo and Boonville, where steep hills crowd in from both sides until there is barely enough room for the two lanes of Highway 128 and its shoulders, a northeast-southwest geographical line bisects the valley, marking the point where summer fogs stop on most days, or at least thin out.

West of this line and closer to the Pacific Ocean, there is greater rainfall, more night and morning fog and warm summer days. This is down-valley to the locals, who call its westernmost point the "Deep End"; it's a classic Region I climatic zone (based on the scale established by UC Davis, which classified wine-growing regions based on cumulative daily temperatures from the coolest, Region I, to the hottest, Region V), ideal for cool-climate varieties like Pinot Noir, Riesling, Gewurztraminer, Pinot Gris and Chardonnay.

In the zone

In the upper valley -- a broad, mostly flat plain that reaches east past Boonville -- there is less rainfall and fog, which results in colder winters and hotter summers. This is a Region II zone, in which Pinot Noir can sometimes get too ripe, Chardonnay ripens just fine and Sauvignon Blanc does splendidly. The temperature during the day from the most southeastern point of the valley to the most northwestern point can vary as much as 15 degrees.

The vast majority of Anderson Valley's vineyards and wineries are located down valley, between Philo and the hamlet of Navarro. Northwest of Navarro, it is redwood forest almost all the way to the ocean, some 15 miles distant.

Deborah Cahn, who owns Navarro Vineyards with her husband Ted Bennett, recalls that, "When UC Davis did climate studies of the Anderson Valley in the 1960s, it recommended Philo as the perfect place to ripen Pinot Noir."

Cahn and Bennett left the Bay Area to establish their winery in 1973, at what was then a 900-acre hillside sheep ranch. They began planting vines the next year, but didn't initially plant Pinot.

"We chose Anderson Valley as a perfect home for our favorite white wine, Alsace-style Gewurztraminer," Cahn says. Planting Pinot Noir was an afterthought.

"California Pinot Noir didn't have a great reputation back then, but since our new home was chilly, we didn't have a lot of alternatives if we wanted a red that would ripen," Cahn says. "We planted a measly 4 acres. It took us about 10 years to make a Pinot Noir that really excited us, or anyone else for that matter. But ever since, we have enthusiastically increased Pinot production."

There are now 31 acres of Navarro estate-grown Pinot Noir and 15 more acres under long-term contract at neighboring vineyards.

"We started off with one clone, on one rootstock, at one location. Now we have 11 clones, on eight rootstocks, at 14 sites," Cahn says. Each vineyard site is vinified as a separate lot by winemaker Jim Klein. Cahn adds that the different components of a site, such as clones and rootstocks, are frequently harvested, fermented and aged separately in order to see how each component affects the whole.

Navarro's wines -- including a Mendocino blend Pinot Noir ($15) and two Anderson Valley Pinots, Methode a l'Ancienne ($22, referring to the old- fashioned practice of punching down the cap of grape skins in Pinot Noir, as opposed to pumping the juice over the cap) and the more dramatic Deep End Blend ($39), which sells out in a flash every year -- are sold primarily to restaurants, in the tasting room, on the Internet and to a mailing list of fiercely loyal customers.

Pinot's close neighbors

Anderson Valley is the only AVA in California in which a fair amount of Gewurztraminer will be found growing cheek-by-jowl with Pinot Noir. In addition to Navarro, several other Anderson Valley wineries produce both Pinot Noir and Gewerztraminer, including long-timers Handley, Husch Vineyards and Lazy Creek Vineyards (under owners Josh and Mary Beth Chandler, who acquired the property in 1999).

Lazy Creek's 9.5 acres of 35-year-old Pinot vines are the oldest in the valley and include the Romanee-Conti clone imported from Burgundy many years ago by legendary vintner Martin Ray; 5 acres of younger vines are clonal selections of the older vines as well as some of the latest Dijon clones.

Among the newcomers, only Londer Vineyards has so far embraced both Pinot Noir and Gewurztraminer, although Goldeneye has a Gewurz in the works that may one day join its superb Pinot.

Goldeneye is Duckhorn Vineyards' outpost in Anderson Valley, which happens to lie along the migratory pathway of the Common Goldeneye duck. Better known for its Napa Valley Bordeaux-style varietals, Duckhorn has taken to the Anderson Valley for Pinot Noir with enormous enthusiasm and financial commitment.

"Our vision for Goldeneye was simple," says Dan Duckhorn -- "To craft a distinctively California Pinot Noir of equal stature to our Duckhorn Vineyards Merlot."

The first commercial release of Goldeneye Pinot Noir, vintage 1998, was greeted with critical acclaim. Succeeding vintages have been no less impressive. Of the newcomers to the valley over the last decade, Goldeneye is the most sophisticated, visible and ambitious.

After six years of searching for just the right location and experimenting with Pinot Noir production, by 1996 the Duckhorns had narrowed their focus to Anderson Valley. When the 80-acre Obester Ranch just outside Philo quietly went on the market in that year, the Duckhorns jumped at the chance to acquire the property that included a small winery and vineyard.

"From a scarce 6 acres of vineyard, we've carefully and methodically grown Goldeneye to include five Anderson Valley estate vineyards planted to 176 vine acres, with 19 different clones of Pinot Noir on 14 diverse rootstocks in separate blocks," Dan Duckhorn says. "Each block is harvested, vinified and barrel aged separately to allow flexibility in creating the final blend." He says he sees potential long-term production for Goldeneye at around 20,000 cases per year.

Deep End acquisition

The latest acquisition for Goldeneye is the Floodgate Vineyard, located on a hillside in the deepest part of the Deep End, about as far to the northwest as grapes can ripen in the AVA -- as the French say, a la limite. Duckhorn has to come up with a new name, however, since only the vineyard was acquired last year and not its "Floodgate" identity. This vineyard is planted to Pinot Noir, Gewurztraminer and Pinot Gris.

Goldeneye's new winemaker, Zach Rasmuson, who came on board in August 2003 after three years as winemaker at nearby Husch and previous stints at Stag's Leap Wine Cellars and Robert Sinskey Vineyards in Napa Valley, has a new, state-of-the-art, gravity-flow winery in which to practice his craft.

"Pinot Noir is an amazing, malleable grape," Rasmuson says. "You need to be gentle shaping the wine. It's a process of minimal intervention, of finesse, not muscle. I'm not trying to replicate the wines of Burgundy at Goldeneye, nor am I trying to make a lighter-style California Pinot Noir. Pinot Noir reflects its terroir with remarkable clarity. Using fruit from our estate vineyards, I have an extensive palette of flavors from which to create our Pinot. The result is an extracted, elegant wine."

The Pinot Noir that doesn't make the stringent cut for Goldeneye ($48) is bottled under the more modestly priced Migration label ($26). "Future Goldeneye bottlings will include smaller-production, estate-grown and vineyard- designated wines," Duckhorn says, alluding to estate vineyards with names like "Confluence" and "Monument Tree."

With scarcely more than 3,000 inhabitants -- Boonville could be considered the valley's "metropolis" with a population of 713; Philo, the next largest community, has but 473 residents -- Anderson Valley is one of California's least populated wine regions, yet this AVA looms large for Pinot Noir aficionados.

Superbly crafted, exquisite varietal Pinot Noirs from the valley's vineyards can now be expected on a regular basis, albeit in comparatively small quantities in some cases.

But that's simply the way it is with fine Pinot Noir, wherever it is made. And Anderson Valley's Pinot Noirs are well worth the extra effort to acquire.