Fredericks Vineyard sits high on the Sonoma side of the Mayacamas, just a short distance from the Napa County line, in what is now the Moon Mountain District of Sonoma Valley. Ranging from roughly 800 to 1,200 feet in elevation, the vineyard rises across steep, sun-washed hillsides rooted in red volcanic soils and uplifted seabed. It is a site defined by elevation, exposure, and effort—where old vines cling to the contours of the mountain and every slope tells a slightly different story.
The Zinfandel vines Turley farms here were planted in 1937, making Fredericks one of the great old-vine hillside sites in the portfolio. Head-trained, dry-farmed, and certified organic, these vines are tended by hand in the old California tradition. Farming here is anything but uniform: one terrace may ripen with warmth and density, while another holds onto lift, acidity, and mountain freshness. That natural variation is part of what gives Fredericks its depth, structure, and unmistakable sense of place.
The vineyard’s story reaches back even further. An 1885 article in The San Francisco Merchant places C. Weise on this Glen Ellen hillside, farming roughly 20 acres of Gutedel, Berger, and Zinfandel above James Shaw’s property. At the time, this corner of Sonoma was alive with viticultural ambition, as neighboring growers experimented with European varieties, hillside exposures, grafting, cellars, cisterns, and the future of California wine. Fredericks stands within that same historic landscape—a place where the potential of these mountain vineyards was recognized long before Moon Mountain appeared on a label.
Like many early California vineyard sites, the original plantings faced the challenges of phylloxera, but the promise of the hillside endured. The 1937 Zinfandel vines that remain today are part of that larger continuity: a reimagining of a 19th-century vineyard landscape, rooted in the same mountain soils and farmed with the same respect for place. More than simply an old vineyard, Fredericks is a living connection to Sonoma’s early winegrowing history and to the enduring relevance of Zinfandel on California’s most distinctive hillsides.
