Cavedale Vineyard
1840 Feet - MOON MOUNTAIN, SONOMA
Cavedale sits above the fog. That's not a marketing line — it's the most important thing to understand about this vineyard and the wines it produces. While the valley floor below disappears into the marine layer each summer morning, Cavedale sits in full sun from first light, warming slowly through the day before the same coastal air that fueled the fog sweeps up the hillside each evening. That cycle — warmth, acidity, warmth, acidity — is what makes this one of the most compelling sites in Sonoma for Bordeaux varieties.
The vineyard occupies the upper slopes of Moon Mountain District, one of the few American Viticultural Areas defined specifically by its elevation and geology. The Mayacamas mountain range, which forms the border between Sonoma and Napa counties, is volcanic in origin, and that heritage is visible in the soil at Cavedale: iron-rich, rocky, low in organic matter, and highly draining. Vines planted here don't get to be lazy. They grow deep, produce modestly, and develop the thick skins and phenolic concentration that only stressed, mountain-farmed fruit can provide.
What elevation does for our wines
Mountain viticulture rewards patience. At 1,840 feet, the growing season at Cavedale runs longer than on the valley floor — slower to bud, slower to ripen, slower to finish. That unhurried pace means our Cabernet Franc and Cabernet Sauvignon build complexity incrementally rather than rushing to sweetness. The result is wines with a structural backbone — fine tannin, real acidity, a savory quality in the mid-palate — that can develop in the bottle over years.
Cabernet Franc, in particular, thrives here. The variety tends toward the herbaceous and one-dimensional on flatter ground; on mountain sites with excellent drainage and afternoon sun, it finds a completely different register. Deeper color, finer tannin, aromatic complexity that pulls in both the floral and the earthy. The winemakers and growers who know Moon Mountain best describe Cabernet Franc there as the Pinot Noir of Bordeaux reds — and Cavedale is exactly the kind of site they're talking about.
Farming practices
Cavedale is managed with minimal intervention from the ground up. The farming follows organic and sustainable practices, relying on cover crops to manage erosion on the steep hillside terrain and careful canopy management to ensure that each cluster gets the sun exposure it needs without overripening. We pick on acidity, not just sugar, which means harvest decisions are made by taste — by the balance of fruit and freshness in the grape — rather than by Brix alone.
In the cellar, we leave the vineyard's work intact. Low-intervention winemaking means native yeast fermentations, restrained use of new oak, and minimal additions. Cavedale has enough to say on its own.
The wines. Allium produces two single-vineyard wines from Cavedale each vintage: a Cabernet Sauvignon and a Cabernet Franc, both limited-production. Inner Circle members receive guaranteed allocations of these wines before they are available to the general public.
Our Story