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w2inemaking W I1N E U N IK II N G 0 4 MA F ED The winery is located next to the Katherine Lindsay Estate vineyard, which is one of several in Sonoma and Napa counties that are owned by Paul Hobbs. It's a busy schedule indeed, but Hobbs is not distracted as he stands on the crush pad describing some of the practices that he feels help his wines stand out from the pack. Hobbs advocates a gentle, minimalist approach to processing grapes. He says gentleness is required at the very moment when clusters are removed from the vine. Instead of the hooked blades that are preferred by most vineyard crews, Hobbs insists workers use scissors to ensure a clean pick and that no berries are damaged as the clusters are harvested. Hobbs' staff also supervises each pick to make sure quality standards are met and the priority isn't to quickly fill bins to boost the tonnage. "We have a policy that we cover every pick," he says. This approach was somewhat novel when Hobbs was starting out in the early 1990s, and viticulture and winemaking were almost totally separate in California. Hobbs came to California after growing up on his family's farm in upstate New York. He nurtured a nascent passion for wine while at the University of Notre Dame and ultimately followed it to the University of California, Davis. His research on barrel aging earned him a post at Robert Mondavi Winery, and that led to stints as winemaker at some of Napa's other top wineries. Consulting work took him to Argentina, where he saw opportunity to express the quality of the terroir by introducing modern viticulture and winemaking. Valley. Hobbs produces Pinot Noir, Chardonnay, Cabernet Sauvignon and a small amount of Syrah under the Paul Hobbs label. In summer 2013, Hobbs announced his purchase of the Tourmaline Vineyard in the Coombsville AVA of southern Napa County, Calif. The property includes 63 acres of Bordeaux varieties, and Hobbs renamed it the Nathan Coombs Estate to honor a pioneering Napa Valley settler. Not all of his vineyard projects have been as smooth. In June 2013, Sonoma County officials halted work on a vineyard development site after discovering plants had been removed from a riparian area. That particular project already had stoked the ire of nearby residents concerned about vineyard development near a school. A group has since filed a lawsuit over the project alleging the county should have required a more rigorous environmental review. A spokesman for the winery released a statement announcing the winery will "aggressively" fight the lawsuit and that Estate and purchased fruit Paul Hobbs wines are sourced from California vineyards in the Russian River Valley of Sonoma County and the Napa In addition to making his own wines, Paul Hobbs consults for wineries around the world. Win es & Vin es ja n ua ry 20 14 69