History

J Doran Vineyards began on a steep hillside in the historic California wine country. Planted literally by hand in 2004, the hillside was so steep and access restricted so it did not allow for the use of commercial equipment. J Doran Vineyards was as "Hand Crafted" and "Old School" as you can get.The original J Doran Vineyard was planted 90% Zinfandel located within sight of the critically acclaimed Cline Cellars Ancient Zinfandel vineyards. There was also a 10% Pinot Noir.

The story behind the vineyard began years earlier when the combination of what to do with property ran head long into my interest in wine and growing grapes. Whenever visiting a winery, while everyone else was inside enjoying the ambiance and wine, I was outside in the vineyard, checking out trellising and drip irrigation systems.

Finally, the tipping point came when on a warm summer evening, while hosting a wine tasting party, a friend & I, wine glasses in hand wandered (struggled) to the top of the hillside. Sitting there, I made mention of my thought to perhaps plant a vineyard here. My friend said "You´ve always been the kind of person that has to go and do something and figure it out on your own. Why don't you go ahead and take this lemon and make lemonade. You should plant the vineyard"

That comment sealed the deal. I spent the next year studying, researching and planning. What I learned was that this was a fabulous site for a vineyard. Unlike your garden, making great wine grapes means "Tough Love" for the vines. These vines will thrive in the heat of the region, and a hillside with tough soil conditions makes the vines work hard for moisture, which concentrates flavors into the grapes and enfuses a crisp flavor richness from the soil. In addition, the hillside benefits from facing the warmth of the sun in the morning, but catches shade for cooling in the late afternoons, and picks up breezes from the Delta river nearby. Another benefit of a hillside vineyard is that cool air being heavier, "slides" off the hillside protecting against frost and keeping the vines warm.

All this is quite wonderful for the vines, for the wines but it is havoc on the guy planting & working the vineyard! When planting and installing the trellis, and attempt was made to use a two man "Auger", which is in essence a giant corkscrew with a gas motor on top. To say this effort was completely futile is understating it. This meant using a pick ax by hand to do the entire project. Every hole, every stake was hand dug. As my friend & co-conspiriator / co-madman Ben remarked..."Once you do something two or three hundred times, you start getting pretty good at it" This also applies to working the vineyard. Being part billy goat was a good qualification for working this vineyard. But the rewards are worth it.

After planting the work went into preparing and developing the wine making process. This is where my original passion for making wine grew. It started with making small lot Cabernet blends in 2004, and now has expanded into sourcing and making wines with some of the best grapes the Livermore Valley has to offer.