The Land: A History

Our family has been growing Cabernet Sauvignon in the Alexander Valley since 1962, the Green family actually grew up in Southern California, with plenty of horses and surfing. Father Russell Green was in the oil business, and he and BJ bought a ranch with frontage on the Russian River in Alexander Valley as a summer place in 1959. He showed a determination to plant high quality wine grapes, and thus make the ranch pay for itself. He had friends who were able to make recommendations for planting, and by 1965, his Chardonnay and Cabernet Sauvignon were being shipped to wineries in the Napa Valley. It was then that Russ made another important decision, and quit the increasingly conglomerate world of the oil industry, and purchased the derelict Simi Winery in Healdsburg, which he owned for 4 ½ years.

The whole family worked hard to clean, resurrect, and promote this unique winery. Russ made many more groundbreaking decisions in the several years following the purchase. He organized an Appellation of Origin for the Alexander Valley, which was finally approved in 1984.  He hired the first woman winemaker for Simi, MaryAnn Graf, and brought on the great Andre Tchellistcheff as a consultant, in order to insure the highest possible quality of wine.

Though Russ sold the winery in 1974, his decisions permanently changed the family’s perspectives, as well as the lives and possibilities of many people in the wine industry. The Green’s Hoot Owl Creek Ranch is still owned by the family, and has continued to lead the industry in quality wine grapes and in research projects, such as using a research vineyard with experimental rootstock, pruning methods, and irrigation methods.

The whole of the Hoot Owl Creek Ranch is located in the southern end of the Alexander Valley, just north of the Napa Valley.  Russ and BJ sell grapes to Clos du Bois, Silver Oak, Coppola, Rodney Strong, Simi and Alexander Valley Vineyards. Our own Hoot Owl Creek Vineyard wine grapes are farmed on nine acres of the southwestern side of the mountain. Its characteristics as a vineyard site offer plenty of diurnal heat, with cooling fog streaming in from the Chalk Hill Valley, up the Russian River, and in from the Healdsburg gap. This cools the area in about a ten day cycle in the summer, as the fog builds and ebbs. The soils are gravelly and well drained, and as the vineyards settle in, they have shown their merit.