“The Summer Dreams concept is more about a feeling,” Helen told me when explaining the project. “Hence, the names try to evoke these feelings (Stargazing, Super Chill, Twilight, and Golden Hour). It’s a love letter.”

Summer Dreams is a collection of Chardonnays, Sauvignon Blancs, and Pinot Noirs from Sonoma. What started in 2005 as Jayson’s and Helen’s fun side-project to make summer souvenir wines soon developed into a serious Burgundian-like negociant model. It is now moving toward being a domaine. 

"We’ve just built a new facility in Healdsburg for the Summer Dream wines," said Jayson as we sat to taste the 2022s and 2023s.

Ashley Holland, based in Sonoma, is the dedicated white winemaker for this label. 

A few years ago, Helen and Jayson invested in a ranch on the Sonoma Coast where they are planting mainly Pinot Noir. “It’s cool climate and interesting ground—all rock and stone,” Jayson commented. “I just got the right feeling seeing it, like I do when I buy a Hundred Acre vineyard. On the Sonoma Coast, Pinot Noir gets to a different place that it just can’t get to elsewhere.”

Fortunate Son is named after Jayson’s son, Cameron, who is a recent college graduate and is increasingly taking on winemaking responsibilities here. Cameron is now the assistant winemaker for this project.

The 2018-2021 vintages of Fortunate Son were made at Hundred Acre’s “The Ring” winery, but wines produced since have their own winery. A few years ago, Jayson and Helen purchased the historic David Fulton Ranch, winery, and vineyard on Fulton Lane in St. Helena. The winery has been completely restored in the Hundred Acre model and is now dedicated to making the Fortunate Son wines, which are produced to the same standard as Hundred Acre. 

“Fortunate Son is made from small parcels of old vines,” said Jayson. “Some are 80 years or older. And The Warrior is a single vineyard Cabernet. These are all family-owned vineyards that had to sell fruit to big wineries for years. I would buy these vineyards if I could, but because they’re family-owned, they’re not often for sale. We bought Wallis Ranch for this project, so there will be single vineyard wines from David Fulton and Wallis Ranch in the future.”

Moving on to tasting the Hundred Acre 2021s, Jayson Woodbridge said, “Mother Nature was so generous in quality in 2021. This is the greatest line-up I’ve ever made. But she was enormously stingy on quantity. For 2021 Ark, we have half the wine we normally have. There's so little of any of the wines. But this is the best line-up we've ever had. 2021, 2022, and 2023 are a remarkable string for me.”

It is incredibly frustrating as a critic to taste such a line-up and not only not be able to find a single flaw, but also to be nothing less than astonished by the levels of complexity and singularity of every single wine.

“If you look at the 2020 wildfires, we were the first to declassify,” commented Jayson. “All the (2020) fruit was picked, and all the leaves were sent to be destroyed. We didn’t want any of the smoke taint to go into the soil; we had to do it to protect the soil. In 2021, we had very little rainfall, and I think the vines were affected by the very, very dry 2020 vintage followed by the 2021 dryness. The vines were in protection mode. They produced very little fruit. But it wasn't because of the low tonnage that the wines are so great. Our yields are always low anyway. The benign nature and the loveliness of the vintage were what made the wines so good. It was the weather and lack of extreme heat that year. Nature’s algorithm. It was almost like Mother Nature wanted to give us a lot of kindness after 2020. There was such a gentleness to the vintage. Some people picked too early because they were afraid of another fire, but we just rode through into October. We were watching the weather every hour, every day; we were stressed. But we waited.”

One of Hundred Acre’s most enigmatic labels is Wraith. Wraith has been a project in the making since Ark Vineyard came on board. Jayson explained his frustration that existed for many years when he would try, vintage after vintage, to compose an uber-blend, sum-greater-than-the-parts expression of Morgan’s Way and Ark vineyards. But all his attempts would equate to something lacking and, ultimately, a blend that was less than the single-vineyard expressions on their own. Then he purchased Few and Far Between Vineyard. “It was like I was trying to crack one of those vast combination safes,” Jayson explained, twisting his hands as though unlocking a safe. “And then, swoosh! The final combination was added, and the safe was open.” That final element was, of course, the contribution from the Few and Far Between vineyard, which, poignantly, is named for another of his children. So, Wraith is a barrel selection blend composed of all three vineyards. However, the percentage of each vineyard is dictated, as with everything at Hundred Acre, purely by taste and varies enormously with each vintage.

“A wraith is a temporal being,” Jayson said as we tasted the 2021 Wraith. “It’s always changing form, colliding with you, then drawing you in. Being able to taste all three single vineyards and then the Wraith so that you can see the threads is such an incredible experience, even for me. Sure, I want to drink Hundred Acre every day, but I can't because I have to have discipline. I don't want to get a house palate.”

As I promised in the beginning, it wouldn’t be a new Hundred Acre release without a new creation: 2021 Wraith Holy Quest. 

“Holy Quest is essentially a selection of Wraith barrels,” said Jayson Woodbridge. “I wanted a Wraith that went even deeper and darker—that showed off the super-structure of Wraith. This is the weapons of Wraith, that darker side, the bones. It's the warrior element of Wraith. This won't be made every year. In 2021, I saw this thread with Wraith and wanted to extract it. Wraith has such a breadth of elegance and power. Holy Quest is the F-35 launched off a carrier to do a special mission.”

Mission accomplished.