Company scales back plan for biggest vineyard on coast Proposal calls for 5,000 acres, not 10,000, in timberland near Annapolis-Point Arena area

As reported by the Town Hall Coalition:

By Tom Chorneau / The Press Democrat / January 3, 2003

Plans for the largest single vineyard planting ever undertaken on the North Coast have resurfaced, targeting 5,000 acres in the coastal foothills of Sonoma and Mendocino counties.

The proposal is the latest version of a vineyard cultivation plan conceived four years ago that called for grapes to be planted on 10,000 acres in the same remote area between Annapolis in Sonoma County and Point Arena in Mendocino County.

The new plan is being proposed by Premier Pacific Vineyards, a Napa-based winery and vineyard investment company that owns nearly 500 acres of vineyards in Napa and Mendocino counties and in Oregon’s Willamette Valley.

The company owns Bighorn Cellars, based in Napa, and bought Mendocino County’s Parducci Cellars in 1996. It also manages a $100 million investment from the California Public Employees Retirement System.

Read the entire article here.