Mill Valley native opens tasting room in Healdsburg

Ross Cobb’s youth could pass for an Indiana Jones subplot.

By age 10, the Mill Valley native had lived in Saudi Arabia, skied the Swiss Alps and traveled through Kenya, Sri Lanka, Singapore and Spain. At the time, his father was an engineer who had been temporarily transferred overseas, bringing the family along for a two-year adventure.

In Saudi Arabia, his mother taught fourth grade, navigating laws that barred her from driving or riding a bicycle, while Cobb and his brother sailed and snorkeled to escape the sweltering heat.

“I just assumed my entire life was going to be that exciting,” said Cobb, founder of Cobb Wines in Occidental. “I was pretty bored after we moved back to Mill Valley.”

But Cobb’s adventures were far from over.

This year, the acclaimed winemaker celebrated his 31st harvest and his 25th year making wine. With a resume that includes Flowers Vineyards & Winery, Williams Selyem, Hirsh Vineyards, Reeve Wines, Blood Root and more, he’s clearly in high demand.

His latest venture is Cobb Wines’ first tasting room, a shared space he opened with Furthermore Wines this September, one block from Healdsburg Plaza.

It’s a significant leap for the 5,500-case brand, which previously hosted under-the-radar tastings at Cobb’s Coastlands Vineyard in the far reaches of Occidental.

Without a tasting room permit, Cobb could not advertise, sell wine on-site or charge tasting fees. Still, visitors made the trek to Occidental or the modest office space he rented in Sebastopol – eager to sample his wines.

“In the past, people had to find us through our website and purchase our wines online. So it’s phenomenal to have an official tasting room,” Cobb said. “It will help buffer a wholesale market that’s been pretty flat and complement our international sales. As much as we love selling wine in New York, they’re not buying much wine.”

Vineyard roulette

Specializing in Pinot Noir, Chardonnay and Riesling, Cobb is fortunate to have access to some of the finest fruit on the Sonoma Coast, thanks to his parents’ foresight over three decades ago.

In 1988, David and Diane Cobb purchased a 14-acre property 3 miles from the coast in Occidental. Planting 5 acres of Pinot Noir, they named the site Coastlands Vineyard, a location that would become prized for its small yields of intense, energetic fruit.

 

 

“Their goal was to buy a piece of property and build a house for retirement,” said Cobb, who acquired the parcel from his father in 2019. “They just wanted to grow some grapes to support themselves. They weren’t sophisticated wine drinkers.”

Perched on a ridge at 1,150 feet , where brilliant sunshine and cool temperatures extend hang time, the dry-farmed vineyard is synonymous with deeply complex fruit.

While ripening is not a problem here, the main foe is fog, which can severely compromise pollination and crop size.

“It’s like playing roulette,” said Cobb. “You can do everything right during the growing season — your vines are set up, your soil and nutrients are perfect — and then the fog rolls in for a week and we get only half a ton of fruit per acre. It’s very unreliable.”

For Cobb’s parents, whose retirement depended on fruit tonnage, this was a serious problem.

“After a few years, I did the math and realized my parents weren’t going to be able to keep the property with such low yields,” Cobb said. “I haven’t talked about this much, but that’s the reason I started making wine. I wanted to help offset those small vintages.”

The story of Cobb Wines

With a degree in agroecology and soil science from UC Santa Cruz, Cobb never intended to become a winemaker.

After working as a lab technician at Ferrari-Carano and helping establish the winery’s soil lab, he spent two years at Williams Selyem as enologist and viticulturist. That’s where he met winemaker David Hirsch.

“David really gave me the push to start my own wine label,” said Cobb. “I enjoyed soil science, but I loved the physical and intellectual side of winemaking. So he suggested I keep some of the fruit from Coastlands and make wine instead of selling it.”

In 2001, Cobb launched Cobb Wines with 130 cases of Pinot Noir from Coastlands Vineyard. His parents bought the bottles. Cobb purchased the corks. Together, they pruned the vines, drove the tractor and  harvested the fruit.

Decanter magazine awarded the first vintage five stars, the publication’s highest rating.

Today, Cobb Wines sources grapes from eight cool-climate vineyards along the Sonoma Coast, three in Anderson Valley and one in Cole Ranch. Burgundian in style, the wines have appeared on wine lists at numerous Michelin-starred restaurants, including SingleThread in Healdsburg, Atomix in New York and The French Laundry in Napa.

“Starting a wine label was never a vanity project or lifestyle choice. I was merely driven to save the family vineyard,” Cobb said. “But I quickly became inspired to make it a career. Having our first tasting room is one of the best things that’s ever happened.”

Cobb Wines: 328 Healdsburg Ave., Suite A, Healdsburg; 707-595-2996; cobbwines.comOpen by appointment, 10 a.m. – 3 p.m. Wednesday-Sunday. Monday tastings are planned in the new year.