Peay Vineyards

Andy and Nick Peay got to know each other as brothers in the spring of 1995, when Nick would bring wine to dinner at Andy's Berkeley apartment. A bottle of cool-climate Syrah paired with lamb persuaded Andy to pursue a life in wine rather than cooking. That spring the brothers began driving the back roads of the California coast, from Santa Barbara's Santa Ynez Valley up through the Mendocino Ridges and the Sonoma Coast to eastern Washington, looking for a site cold and foggy enough to grow Chardonnay, Pinot Noir and Syrah with a long, slow ripening season. Andy eventually found a listing near Sea Ranch, on a ridge above the Wheatfield Fork of the Gualala River, and the brothers purchased the land in November 1996. It had been farmed for 200 years as an apple and pear orchard and sheep ranch before that. They planted the first 30 acres in 1998, and 2001 was the estate's first vintage; a 2009 San Francisco Chronicle profile noted that much of that first crop was initially sold to other Sonoma producers (Williams Selyem and Failla have both made wine from Peay fruit) before the brothers gradually reclaimed the fruit for their own label.

• Andy and Nick Peay began searching for land together in spring 1995; purchased the Sonoma Coast property in November 1996
• The land had been farmed as an apple and pear orchard and sheep ranch for roughly 200 years before Peay
• First 30 acres planted in 1998; 2001 was the first vintage
• Some of the 2001 crop was initially sold to other producers, including Williams Selyem and Failla, per the San Francisco Chronicle

Peay operates as a first-generation family winery: husband and wife Nick Peay and Vanessa Wong grow and make the wine, while Nick's brother Andy handles sales and the business. Nick graduated from Bowdoin College in 1988 and worked crush at Schramsberg before taking his first full-time job with Bill Smith at La Jota Vineyards on Howell Mountain in Napa, then studied in the graduate enology program at UC Davis. He worked at Schramsberg, La Jota and Newton in Napa, was assistant winemaker at Storrs in the Santa Cruz Mountains from 1994 through early 1997, and worked harvests for Flowers in 1998 and 1999 and for Coldstream Hills in Australia in spring 1999. Vanessa Wong, a San Francisco native who began working in wine retail and catering at 14, studied viticulture and enology at UC Davis, spent a year in France researching at l'Institut d'Oenologie in Bordeaux, and worked as winemaker and assistant winemaker at Peter Michael Winery from 1996 to 2000, as well as at Hirsch Winery, Chateau Lafite-Rothschild in Pauillac and Domaine Jean Gros in Vosne-Romanee. She joined Peay in the spring of 2001, ahead of the estate's first vintage, and married Nick the following year. Andy earned a BA from Dartmouth College in 1992, worked a few years on Wall Street as a financial analyst, studied economic development at UC Berkeley, worked the 1995 harvest at Cain Vineyards in Napa, and earned an MBA from UC Berkeley's Haas School of Business while the young vines matured. He moved back to San Francisco for a period to help fund the vineyard when cash ran low, then returned to Peay full time in 2004 to run the business and sell the wine.

• Nick Peay: Bowdoin College 1988; UC Davis graduate enology program; assistant winemaker at Storrs (Santa Cruz Mountains) 1994-early 1997; now vineyard manager
• Vanessa Wong: UC Davis viticulture and enology; Peter Michael Winery 1996-2000, plus Hirsch Winery, Chateau Lafite-Rothschild and Domaine Jean Gros; joined Peay spring 2001, married Nick the following year
• Andy Peay: Dartmouth College 1992; MBA from UC Berkeley's Haas School of Business; returned to Peay full time in 2004 to run sales and business
• Per a 2009 San Francisco Chronicle profile, the Peays started the winery with no established family estate and no angel investors, relying instead on time spent finding the right site

The 53-acre estate sits on a hilltop above a river gorge, four miles from the Pacific Ocean in the far northwestern corner of the West Sonoma Coast, near Sea Ranch and Annapolis; the estate's Pinot Noir page places the vineyard at elevations of roughly 600 to 775 feet. Pinot Noir is the largest planting at 34 acres, farmed across 13 clonal selections and picked in 25 to 30 separate blocks that are vinified individually before blending; despite common shorthand, Peay's own wine pages are explicit that there is no single "Scallop Shelf block" or "Pomarium block" in the vineyard; those are cuvee names for blends of many blocks and clones. Syrah occupies 8 steep, terraced acres across six clones, and Chardonnay covers 7 of the estate's coolest acres, planted to old Wente and Dijon selections. Smaller estate plantings include 1.8 acres of Viognier and a combined roughly half an acre of Roussanne and Marsanne, both planted in 1998. Peay also sources Pinot Noir from the 44-acre Savoy Vineyard in Mendocino County's Anderson Valley, planted by Richard Savoy in 1991 and now owned by FEL, and a portion of its Sonoma Coast Chardonnay blend (about a quarter) comes from the Searby Vineyard near Occidental in the southern West Sonoma Coast.

• 34 acres Pinot Noir (13 clones, 25-30 picking blocks); 8 acres Syrah (six clones); 7 acres Chardonnay; 1.8 acres Viognier; about half an acre combined Roussanne/Marsanne
• Named Pinot Noir cuvees (blends, not single blocks): Pomarium, Scallop Shelf, Ama, Sonoma Coast, Savoy and the rare barrel-selection Elanus
• Named Syrah cuvees: Les Titans and La Bruma, both from the estate's own fruit
• Non-estate fruit: Pinot Noir from Savoy Vineyard (Anderson Valley, planted 1991) and a minority share of Chardonnay from Searby Vineyard near Occidental

Peay is certified organic and does not till its soils, aiming to protect root and microbial health; the estate also holds fish-friendly farming and integrated pest management certifications and runs on biodiesel in the tractors and solar power at both the vineyard and winery. Vanessa Wong blends each vintage's Pinot Noir and Chardonnay barrels blind, without knowing case counts, new-oak percentages or stem use, before deciding which barrels become the named estate cuvees; leftover barrels that do not make the cut become the Cep second-label wines, a practice the estate says can mean only 70 to 80 percent of what is grown is bottled under the Peay label in a given vintage. In exceptional years the team also selects fewer than three barrels of a rare tete de cuvee, Elanus, in both Chardonnay and Pinot Noir, yielding roughly 50 to 75 cases. The Les Titans Syrah is produced in quantities of about 200 to 300 cases per vintage and aged 16 months in barrel and nearly two years in bottle before release.

• Certified organic; no-till farming; fish-friendly farming and integrated pest management certifications; biodiesel tractors and solar power
• Pinot Noir and Chardonnay blends are assembled blind of production numbers before Vanessa Wong finalizes each cuvee
• Leftover barrels not selected for Peay bottlings become the Cep second label; roughly 70-80% of the fruit grown may end up under the Peay label in a given vintage
• Elanus (Chardonnay and Pinot Noir) is a rare barrel selection of under three barrels, about 50-75 cases, made only in select vintages

The San Francisco Chronicle named Peay Vineyards its Winery of the Year in a profile by wine editor Jon Bonné, published December 27, 2009, calling the operation "the very model of the modern wine estate" for building a family winery entirely from its own vineyard rather than purchased fruit. The Chronicle's piece noted that by 2006 the winery had topped 3,000 cases produced entirely from its own land, and described the Annapolis site, at roughly 600 to 800 feet, as a chilly slice of the Sonoma Coast even by that region's own cold standards. Peay's own site also republishes the recognition on its press page. In a July 26, 2022 article on the estate's own site, Andy Peay confirmed that Peay farms within the West Sonoma Coast AVA.

• San Francisco Chronicle Winery of the Year, announced in a December 27, 2009 profile by wine editor Jon Bonne
• By 2006, annual production had topped 3,000 cases, entirely from estate fruit, per the Chronicle
• Estate elevation described as roughly 600-800 feet by the Chronicle and 600-775 feet on Peay's own site
• Peay farms within the West Sonoma Coast AVA, per a July 2022 article on the estate's own site

Primary sources (the estate's own site, peayvineyards.com): home, about us, Nick Peay, Vanessa Wong, Andy Peay, estate vineyard, topography, soil, climate, farming practices, contact/visit, press archive, Winery of the Year press page, its West Sonoma Coast AVA article, and the Pinot Noir, Syrah, Chardonnay, Cep, Viognier and Roussanne/Marsanne wine pages. Secondary source: SFGate/San Francisco Chronicle's December 27, 2009 Winery of the Year profile by Jon Bonne. Last verified 2026-09-13. Where the estate's own site and a secondary source disagree, the estate's own site governs.