Producer profile: Three Sticks

With the original purchase of Durell Vineyard in 1997, and later Gap’s Crown in 2012, Price Family Vineyards & Estates has made short work of obtaining hallowed ground in Sonoma County.

In 2002 the Three Sticks label was started, named after ‘Billy Three Sticks’, a childhood nickname inspired by the numeric suffix of proprietor Bill Price III. After a few experimental vintages making wine for family and friends, the 2006 acquisition of a dedicated winery in downtown Sonoma would mark the beginning of Three Sticks as it known today.

Director of winemaking and helmsman of the Three Sticks project is Sonoma veteran Bob Cabral. With 16 years’ experience at Williams Selyem winery, Bob joined Three Sticks in 2015, as did winemaker and fellow Williams Selyem alumni Ryan Pritchard. Together, they are committed to crafting wines to not only their and Price’s exacting specifications, but also building the parallel brands of the estate vineyards they work with.

The Pinot Noirs are slick and glossy, with a concentrated, plush density. An average of 25% whole clusters are used, and the wines see between 40% and 55% of new French oak. The Chardonnays are round and powerful, with full malolactic ferments and about 30% new French oak.

Three Sticks is the first winery to be involved with the Master Cooper Program offered by Tonnellerie Ô in Benicia, California. A true ‘forest to barrel’ experience, the winemakers visit France annually and are led by a master cooper though multiple forests to source specific trees for the Three Sticks regimen. These barrels make up about 25% of those used.

A cornerstone of the Three Sticks line-up is the Sonoma Coast Pinot Noir blend, Price Family Estates. It serves as a kind of retort to the often-inflated identity of single vineyards – one where the Three Sticks team sees a blended whole providing more freedom for crafting and controlling the finished product than using only singular sites.

‘It’s more of our vision in the glass, instead of letting the vineyard drive the direction,’ says Cabral. ‘Single vineyard wines I think got out-of-hand, and I was part of the crowd that did that in my years at Williams Selyem. I think a single vineyard needs to really have unique characteristics and an expression of that site.’

Single vineyard wines remain important to Three Sticks; fortunately, they find themselves working with multiple estate vineyards they deem worthy of standing on their own. ‘We want to build the Durell brand and continue to make that shine. We want people to be looking for those specific labels no matter who’s producing them.’

The winery’s tasting room is housed in a restored, historic home dating to 1842, known locally as ‘The Adobe’. It is a charming and unique environment in which to taste the wines, and a highlight of the visit. It is here where the Rhône varietal-based Casteñada label is served, functioning as seasonally rotating ‘welcome wines’ for wine club members and visitors of the property.

Tasting Three Sticks wines: