Couloir

One line down
the mountain.

Single-appellation Pinot Noir from California’s coldest edges. Small lots. No hedging. Made by Robert Smith.

Buy the 2024 → See the wines

The Name

Steep,
narrow,
committed.

couloir  /kuˈlwaːr/  n. — a steep, narrow gully carved into a mountain face. Skiers and climbers use them because there is no other way through. You commit at the top, or you don’t go.

That is a strange thing to name a wine after until you have farmed Pinot Noir on a cold site. Then it is the only honest name there is.

Pinot punishes hesitation. Pick two days late and you have made jam. Pick two days early and you have made vinegar with ambition. Every vintage has one narrow line through it, and the window is measured in hours, not weeks. There is no wide, forgiving route down this mountain. There is a chute.

So we work the way the name demands. Cold sites on the Pacific side of the range, where the fog does the farming and the fruit hangs long. Small lots, kept separate, bottled separately. Whole clusters when the stems have earned it and not one percent when they haven’t. Neutral barrels, because we are not in the business of hiding the vineyard behind new oak.

Every bottle we make is one appellation, one season, one decision. If we get it right, the site gets the credit. If we get it wrong, that’s on us. We’d rather be wrong on our own terms than safe on somebody else’s.

We don’t blend our way out of a hard vintage.

The Wines

Three sites.
Three arguments.

Same grape, same hands, same year. The only variable is the ground. Taste them side by side and the coast will make its own case.

Available now Couloir 2024 Sonoma Coast Pinot Noir label

2024 · Sonoma Coast

Sonoma Coast
Pinot Noir

The Pacific sits on this fruit all summer and refuses to move. Fog in at night, fog still there at ten in the morning, heat that never gets a real run at the vineyard. The berries take their time. Acid stays where it started. The wine arrives tense and stays that way.

Tasting Bing cherry and blood-orange peel over wet slate and crushed bay. Fine-grained, almost powdery tannin. A saline finish that keeps going after you’ve stopped paying attention.

AppellationSonoma Coast
Vintage2024
Alcohol14.5%
Production378 cases
Cooperage10 mo. 10% New French Oak Med toast
Price$88
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In barrel Label to come

2025 · Release TBD

Petaluma Gap
Pinot Noir

There is a break in the coastal range and the Pacific pours straight through it. Wind hits these vines every single afternoon, and the vines answer the only way they can — thicker skins, smaller berries, less of everything except concentration. It is a hard place to be a grape.

What to expect The darkest, most structured wine in the range. More color, more grip, more spine.

AppellationPetaluma Gap
StatusIn barrel
ReleaseTBD
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In barrel Label to come

2025 · Release TBD

Russian River
Valley Pinot Noir

Fog fills the river valley overnight and sits there until nearly noon, then burns off into genuine heat. That daily swing is the entire trick: real ripeness with the acid still standing. It is the most generous site we farm, and the easiest one to overplay.

What to expect Rounder than the coast. Darker fruit, more flesh on the bone, a warmer spine.

AppellationRussian River Valley
StatusIn barrel
ReleaseTBD
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The Line Ahead

Working the coast,
north to south.

The plan is not to get bigger. It is to get further along one cold, marginal line of California and bottle each stop on it separately.

Anderson ValleyMendocino County

Colder, higher, further north than anything else we touch. Whole-cluster country, and the most aromatic wine we expect to make.

Planned
Russian River ValleySonoma County

Fog overnight, heat by afternoon. Ripeness with the acid intact — the generous end of the range.

In barrel
Petaluma GapSonoma County

A gap in the coastal hills that funnels Pacific wind inland every afternoon. Thick skins, small berries, serious structure.

In barrel
Sonoma CoastSonoma County

Where we started, and the hardest one to fake. Marine fog, long hang, high acid, no shortcuts available.

Released — 2024
Santa Lucia HighlandsMonterey County

Benchland above the Salinas Valley, exposed to relentless afternoon wind. The southern end of the line.

Planned
NorthSouth
Portrait of winemaker Robert Smith

The Winemaker

Robert
Smith.

Robert Smith makes every wine under this label. Not “oversees.” Makes. He picks the dates, he calls the stems, he decides which barrels never make the bottle.

Growing up in Modesto, California, Robert consistently defied expectations. His first role as a research intern at Gallo sparked his passion for fermentation, leading him to experiment with craft IPAs and dream of becoming a brewmaster. Soon, the allure of winemaking captured his imagination, prompting him to fully commit. After earning a Baccalaureate in Enology, Robert launched his wine career with a harvest internship at Quintessa, progressed to Covert Estate alongside luxury winemaker Julien Fayard, and most recently served as head winemaker at Quixote Winery, working closely with the renowned Philippe Melka.

His working rule is unglamorous and he repeats it constantly: the vineyard gets the credit or the vineyard gets the blame. The job in the cellar is to not get in the way — to move slowly, touch the wine as little as possible, and resist every temptation to make it taste like something it isn’t.

It is a small operation on purpose. Every lot is fermented separately, tasted daily, and either earns its place in a bottle or gets sold off. Nothing goes out under this label to fill a case count.

Robert SmithWinemaker & Founder

Trade & Restaurant

Pour it by
the glass.

Limited allocations for on-premise and independent retail. Tell us the list you’re building and we’ll tell you honestly whether we fit it.

Trade inquiry → Buy direct