WineryPatron Profile

By Kip Davis
WineryPatron  

The tasting room bar at Foursight Wines is a 4” thick slice of a redwood tree that serves as more than just a hefty platform for pouring samples of the winery’s signature pinot noir. The impressive wood slab also symbolizes the foundation of this family-owned boutique winery in beautiful Anderson Valley.

Located at the southern edge of Boonville, Foursight was founded in 2007 by Bill and Nancy Charles, their daughter Kristy and her husband Joe Webb. Six years earlier Bill and Nancy had planted the Charles Vineyard on land that was the previous site of the Charles Lumber Company, started by Bill’s father and grandfather in 1950. 

“We wanted the winery name we chose to mean something,” said Kristy Charles. “I stumbled upon the name “Foursight” in reflection of the four generations of our family that have lived and worked on this property here.”

Kristy said that her great grandfather Homer “Twink” Charles and her grandfather Norman Charles arrived in the Anderson Valley in 1943. Taking advantage of the wartime lumber boom, the two built and operated a sawmill west of Boonville. After the mill burned in 1949, the Charles bought the property closer to town and established the lumber company. The sawmill and lumber company continued to operate until the mid 1960s.

BURIED LOGS BECOME TASTING BAR

While preparing the land for vineyard planting, Bill Charles unearthed several large redwood logs buried in 1950 and used as anchors for various mill structures. He promptly ripped the recovered logs into lumber. One slice was used to create Foursight’s tasting room bar that doubles as a hand-hewn reminder of the property’s four-generation Charles legacy.    

Travelling north on Highway 128, Foursight is the first winery on the right in Boonville. The new winery building was designed and built by Bill Charles, who gave the tasting room a rustic, wood-lined feel in keeping with the history of the Charles property.  The winery and vineyard are a 100% family operation, Kristy said. For the most part, Bill and Nancy handle the grape growing, Joe Webb is the winemaker and Kristy handles everything else. Kristy’s two brothers live out of the area but visit the family vineyard during harvest and other events.  

“When you come into Foursight you always get to meet one of the family members,” Kristy said. “It’s great because we sell our wine direct and we want our customers to come in and meet us. We like to make that personal connection and talk with people, take them through the wines, tell them our story and why we do what we do.”

FAMILY-OWNED AND FRIENDLY

Small and family owned has its advantages, Kristy said, for both the proprietors and winery visitors.

“We’ve been known to do impromptu vineyard tours and barrel tastings and all kinds of things depending on the day. That’s kind of the beauty of all of us being owners. If we feel like we want to open a bottle from the library we can. If we want to open something special for a group that likes aged pinot or a particular style that we don’t normally open, we can just go unpack it and pop the cork.”

After Bill and Nancy planted the first vineyards on the property, they sold the grapes to other wineries. During that time Kristy and Joe, before they were married, were working in the northern California wine industry and decided to experiment with some of the family crop.

“We started making a barrel of pinot noir as home wine every year,” she said. “Then you have sort of this ‘ah-ha’ moment where you think well…maybe we really could do this for real. Then finally in 2006 we made 400 cases of pinot from our own property.”

To their surprise, the Foursight 2006 Pinot Noir was a hit with some big names in the wine evaluation field.

“We were very lucky to debut with a wine that scored 91 points in the Wine Spectator and a double gold in the (San Francisco) Chronicle wine competition.” Kristy said. “I mean every major wine magazine gave it 90 points or above right out the door. Within six months we were in Manhattan pouring at the big New York Wine Experience. It was really a whirlwind when we started out.”

PINOT NOIR, SAUVIGNON BLANC AND MORE

Today, Foursight is still known for its tasty pinot noir along with its popular sauvignon blanc, both produced from grapes estate-grown on the former site of the Charles Lumber Company. The family also dabbles in other, small-lot varietals and blends “to keep things interesting” and currently produces about 1,000 cases annually. All Foursight wines are sold direct-to-consumer through the winery’s wine club or its Boonville tasting room.

Foursight is one of a growing group of small, mostly family-owned wineries that have sprung up in Anderson Valley in recent years. When the Charles family was still milling lumber, the region was better known for its apples and other crops than fine wine grapes. That started changing in the late 1970s when the bucolic valley caught the attention of French champagne producer Roederer, who quietly started buying property in the area.

Establishing a production foothold in the U.S., Roederer Estate built a winery near Philo in 1982 and started planting and buying pinot noir and chardonnay in the area for use primarily in its sparkling wines. This signaled the valley’s potential as a premium pinot noir producer.

Wineries in nearby Sonoma and Napa counties took notice and started sourcing pinot noir, chardonnay and aromatic varietals from the area. Soon apple orchards…and at least one lumber mill…gave way to vineyards. Eventually wineries began popping up from Boonville north past Philo, many of them small “mom and pop” operations that turned out surprisingly outstanding wine. Today, these small and mid-sized Anderson Valley wineries offer wine country visitors a refreshing break from the crowds and traffic farther south.

“It’s special to be able to come into tasting rooms here and meet owners and winemakers,” Kristy said, “and it’s more common here than you find in many regions. That’s because the vast majority of wineries here are small, family-owned operations. You get that very intimate feeling. You’re not stacked three or four deep at the bar waiting for a taste of wine. There’s no traffic and the crowds even on a busy weekend are very manageable. Most wineries here don’t even charge a tasting fee.” 

QUALITY WINE WITH QUALITY FRIENDS

Indeed, Foursight offers visitors free tasting of its wines and is happy to talk about other wineries in the area that may be of interest. On the wall behind the tasting bar, a shelf displays bottles from other wineries that buy grapes from the Charles’ vineyards. For most visitors, this friendly, casual approach is refreshing, creating an experience that focuses on the enjoyment of quality wine with quality friends.

Like many family-owned and operated wineries in northern California, Foursight Wines adds another, deeper perspective to wine making and enjoyment. It also reflects the Charles family’s love and respect for its shared history and the land that has been home for more than a half century. 

“Other than the fact that we love wine and we love what we do,” Kristy said, “this is our way of creating a family business to support my brothers and I and future generations so we can keep this land in our family and hopefully pass it down.”