Story About Salty Goats

Though our day jobs consisted of making high-end Napa Valley Cabernet Sauvignon, we found ourselves consistently pulled to the ocean and intrigued by coastal Pinot Noir. After endless trips exploring the Sonoma coast, we discovered a vineyard in Fort Ross-Seaview that called our name.

Salty Goats is a wine company concentrated on Pinot Noir that is sourced and farmed on the coastal hills of Northern California. We pride ourselves on collaborating with dedicated and trusted organic farmers and are constantly in search of new and exciting sites. With its high elevation, proximity to the ocean, and cooler climate, we believe the West Sonoma coast creates wines that are expressive and elegant.

Our winemaking style is rooted in producing fresh and vibrant wines. We achieve this through meticulous farming, whole cluster fermentation, and gentle extraction. Our wines are then aged between 10 and 12 months in French oak to be released the following fall. We strive to create site driven wines that are age worthy.

Stay salty.

Similar to our style in making wine, our journey to creating the Salty Goats label was one of collaboration and originality. We began our search for an illustrator outside of the traditional wine industry and sought someone with a fresh take on wine branding. Through artwork created for a surf photographer, we were introduced to an artist named Christian Watson who brought an adventurous and active style of line drawing that captivated us. His company is called 1924.us. Upon receiving the illustrations and hand-drawn script from Christian, we hired one of the best design teams to assemble our label. Led by Byron Hoffman, the Offset team combined the ink strokes of 1942.us with their touch to create the unique label we love so much.

To create a name that encompasses an entire wine philosophy is daunting. But when you have a clear vision of what you want to do and how you want to do it, eventually the name will present itself. This is how SALTY GOATS came to be.

SALTY | Salty comes from the influence the coast has on our vineyard and our wine. As one of the planet’s most precious and powerful resources, the ocean is represented in our Pinot Noir.

GOATS | The Sonoma Coast has a long history of goats. We were inspired by the collaboration of goat farmers and vineyard managers to create a way to naturally free vineyards of weeds. But what truly sparked the need to incorporate this animal into our name was our first trip to visit our vineyard on the coast. Just south of Fort Ross-Seaview, we got lost and had to pull over to find our way.

We happened to park next to a farm and found a goat staring at us. The owner of the farm witnessed this standoff and informed us that this goat is a Kiko goat, and his name is Harry. We felt this happenstance meeting was a sign that our new friend who lives by the sea, Harry The Goat, had to be represented in our wine venture. The brand SALTY GOATS was born.