Dover Canyon Winery & Vineyard

We are a small family farm, vineyard and winery specializing in limited production and vineyard-designated wines. Our family farm includes five acres of dry-farmed, candy grade walnuts. We practice sustainable agriculture, and do not use any pesticides. We are a certified wildlife habitat through the National Wildlife Federation, and we maintain a natural wildlife corridor along a creek bed between the vineyard plots. Our production is very limited: only 2,000 cases a year are produced. Our wines are robust, with distinctive smoke and licorice flavors, and gentle perfumes of oak that do not overwhelm the fruit. Our focus is on vineyard presence: plenty of fruit, a sense of terroir and vintage, and a crisp acidity that offers longevity of fruit. Visitors may taste our wines in the wine cellar Thursday through Sunday, from 11 am to 5 pm. In our vineyard and orchard, an annual cover crop blend of rye, barley, clover, and mustard is mown several times during the spring. We leave the mowings on the ground as mulch and green manure to improve the tilth, biodiversity, and moisture-retaining properties of the soil. The cover crop is then tilled under in the summer after it has gone to seed, and the ground is neatly ring-rolled. Bare summer earth prevents moisture competition while the grapes are developing, and keeps the vines warmer. The cover crop begins growing again during the fall rains, which prevents erosion, and by spring provides ready habitat and nectar for predator insects, when many insect pests are at their most prolific.