Freeman Vineyard & Winery: 1 Chardonnay and 3 Pinot Noirs

Second in a series about wineries and estates new to me.

We all love a love story, n’est-ce pas? And Valentine’s is next week. Perhaps I need say no more than that the date carved into the keystone of the winery at Freeman Vineyard & Winery isn’t the date of its founding in 2001, but the date on which Ken and Akiko Freeman met, September 28, 1985. An important aspect of life they shared was their devotion to a restrained, elegant Burgundian style of chardonnay and pinot noir. While their travels took them all over the world — Ken has had careers in media, investment banking and wealth management — they never forgot their love of Burgundy and their desire to replicate their experience with the wines. When Ken Freeman took a job in San Francisco in 1997, the couple began searching for a property to cultivate vineyards and make wine. They looked at some 300 sites before they selected an area in western Sonoma County, in what is now the Green Valley of Russian River AVA, the coolest region in Russian River Valley. The rest is history — and her story — as the winery focuses solely on chardonnay and pinot noir, with Akiko Freeman as winemaker and Ken as proprietor and general factotum in the vineyards and cellars. Consulting winemaker is Ed Kurtzman, formerly with Chalone and Testarossa and the force behind his own brands August West and Sandler.