Anthill Farms North Coast Pinot Noir

In 2003, Anthony Filberti, David Low and Webster Marquez all met one another while working at Williams Selyem, the famed Sonoma winery best known for their world-class Pinot Noir. They said that watching one another scurrying to get everything done in the winery reminded them of worker ants, a name that stuck when the trio teamed up the following year to start their own small lot, biodynamic project. Five years after their inaugural vintage, the three worker ants received Food & Wine Magazine’s ‘Most Promising Winery’. A year later, the Wall Street Journal labeled them as “The Rock Stars of Pinot Noir.”

All of this while the three guys were all in their 20’s and still all with full-time jobs at other wineries.

Now, sixteen years later, what started as an eight-barrel/year production has grown to 72 barrels or 1800 cases/year. The three say it’s not likely to get much bigger from here. They continue to work for other wineries and yet maintain this growing passion project together. Although they’ve grown nine times in size, there’s still a small winery approach, but their pricing– which is still a bargain, is a far cry from it’s $20 AVA specific, $30 single-vineyard wine days. Now, those prices are more in the $40-$60 range, with buyers across the country scooping up every bottle the winery puts out.