Our Story

Fallon Place is a project by winemaker and proprietor Cory Michal dedicated to the small-scale creation of single-vineyard wines from distinctive sites in Sonoma County. What began with sourcing fruit from sustainably and organically farmed vineyards has evolved into farming a vineyard of our own in the Sebastopol Hills, planted to Pinot Noir and Chardonnay and cared for using organic and biodynamic farming practices.

Cory has studied viticulture and enology at UC Davis and the Université de Bourgogne, in addition to working with wineries throughout Northern California. The wines are produced naturally using high-quality fruit, minimal-intervention winemaking techniques, and native fermentations. The goal is to reflect the character of the vineyard and vintage as transparently as possible, offering a snapshot of time and place.

The wines are produced in small quantities and are available primarily to our allocation members, with limited availability through select restaurants and wine shops.

The Beginning

I was not always obsessed with incredible vineyards, caves of barrels, and cool fermenting Pinot Noir and Chardonnay. When I was in my late twenties, I was fortunate enough to live and travel in Europe for a time, and this is where my obsession with wine began.

While living in England, I lived near a charming old wine bar and shop that I regularly frequented, trying wines from regions I had barely heard of. It was there that I was exposed to incredible wines from Burgundy, Bordeaux, Tuscany, and the Loire Valley. I still vividly remember the first time I tasted a Brunello di Montalcino, Château Pavie, and an exquisite Volnay Premier Cru from the Côte de Beaune.

I’m not really sure how to describe what happened. It simply changed me.

From that point on, I knew I wanted to deeply understand how these wines were produced, visit the places they came from, and learn the history and culture beneath them. To this day, I still make time to travel to these places and experience the wines, vineyards, food, and culture whenever possible.

The Setup

Upon returning home from Europe to the small town where I lived in Wisconsin, I found that things were simply not the same as when I left. I promptly formulated a plan to move to San Francisco, California, to be closer to Sonoma and Napa counties, where I could explore the wine regions and continue my wine education.

After settling in, I enrolled in the University of California, Davis program for Viticulture and Enology, taking classes in the evenings after my day job and driving from San Francisco to Davis on weekends for extension courses. I spent much of my spare time visiting the best wineries and vineyards I could find in Sonoma County when I wasn’t helping out during harvest at various wineries in San Francisco.

The more I learned about winemaking, the more interested I became in the vineyard itself and in the relationship between farming, site, vintage, and the finished wine.

Fallon Place

When I moved to San Francisco, I was lucky enough to find a great flat in an old building from 1917 in the Russian Hill neighborhood. The area is known for its old stone walkways, like Macondray Lane, and for its incredibly steep stone staircases.

My building on Taylor Street had an old empty cellar below it with a rickety staircase that opened directly onto the brick landing of the stairs at Fallon Place. I often looked at the brick landing and thought how much it resembled a small winery crush pad.

One day, while chatting with the owner of the building, I asked if it would be possible to rent the cellar area to store wine. She approved, and the Fallon Place project was born.

My friends and I spent the next few vintages getting about half a ton of grapes each harvest from a vineyard in Sonoma and making a barrel of wine on the old stone staircase at Fallon Place. We had some great times making and drinking those wines and enough memorable experiences to fill a book.

While working on label designs, some of the photographs from Fallon Place inspired a drawing and wooden stamp. This later became the Fallon Place wine label you see today.

Here & Now

After a few years, it became evident that transporting crushed and destemmed Pinot Noir grapes to the top of Russian Hill and transferring them one hundred pounds at a time into the cellar for fermentation was pretty absurd. Production capacity was maxed out, and I was probably on the road to eviction if the building owner ever discovered exactly what was going on downstairs.

It was around this time that I was fortunate to meet the owners of a new winery in San Francisco called Dogpatch WineWorks, which had been started by several people from the former San Francisco Crushpad. They were kind enough to allow me to establish an Alternating Proprietor license at the winery, and it was there that I began producing the first commercial vintages of wine under the Fallon Place label.

For many years afterward, I sourced grapes from some of the finest small vineyards I could find in Sonoma County and produced small-lot, single-vineyard wines using minimal-intervention winemaking.

Working with these vineyards taught me an enormous amount about farming and terroir. Over time, however, I became increasingly interested not only in making wine from exceptional vineyards, but in farming one myself.

Today, I own and farm a small vineyard in the Sebastopol Hills of western Sonoma County, planted to Pinot Noir and Chardonnay. For the first time, I have the opportunity to follow the entire process myself—from the soil and vines through harvest, fermentation, élevage, and ultimately the finished bottle.

The vineyard is farmed using organic and biodynamic practices, with an emphasis on building healthy soils, encouraging biodiversity, and creating a balanced and resilient farm ecosystem. Farming the same piece of land year after year has brought the vineyard increasingly to the center of my approach to wine.

I no longer think of viticulture and winemaking as separate disciplines. They are one continuous process, and the decisions made in the vineyard ultimately determine what is possible in the cellar.

Here & Now

I farm with the goal of creating balance rather than maximizing production. Organic and biodynamic practices guide how I care for the soil, vines, and surrounding ecosystem, while individual farming decisions are made according to the needs of the vineyard and the conditions of each growing season.

I believe great wine begins with healthy soils, balanced vines, and thoughtful farming. The objective is to grow fruit with enough character, concentration, and natural balance that very little needs to be done to it once it reaches the winery.

In the Winery

I produce small-lot wines with an emphasis on preserving the character of the vineyard rather than imposing a predetermined style upon it.

I use minimal-intervention winemaking techniques, native fermentations, natural malolactic fermentation, and gravity whenever practical. The objective is to preserve the integrity and subtle characteristics of the fruit and produce wines that reflect the soil, microclimate, growing season, and individual character of the vineyard.

The goal is not to make exactly the same wine every year. It is to make an honest wine from a particular vineyard in a particular vintage.

The Future

For many years, my vision for the future included the opportunity to someday farm a small vineyard of my own. That part of the dream is now real.

The next chapter is about becoming increasingly connected to this piece of land in the Sebastopol Hills and learning how to farm it better with each passing vintage. As the vines mature and I gain a deeper understanding of the site, wines grown from this vineyard will become an increasingly important part of what I produce.

Working with the same vines, soils, and microclimate year after year offers an opportunity that sourcing fruit never completely could: to understand a place over time and to see how farming decisions, seasons, and vintage conditions ultimately express themselves in the wine.

My goal is to continue developing the property as a healthy, balanced farm using organic and biodynamic principles, while keeping production intentionally small. I want to remain personally involved in both the farming and winemaking and continue producing wines that are shaped by place rather than by formula.

What began with half a ton of grapes and a makeshift crush pad on a stone staircase in San Francisco has ultimately led to farming vines of my own in western Sonoma County.

I’m incredibly grateful to everyone who has supported Fallon Place along the way, purchased a bottle, joined our allocation, shared the wines with friends, or simply followed the journey. Thank you for allowing me to continue pursuing this work.