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While several high-profile billionaires are actively working to colonize the moon, winemaker Rodrigo Soto has a much more modest but potentially even more impossible goal: To see wines from Sonoma’s Moon Mountain District AVA recognized as their own category in restaurants and bottle shops across the country. “I imagine a wine list where you see a section dedicated to Moon Mountain District wines, sitting right next to Napa Valley,” he tells Robb Report. And although many wine lovers view Sonoma as a great source for Pinot Noir and Napa as their go-to for Cabernet Sauvignon, Soto calls Sonoma “a very large and diverse region” that offers a wide range of grape varieties within its 19 sub-appellations. The cofounders of Far Mountain, a small winery focusing on dry-farmed, cool climate Cabernet Sauvignon and Chardonnay from Sonoma Valley and Moon Mountain District, Soto and his wife Mai Errazuriz are producing outstanding wine that caught the eye of sommeliers around the U.S. from its very first vintage.

Soto’s vision of seeing wine from Moon Mountain District sitting right next to Napa Valley isn’t as far-fetched as it sounds. Situated alongside Napa Valley in the Mayacamas Mountains, Moon Mountain is due west of Mount Veeder and shares a border with Napa and the Mount Veeder AVA. Soto first became familiar with the area while working for a small family winery in 2006, before the AVA achieved official recognition, which occurred in 2013. “What I love about Moon Mountain District is that it is defined by elevation, geology, and microclimate, all qualitative elements that truly shape the wines,” he says. “I love the name, the history of the region, and the extraordinary farmers who work there.” Among those farmers is Phil Coturri, often called the father of organic grape growing, who in 2022 developed a new vineyard called the Nunnery, the source of one of Far Mountain’s wines.

Sommelier and restaurant owner Kevin Flannery was first introduced to Far Mountain wines when he was opening Vinyl Steakhouse and Vinile Chophouse in Chelsea in late 2024 and early 2025. He had invited dozens of wine reps to bring their bottles, and out of hundreds of pours he says only one stood out as having “a clear wow factor:” the Far Mountain Myrna Chardonnay. “It had perfect notes of apple, lemon zest, creme brulée, pear, seashells, and was possibly the most impressive chardonnay I had tasted in years,” he tells Robb Report. “It’s like when you see a raw talented athlete or band early in their career and say, ‘Wow, they are going to be special!’”

Flannery is not alone in his praise for Far Mountain. John Filkins, corporate beverage director of Clyde’s Restaurant Group, which operates Old Ebbitt Grill in Washington, D.C., pours the Chardonnay and Far Mountain Fission Cabernet Sauvignon by the glass. He says the Moon Mountain District AVA and vineyard sourcing were what first attracted him to the wine, but more than that, “the juice delivered at a great price point.” Pointing out that many of his guests are looking for wines that are farmed organically and sustainably produced, he adds, “It is quite unique to find 50-year-old, dry-farmed, low-density plantings of Cabernet Sauvignon in Napa or Sonoma.”

Taking its name from the Latin word meaning fracture, Fission Cabernet Sauvignon hails mostly from a vineyard called Alta Vista Gold Ranch in the southern end of Moon Mountain District. “Given the fractured soils and the incredible amount of rock in the Alta Vista property in Moon Mountain District, we felt it was a fitting name to help tell the geological story of the place, Errazuriz says. An old, terraced vineyard planted in the 1970s at about 1,600 feet of elevation, it is dry farmed, meaning there is no irrigation. “The reason the vineyard has survived for so long is because the old timers planted it on St. George rootstock and followed the natural contours of the hillside, respecting the topography of the land,” explains Soto, who honed his craft as winemaker and estate manager at Quintessa.

In addition to the entry-level Fission and the single-vineyard Nunnery, Far Mountain also produces Cabernet Sauvignon bottlings from the well-known Montecillo and Monte Rosso vineyards. Soto explains that Montecillo’s pure red basalt soils imbue the wine with iron, graphite, and a strong mineral component, with a rocky tannin structure that reflects the geology of the site, while Monte Rosso’s iron- and mineral-rich red soils create wines that are “plush and deep.” Sitting on white volcanic ash, the Nunnery is noted for its spice notes, red-fruit character, and chalky tannins. This wine is co-fermented with Cabernet Franc, which adds an extra layer of brightness and earthiness in the mid-palate.

While all three properties for the vineyard designate wines are certified organic through CCOF, (California Certified Organic Farmers), winemaking for each site requires a slightly different approach because of distinct soils and tannin profiles. Both Montecillo and Monte Rosso are aged for one year in 40 percent new French oak barrels and a second year in a 2,000-liter foudre, but Soto extracts earlier in fermentation for the Montecillo and then becomes gentler through the process to keep the tannins soft. For the Monte Rosso, “we extract more evenly throughout fermentation to achieve persistence and polished tannins,” he explains. The Nunnery experiences a soft extraction throughout the vinification to preserve freshness and aromatics before barrel and foudre aging, this time in smaller, 1,000-liter vessels.

With only 2,700 bottles each of Montecillo and Monte Rosso, 1,500 bottles of the Nunnery, and a suggested retail of around $100, the 2023 Far Mountain releases may be snapped up rapidly, even though that figure almost seems too low for wine this good. Although many wine lovers equate cost with quality, Errazuriz is not concerned about the reasonable price. “For us the most important thing is to be honest about the value of what we produce and make it as approachable as possible for wine consumers,” she says. “If the wines are good and the story of the place resonates, people eventually find them.”

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