Furthermore Russian River Valley
Friends and business partners since the early 90s, Bob Zeches and Chad Richard have always shared a love of Pinot Noir, particularly from California and Oregon.
In 2006 when the opportunity arose, they created their first two barrels of wine – about 50 cases of Pinot Noir. Their mission was to conduct a long-term study of how Pinot Noir diversely expresses itself throughout California, and today, they’ve grown to making wines from vineyards up and down the California Coast as far south as the Santa Rita Hills in Santa Barbara County and as far north as the Yorkville Highlands in Mendocino County. In 2019, Pinot Noir and Chardonnay virtuoso Ross Cobb joined the team as head winemaker and greatly elevated the already exceptional wine program.
Ross Cobb Winemaker
Pinot Noir and Chardonnay virtuoso Ross Cobb joined the Furthermore Wines team as head winemaker in 2019, bringing more than 20 years of notable winemaking experience working at many great wineries including Williams Selyem, Flowers and his family winery, Cobb Wines.
Ross was born in Northern California, and traveled widely with his family throughout his youth, visiting Europe, Asia, Africa, and living in the Middle East. While working toward a degree in biology at the University of California, Santa Cruz, Ross began helping his father David with the planting of Coastlands Vineyard on the Sonoma Coast. Working in the vineyard on weekends and summers, Ross fell in love with the process of growing grapes and switched his major to agroecology and sustainable agriculture.
After earning his degree, Ross joined the team at Ferrari-Carano Vineyards and Winery in Dry Creek Valley, where he established a soils laboratory and winery research team. At the same time, Ross remained deeply involved at Coastlands Vineyard, making his own non-commercial, small-lot Pinot Noirs each year. He also regularly tasted barrel samples, alongside Bert Williams, of wines being made by Williams Selyem from Coastlands fruit. “As I was making my own wines and tasting what Bert was doing with our fruit,” says Ross, “something happened. I realized how deeply I wanted to make the best wines possible—beautiful wines. To do this, I dedicated myself to learning everything I possibly could about Pinot Noir viticulture and winemaking.”
