West Dry Creek Road · Healdsburg, California
Two families.
One hillside.
Three decades and counting.
The Colliers · 1992 — 2022
Barry and Susan built this estate.
A trip to Wine Country in 1992 changed Barry and Susan Collier’s lives. They sold their home, left the city, and Sue moved first — to Santa Rosa, to study viticulture. Over the next several years, she walked dozens of properties across Sonoma County looking for the right one.
She found it in Dry Creek Valley. “The valley was intimate,” she said, “and the people were so friendly and genuine. It just felt right.” The property she chose had a 30-foot waterfall, red volcanic Boomer Loam — Dry Creek Valley’s classic hillside soil — and a Zinfandel block that had been in the ground since 1982.
By 1997, Barry and Sue were producing wine as Collier Falls. Their first vintage — a Zinfandel from the original 1982 planting — earned 90 points in Wine Spectator. It was the first of many awards. For three decades, the Colliers farmed this hillside, refined the winemaking, and built the reputation the estate carries today.
The Cooks · 2022 —
Our family took the baton.
We — Justin and Lisa Cook — first walked this property in the winter of 2021. The falls were running. The vines were dormant. Barry took us to every block. He wasn’t going to sell to anyone who didn’t intend to honor what he and Sue had built over thirty years.
By the time we left, we already knew. We bought the estate later that winter. Our daughters were small. The plan was — and still is — to make a life here.
Four years on, our work is straightforward to describe and harder to do: carry forward what Barry and Sue started. The same vines. The same hillside. The same name above the door. With one new winemaker and a renewed commitment to making sure these wines reach the people who want them.
The Place
A hillside above the fog.
Collier Falls sits at nearly 1,000 feet at its peak on the eastern flank of the coastal hills that frame Dry Creek Valley to the west. At this elevation, we are above the morning marine layer — the fog that covers the valley floor through most of summer. That means warmer mornings, more even sun exposure, and a longer, more gradual ripening season than the valley floor provides.
The soil is red volcanic Boomer Loam — and the word that matters here is metavolcanic. The rock beneath this hillside began as molten volcanic material millions of years ago. Buried under successive layers of new rock, it was recrystalized under enormous heat and pressure — transformed into something denser and more chemically complex than ordinary volcanic stone. As the coastal hills rose over geologic time, that metavolcanic rock surfaced again, weathering down into the iron-rich, reddish soil that defines the upland sites of Dry Creek Valley.
Metavolcanic /met-uh-vol-KAN-ik/
Volcanic rock that has been buried, heated under pressure, and recrystalized over millions of years — then surfaced again as the mountains rose. Denser and more complex than ordinary volcanic stone.
Wines of Dry Creek Valley credits Boomer Loam with yielding the bold, structured red wines that have defined the appellation’s hillside character for fifty years. It is dense, exceptionally well-drained, and forces vines to work hard for water — stress that concentrates flavor in a way that flat, irrigated valley floor cannot replicate. The hillside faces mostly east and north, which moderates afternoon heat and preserves the acidity that gives the wines their structure.
The waterfall — 30 feet, fed by a spring above the ridge and the watershed above — gives the estate its name. It ran before the vines were here. It still runs.
The Vines
Five varietals. Eighteen acres.
The 1982 Blocks
Old Vine Zinfandel
7+ acres of Zinfandel planted in 1982, on wide 12-foot rows suited to the steep slope and to dry farming — among the oldest Zinfandel in active production in Dry Creek Valley. In 1997, the Colliers interplanted Primitivo between the original wide-spaced rows and added drip irrigation; the original vines and their dry-farmed root systems remain. That same year, they planted a separate 3-acre Zinfandel block at traditional spacing. Three stewardships have farmed these vines now: the original planter, the Colliers from the mid-1990s forward, and our family from 2022. The wines they produce are the foundation of the estate.
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6 acres · The backbone of our ’22 Hillside Blend and a stand-alone Cabernet in ’23. The hillside’s red volcanic Boomer Loam gives this variety the structure it rarely shows on the valley floor.
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Interplanted among the original 1982 Zinfandel since 1997 · Zinfandel’s Southern Italian cousin. Spice-forward, mineral, and one of our favorite expressions of this hillside.
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0.5 acres · Originally planted as a blending grape for our Zinfandel, now dedicated entirely to our Rosé program.
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0.5 acres · Planted in 2024 and growing toward its first vintage.
The Winemaker
Mike Lucia
Mike Lucia is the founder of Rootdown and Cole Ranch wineries. His career spans positions at DeLoach Vineyards, Ridge Vineyards, Goldeneye Winery, and Copain Wine Cellars — a résumé built across some of California’s most respected estates, with a consistent emphasis on site-driven, minimally interventionist winemaking.
His philosophy fits these vines. Native yeast fermentations. Extended macerations that build structure without extracting heaviness. The goal is not to make the wines louder — it is to make the hillside more clearly heard.
A Timeline
Four decades on one hillside.
Zinfandel vines are planted on the hillside. Forty-four years on, they are still in active production, among the oldest Zinfandel plantings in Dry Creek Valley.
A trip to Wine Country changes Barry and Susan Collier's lives. They commit to leaving the city for a winery they don't yet own.
Sue Collier studies viticulture in Santa Rosa and searches Sonoma County for the right property. She finds this hillside in Dry Creek Valley. Barry follows.
The first Collier Falls vintage, a Zinfandel from the 1982 vines, earns 90 points in Wine Spectator. The first of many awards.
The estate's Williamson Act Land Conservation Contract is renewed, preserving its agricultural character for another generation.
Justin and Lisa Cook acquire the estate from Barry and Sue Collier. Mike Lucia joins as winemaker. The work continues.
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