MacRostie Winery sits on Westside Road in Healdsburg, at the Estate House that Steve MacRostie unveiled in 2015 after more than four decades of winemaking in Sonoma County. The hilltop property offers panoramic views across the Russian River Valley and serves as the tasting destination for a winery that has worked with more than 30 Chardonnay vineyards and 15 Pinot Noir sites to build one of the appellation’s most refined portfolios. Heidi Bridenhagen has served as winemaker since 2013, continuing the approach that MacRostie established.

Steve MacRostie: from the Army cryptography unit to Sonoma County winemaking

Steve MacRostie grew up in Sacramento and studied at Whitman College in Washington before joining the U.S. Army, where he served as a cryptographer deployed to the Veneto region of northeast Italy. Travel through France, Germany, and Spain during that posting introduced him to European wine culture and sparked what became a lifelong focus. He returned to California and enrolled at UC Davis, earning a degree in oenology in the early 1970s.

His first industry role was at Hacienda Winery in the mid-1970s, buying grapes from across Sonoma County and learning the variation between sites. He made his first Chardonnay and Pinot Noir from Sonoma Coast fruit in 1974, before either the Russian River Valley or the Sonoma Coast had formal AVA recognition. That early work established the style preferences — lean, precise, high-acid — that would define MacRostie wines.

Four decades of Sonoma County winemaking, a hilltop estate on Westside Road, and Chardonnay that has defined the Russian River Valley style.

Building the MacRostie portfolio: Chardonnay first, Pinot Noir close behind

MacRostie Winery formally launched in 1987, with Chardonnay as the primary focus. The winery built relationships with growers across Sonoma County — eventually working with more than 30 Chardonnay vineyard sites — using that breadth of sourcing to understand the range of what the county could produce. Carneros, with its bay influence and cool temperatures, contributed the most mineral-driven Chardonnay. The Russian River Valley brought more fruit depth and aromatic complexity.

Pinot Noir joined the portfolio in 1992, years before the variety’s California boom in the early 2000s. MacRostie developed relationships with more than 15 Pinot Noir vineyard sites, using the same multi-grower approach that informed the Chardonnay program. Steve also established Wildcat Mountain Vineyard on the western border of Carneros and the Petaluma Gap — a site that proved to be ideal for the cool-climate, structured style of Pinot Noir that would become a winery signature.

The MacRostie Estate House and the Westside Road property

In 2015, MacRostie opened its Estate House on Westside Road in Healdsburg, a hilltop property that placed the winery physically inside the Russian River Valley for the first time. The Estate House features four outdoor patios and multiple indoor spaces, all positioned to take advantage of views across the vineyard landscape to the west and south. The setting reflects the long relationship between MacRostie Winery and the Russian River Valley appellation that had supplied some of its most important fruit for decades.

Heidi Bridenhagen was named winemaker in 2013, becoming the third winemaker in the winery’s history at the age of 29. She has carried forward the precision-focused approach that defined the MacRostie style since the 1970s, working with the same grower network that Steve built across Sonoma County.

Pairing MacRostie wines with food

MacRostie Chardonnay, whether sourced from Carneros or Russian River Valley, carries the high natural acidity that cool-climate Sonoma County growing produces. That acidity is the most practical tool for food pairing: it cuts through fat and refreshes the palate between bites, which is why high-acid white wines pair more easily across a range of dishes than richer, lower-acid examples. MacRostie Chardonnay works with roasted chicken, halibut in beurre blanc, fresh Dungeness crab, and mushroom pasta — all preparations where fat or umami is the dominant element and the wine’s freshness provides balance.

The Pinot Noir follows the same structural logic: high acid, moderate tannin, earthy complexity. Salmon is the classic Sonoma County Pinot Noir pairing, and it works here for the same reason it works elsewhere in the appellation — the acid handles the fat, the earthy character amplifies the flavor of the fish, and the restrained tannin does not overwhelm the delicate protein. Duck, pork tenderloin, mushroom risotto, and aged semi-firm cheeses all work equally well.

MacRostie Winery: common questions