Wine - Pinot Noir - USA - Gros Ventre

Founded by Sarah and Chris Pittenger in 2009, Gros Ventre Cellars is a small, family-owned winery operating out of Healdsburg, CA. They produce about 2,000 cases of wine, including vineyard-designated Pinot noir from the West Sonoma Coast and Anderson Valley, and several wines from the El Dorado region. 

They launched Gros Ventre Cellars soon after our 2008 marriage. But it really started in the place we met – near the Gros Ventre River in Jackson Hole. Chris had been working in bottle shops and restaurants in Colorado and Wyoming, spending nights serving and pulling corks so his days were free to snowboard and fly fish. Sarah was working in advertising in New York and San Francisco, and was visiting Jackson Hole (where she previously lived) when our paths crossed at a party. A long-distance friendship was born, surviving Chris’ switch from the dining room to the winery, and his moves from Jackson to Napa to Australia to Healdsburg to New Zealand and back again. They kept in touch while he spent time working at wineries like Robert Biale, Torbreck, Williams Selyem, Marcassin. We now live with our two children (Jane and John Henry) and dog (Bear) in Healdsburg, CA, where Chris is also the winemaker at Limerick Lane.

When it was time to come up with a name for our brand, Sarah was hugely pregnant with John Henry. We were considering the name Gros Ventre, because we met in the region, when we learned that “gros ventre” is french for “big belly.” Pregnant belly, place we met… we couldn’t escape the double meaning, and so our brand was born.