SENSES: IN THE HEART OF WEST SONOMA COAST

A trio of childhood friends are making outstanding Pinots from top vineyards

- BY JAMES MOLESWORTH

On the label of a Senses bottle, the second “e” in Senses is rendered with a “3” as an homage to its three founding partners: Christopher Strieter, Max Thieriot and Myles Lawrence-Briggs.

It’s also probably no coincidence that if you drew a radius on a map that encircled the three Northern California towns of Occidental, Freestone and Bodega, all of Senses’ vineyard sources would fall within it. The area around these towns is now the epicenter for the qualitative surge of Sonoma Coast Pinot Noir—and three is the magic number.

This surge has drawn in plenty of outside interest and investment, including with the purchase of Platt Vineyard by AXA Millésimes in 2022. But this project from a trio of childhood friends is a decidedly local story. They were all born in the same year, 1988, and grew up together in Occidental.

“Having joint birthday parties happened more than once,” Thieriot says. “Remember the laser tag in town?” he adds with a head nod toward Strieter.

Although games of laser tag were top of mind at that age, the friends were already starting to catch the winemaking bug. Lawrence-Briggs and Thieriot grew up in grapegrowing families, while Strieter started off in the wine industry early, spending a few years outside the Occidental area working with Jess Jackson. By the time they hit their early 20s, the three decided to establish their own wine project. They started by buying a vineyard from Lawrence-Briggs’ family in 2011.