Our Story

Family owned - and named after their daughter, the fifth member of the Hill family- Ned and Erika Hill started Fifth Hill wines to make truly farm to glass wines -from only the best farms. As multi-generation Sonoma grape growers, wine is more than a past time, it is their full time -a way of life.

Son of Sonoma wine-growing pioneer Steve Hill, Ned began learning the art and science of vineyard management as soon as he could stand on his own two feet. As a young kid, he loved to ride around in the four-wheeler, bringing water to the crew and pulling leaves out of the large gondolas. During harvest time, he’d walk behind the picking crew and collect any ripe clusters that had been left behind. By age 15, he was exceedingly capable in nearly every aspect of the field and knew he wanted to make vineyard management his life’s work.

Ned met Erika while growing up in Sonoma. They married after both returning to the Valley from college and in 2008 at age 32, already with decades experience ahead of his time and an unrelenting work ethic, Ned and his wife began La Prenda Vineyards Management, seeking to provide full-service vineyard management and consulting to some of the most popular wine brands in the Valley.

The Fifth Hill label was created to bottle wine from some of the most celebrated and unique vineyards in the portfolio. The sites are so unique that each bottle celebrates the distinct characteristics of the soil, weather and landscape.

Most annual harvests provide only enough grapes for 300 cases or less of wine production. This small-lot production makes every bottle, glass and sip special in its own right.