The Mendocino Zinfandel vineyards are located on the 26 miles of benchland that stretches from The Redwood Valley south to The Sanel Valley, and range in age from 9-45 years old. The grapes come from vineyards such as the Grider, Buckholtz, Mattern, Poor, and Hooper, with family histories dating back to the 1880s. The grapes are trained in a traditional head trained configuration (typical of the very first plantings), with only a single stake holding the vine to a modern vertical trellis system, supporting the vine with a wire.

One of the keys to making great Zinfandel is picking the grapes very ripe, which brings big raspberry and black pepper spice flavors to the forefront. 1,000 Stories grapes are sourced from vineyards separated from the Pacific Coast by the coastal range, providing the ideal climate for that essential ripeness. Each individual lot is made separately and then aged in American and French oak wine barrels before finishing the aging in bourbon barrels.