Actor Max Thieriot and his wife Lexi bought a roughly 90-acre ranch in west Sonoma County, California, in 2013, and over the past decade, the property has evolved into a working vineyard and family retreat. The ranch is located between Bodega and Occidental near where Thieriot grew up.According to Home Archives, three years after buying the ranch, Thieriot and Lexi began planting a vineyard there. About nine acres of the property are now planted with Pinot noir grapes under the name Bodega Thieriot, while the rest of the land remains a mix of hillsides, woodland and pasture.The ranch is also connected to Thieriot’s family history in Sonoma County. He grew up on a separate vineyard property in Occidental that his parents bought in the 1980s. His own ranch is a newer family property, but farming grapes has been part of his life since childhood.Thieriot is now best known as the co-creator and star of the CBS drama Fire Country. However, his connection with Sonoma County has continued through the ranch and vineyard. Although his family now spends most of the year in Washington state, the Sonoma property remains a working vineyard and a place the family returns to during the off-season.
The Sonoma ranch and its vineyard
The ranch covers approximately 90 acres of rolling land between Bodega and Occidental. It has mature oak and redwood trees, ocean views and a fence line shared with the Occidental winery of winemaker Steve Kistler.The property is not known for a large celebrity-style residence. Details such as the size of the house, number of bedrooms and interior features have not been publicly reported. The purchase price has also not been disclosed.In 2016, Thieriot and Lexi started planting the vineyard with winemaker Thomas Rivers Brown. Around nine acres of the ranch were planted with Pinot noir, leaving most of the property as hillside, woodland and pasture.The vineyard was named Bodega Thieriot. It is also connected to the family’s earlier winemaking history through Senses Wines, the Sonoma County wine label Thieriot co-founded with Christopher Strieter and Myles Lawrence-Briggs, friends he met in preschool.
A second vineyard shaped Thieriot’s childhood
The Bodega ranch is separate from the vineyard where Thieriot grew up. His parents, Cameron and Bridgit, bought that Occidental property in the 1980s. It has roughly 12 acres planted with Pinot noir and Chardonnay, and its grapes are used by Senses Wines.Thieriot has spoken about growing up around the vineyard and working with his father. “I spent my entire childhood there,” Thieriot has said of the property as quoted by Home Archives. “I have an old photo of me with my dad farming grapes. I grew up riding a tractor with my dad when he farmed in the vineyard.”His mother and sister still live in the area, keeping the family’s connection to west Sonoma County even though Thieriot and his immediate family now live elsewhere for much of the year.
How Sonoma influenced Fire Country
The actor’s connection with the region also influenced his television work. Sonoma County experienced major wildfires in 2017, 2019 and 2020, and Thieriot has said those events helped inspire Fire Country.
When he is not filming, Max Thieriot returns to his Sonoma vineyard, where he is raising his family and growing grapes in the hills of Occidental overlooking Bodega Bay.
During the 2017 Tubbs and Nuns fires, he drove back from Los Angeles to help his mother load horse trailers and move livestock from the property.The show is set in Northern California and follows firefighters, while its connection to Thieriot’s home region has remained part of its background. The series is filmed in and around Vancouver, British Columbia, rather than Sonoma County.
Thieriot now spends part of the year in Sonoma
Thieriot has said that Fire Country films for roughly nine months of the year. Living closer to the Vancouver-area set reduces the long journey between Washington and Sonoma.The move, however, did not mean leaving the ranch behind. Thieriot continues to return to the Sonoma property when filming is over. “We’re filming nine months of the year, but in the off-season I head back here,” he said.Thieriot has also spoken about wanting his sons to experience the same connection with the land that shaped his own childhood, saying he wants them to grow up “knowing what it’s like to have a vineyard outside their door.”
