Perpetual Dawn: Solminer Rising

December 9, 2014

Solminer vineyard
Anna, Linus, and David

Prior to my life in the wine business, I worked for a small record label based in Los Angeles called Plug Research.  Operating an independent record label, and putting together a roster of artists that reflect a forward-thinking curator, is in many ways like creating a winery: the vineyards you work with are your artists, and your role in the cellar functions much like that of a producer, guiding your artists to their highest expression without losing the essence of what makes them special.  David DeLaski, a veteran of the Los Angeles music scene, understands this concept better than anyone, as reflected in the beautiful wines he is making alongside his wife Anna under their new label, Solminer.  I met the two of them at their vineyard and home in Los Olivos this past week to discuss life after the music business, organic farming, and winemaking with an eye toward the natural.

“Music is something you can get deeper and deeper into, with a great community, and there’s a bit of an obsession there,” says David DeLaski.  “There are a lot of parallels with wine in that sense.”  As both winemakers and musicians can attest, there is an all-consuming quality to these passions; once you’ve got the bug, you can think of nothing else.  “I came to wine through my dad,” recalls David.  “He was a businessman who enjoyed wine and so I got exposed to it at a very young age.  I don’t have a cellar of old dusty bottles, though.  I never became a big wine collector; wine was never a huge part of life until all this, until we started making wine.  Some people are big collectors of music, but I was never an obsessive record collector; I loved to create it.”

Solminer did not begin with the grand ambitions of becoming the next cult winery or building a 10,000 case brand.  Rather, it grew naturally out of the love of the craft of winemaking and the joy of farming.  “Honestly, we weren’t quite sure how we’d fit into all this,” says David.  “At first it was like ‘well, we’ll be weekenders and make a barrel of Gruner Veltliner.’  But you get sucked into this community in a really wonderful way.  So we took a chance on it all, and we’re really glad we did.”  The two also fortuitously connected with Steve Clifton of Palmina and Brewer-Clifton fame to guide the winemaking and help them focus their goals in the cellar.  “We got hooked up with Steve because we loved his wines, and I think he was open to what we’re doing because it was something different, Gruner Veltliner,” recalls David.  “If we were just another producer making Pinot Noir I don’t know if he would have been interested.”

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While their first vintage of Gruner came from John Sebastiano Vineyard, going forward it will come entirely from their estate DeLanda Vineyard in Los Olivos.  Their small home vineyard is a beautiful property, with a palpable energy that one can sense upon entering the driveway, originally planted entirely to Syrah when the DeLaskis took it over.  Starting with a clean slate, they made the decisions to alter the varietal focus and to farm it organically, in large part because of concerns for their young son Linus.  “The bottom line is, it was never a choice, because Linus is down there playing, in the vineyard, in the dirt,” emphatically states Anna.  “So we decided from the beginning, if we have to deal with something, it’s going to be done organically.”  The couple has also begun incorporating biodynamic practices in the vineyard, a philosophy which, again, grew out of the development they saw in their children first.  “Our background in biodynamics comes from the side of Waldorf education, which has opened us up to a lot of ideas and philosophies that Steiner had,” says David.  “My older boys go to a Waldorf school, and if our vines grow anything like they have, then maybe there’s something to Steiner’s philosophy.”

Though their vineyard still has quite a bit of Syrah planted, they’ve grafted increasing amounts to Blaufrankisch and Gruner Veltliner.  Anna, a native of Austria’s famed Wachau region, guided the couple towards this decision to plant two of Austria’s most noble grapes, rarely seen outside of their homeland.    They’re also making the unique choice to create a Blaufrankisch-Syrah blend, the first of its kind to my knowledge.  “Adding a little Blaufrankisch to the Syrah is amazing,” smiles David.  “Just 5 or 10%, it’s really cool.”  Their winemaking, following along the lines of their farming approach, leans toward the natural, utilizing native yeasts, mostly neutral vessels, and minimal sulfur.  “We never really made a conscious decision to be ‘natural winemakers’,” states David.  “It’s kind of ingrained with the rest of our philosophy.  The more I understood about the winemaking process, the more I started to taste the difference in those kinds of wine, and the more I taste them, I find myself drawn to them.  I appreciate mistakes or natural occurrences from year to year.”  The DeLaskis interpretation still means that there must be a core of deliciousness first and foremost; these wines are natural, but they are also clean, precise, and bright.

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Tasting through the current Solminer lineup was a revelation.  Their Gruner, utterly distinctive, seemed to marry the lentil and pepper notes the variety is known for with a textural weight reminiscent of Roussanne, as well as autumnal notes of baked apple and cinnamon.  Their estate Syrah was also singular, sort of Crozes-Hermitage meets the Langhe in its marriage of iron, pepper, earth, and dried leaf.  The star of the lineup, however, was their sparkling Syrah, “Nebullite”.  It reminded me of one of my favorite wines on the planet, Camillo Donati’s Lambrusco.  There was a living quality to the wine, imbued with the same notes of earth their still Syrah possessed along with extra dimensions of macerated raspberry and a thrilling sous bois, Balsamic character.  “As a musician, I was never classically trained.  I always liked to improvise, and to me, natural wine has that improvisatory nature, it’s like jazz.”  To continue the jazz comparison, that sparkling Syrah was like the first time I heard Ornette Coleman’s The Shape of Jazz to Come: You either get it or you don’t, but if it speaks to you, it is an experience like no other.

When I first met Anna and David months ago here at the Café, I noticed their exuberance and air of positivity, qualities that were in abundance on my recent visit.  One immediately senses that these are two people in love, living their dream, and that joy radiates through their wines.  “The key was meeting Anna and coming here, and falling in love with her and with this place,” smiles David.  “And then going to Austria together, and seeing how ingrained wine is in the culture and the community there.  When we returned, we realized we had that same community here, and that we could create that same lifestyle in Santa Ynez.”


Check out Solminer’s wines at our first ever Natural Wine Fair!
This Wednesday December 10th at the Los Olivos Wine Merchant and Cafe, 6-8 PM

Ascension: Nick de Luca’s Journey Toward the Middle Path

October 17, 2014

Nick de Luca Ground Effect

“If there is one overarching philosophy in my winemaking, it’s finding the middle path.” Nick de Luca, winemaker and co-owner of Ground Effect, is not expressing a desire to make middle of the road wines. Rather, he is referencing the enlightened Middle Path of Buddhist philosophy, where one transcends extremes to find a centered, balanced way of living. I had the opportunity to work under de Luca at Dierberg/Star Lane, and always found him to radiate this attitude, with a balance that is also reflected in the wines he is making. I sat down with him over coffee this past week to discuss his work at Ground Effect, as well as his new position as consulting winemaker for Richard Sanford’s Alma Rosa.

“I had this philosophy about terroir, and then I realized that I was making blends from all these different vineyards, which was kind of farcical,” laughs de Luca “so I’ve moved back to focusing on single sites and single varieties.” The initial idea behind Ground Effect was that the wines would be distinctive blends, which have been the trend up until 2014, and quite successfully I might add. Like many winemakers I’ve spoken with this year that are part of Santa Barbara County’s current winemaking generation, however, de Luca had to follow his muse regardless of the branding implications. “I switched up this year. It was hard to contract a ½ ton here, a ½ ton there, so I committed to 100% Chenin Blanc. And I also started working with Presqu’ile Syrah.” He has also focused his attention entirely on Santa Barbara County fruit. “I shifted out of Paso Robles because it’s just too far away,” he says.

The other major change for de Luca in 2014 was joining Richard Sanford and the venerable Alma Rosa label as consulting winemaker. “I got a call on a Wednesday, Richard and I had lunch on a Thursday, and I was signing papers Friday,” recalls de Luca of the fortuitous hiring. “It was really sudden and really exciting.” Sanford is a Sta. Rita Hills legend, and makes a great philosophical match for de Luca. “Richard Sanford is so committed to farming sensitively. He’s a big observer of Eastern philosophy, and there’s a lot to be said within that philosophy for finding personal balance and having that reflected in the wines.”

This desire to farm for balance leads de Luca to the topic of water, a subject that is on the mind of every Californian in these dry times. “Farming with less water is really important. We have to learn to pull these big crops with less water, or learn to live with smaller crops, and I hope the latter is true.” While the environmental need to conserve water is unquestionable, for de Luca, the desire to farm with as little water as possible extends not only to drought concerns, but to site representation. “Vines have a memory. You can totally delete terroir with irrigation. I think it’s important to think of it in those terms; you are deleting terroir.”

Stylistically, de Luca’s winemaking has seen a fairly dramatic shift over the past 5 years. While he gained fame at Dierberg for ripe, powerful wines, he has moved to a style that is brighter, fresher, with lower alcohols and, for my palate, more precise expressiveness. “I’m certainly not in the ripeness camp anymore. I don’t know where I fall. I try not to be overly self-conscious; I try to be true to the vintage.” While de Luca’s recent wines could certainly be grouped into the fashionable In Pursuit of Balance or Natural genres, he prefers not to follow dogma or fit easily into a particular clique. “I’m definitely not natural. If there’s one thing I’ve learned, it’s that when there’s a problem just fix it. I’m not scared of sulfur, I’m not scared of acid… I’d prefer to have all those things worked out in the vineyard, and not have to do that in the wine, and sometimes it works out that way; I think the best wines do work out that way. But if something goes wrong, I’m going to handle it.”

Alma Rosa’s wines have traditionally been fairly large scaled, but de Luca has approached his work there much as he has Ground Effect, with an eye toward balance. “I don’t like wines to be purely about fruit. That’s been my challenge at Alma Rosa, as the style has traditionally been more fruit-driven, so I want to find the balance between that fruit and the more interesting non-fruit aromatics the Sta. Rita Hills can give.”  He is also a strong proponent of low yields, and feels that they are not only necessary for great wine, but for sustainable agriculture.  Having observed yields shifting higher in the Sta. Rita Hills recently, a trend he is not fond of, he has worked with Sanford to keep their yields low, farming for intensity rather than tonnage.  “It’s no secret that low yields make better wine; Europe has realized it for centuries,” states de Luca.  “But people are getting greedy, and there’s a lot of overfarming going on out there.”

The wines of Ground Effect have found a devoted audience, and while they may not get as much press as some of de Luca’s more vociferous peers, they are some of the most mineral, intense, well balanced wines coming out of the New World. “The sad part to me is that the two extremes are what get the press,” he laments. “The ultra-ripe wines get the press, and the people on the extreme opposite end, in part because they’re bashing those ripe wines, get the press. And the people who are just trying to make good, middle path wines get looked over, and that’s too bad.” For my palate, the great wines of the world are found on this middle path; centered, balanced, and sure of what they have to say. While they may not have the immediate sexiness of the extreme, they possess a pure, unbridled joy within them, a soulfulness that makes casual wine drinkers have the “a-ha!” moment to make them wine obsessives. Open a bottle of Ground Effect’s 2012 “Gravity Check” and you’ll see exactly what I mean…

We’re Gonna Rise Above: Dragonette’s Sauvignon Blanc Elevation

August 5, 2014

Sauvignon blanc wine Dragonette Cellars

“Sauvignon Blanc is the poor bastard child grape, it’s just so unappreciated,” sighs Dragonette’s Brandon Sparks-Gillis.  “And there’s just so many producers who treat it like sh*t, and who treat it as just this cash cow, turn-and-burn grape, which I think is part of why it has a bit of a bad reputation.”  Sparks-Gillis is one of Santa Barbara County’s most vocal advocates for the nobility of Sauvignon Blanc.  While the grape’s value-driven examples from California, the Loire Valley, and New Zealand are popular everyday choices for much of the wine-drinking populace, few bestow the grape with the praise reserved for, say, white Burgundy.  The team at Dragonette is among the few lavishing Sauvignon Blanc with an intensity of farming and winemaking to rival the world’s greatest estates.  This week I spoke with Brandon Sparks-Gillis and John Dragonette about their work with Sauvignon Blanc in Happy Canyon.

Great wine often requires context.  While I’m a believer in the merits of blind tasting, particularly if one is seeking to identify typicity within a grape variety or a region, many of the world’s most unique and treasured wines don’t show their best in a blind setting.  I would include Dragonette’s Sauvignon Blancs in this group.  These are wines that not only require but deserve a few hours at table with the right food and enough time and air to explore their nuances, along with an understanding of the philosophical approach behind them.  The concentration in the wines, along with the use of oak, puts them in the rarefied air of producers like Francois Cotat, Didier Dagueneau, and Yquem’s ‘Ygrec,’ wines that are similarly proportioned and walk the tightrope between voluptuousness and mineral intensity effortlessly.  In a blind tasting, these stick out when poured next to more traditional and/or mundane renditions of the grape, which I believe is something to be celebrated, not maligned.

Brandon Sparks-Gillis
Brandon Sparks-Gillis

The wines of Dragonette would not be possible without the unique geological and climatic character of Happy Canyon.  While their initial Sauvignon Blancs incorporated fruit from outside the AVA, they have now devoted themselves solely to this amazing region.  “We were inspired by a pretty wide range of Sauvignon Blanc initially,” says Sparks-Gillis.  “As we started to work with Vogelzang and Grassini (both in Happy Canyon), we were really interested in what they were giving us.  And as we started tasting the wines, we saw that they definitely lean a little more towards a Bordeaux expression of Sauvignon Blanc.”  Without a doubt, the closest analogue to the area is Bordeaux, particularly the bold examples from producers like Smith Haut Lafitte and Haut-Brion.  And unlike Bordeaux, the Sauvignon Blancs of Happy Canyon don’t require the addition of Semillon.  “We initially sought out Semillon,” states Sparks-Gillis, “but we found that the wines from here were already so round and rich that we didn’t need it.”

Harnessing the power of Happy Canyon and fine-tuning how to best channel the area’s site character in the vineyard and the winery has been Dragonette’s greatest achievement.  “Our dogma is to have no dogma,” emphatically states Sparks-Gillis.  “We’ve had lots that range from 11.5% alcohol to 15%, and that may lean more towards one direction or another depending on the vintage.  We want to let the season speak rather than having a dogmatic approach to when we pick.”  They have worked tirelessly in the vineyard to control canopy and yield, seeking tiny, concentrated clusters that can strike a balance between fruit and minerality.  “Sauv is all about minerality.  There should be a fruit component, but if it’s all about fruit it can often get flabby and boring.”

The wines are never the ripest examples from Happy Canyon, though they’re certainly not ultra-lean, early-picked examples.  The team at Dragonette believes that the area finds its truest expression in-between those two extremes.  “I think in general, Happy Canyon has leaned toward a riper style, and that’s often where we find the best representation of place,” states Sparks-Gillis.  “If you ask most people about Sauvignon Blanc, a lot of the things they’ll talk about- herbaceousness, cat pee, high acid- yes, these are related somewhat to climate, but they’re also very much stylistic decisions related to stylized winemaking.”  This slightly riper, more intense character has been a big factor in the wines’ ability to age gracefully as well.  “Happy Canyon typically drifts into the 3.4-3.6 pH range, but the wines still show a lot of spine.  I think part of that has to do with our lower yields.  Without that intensity and concentration, these wines don’t have the bones to age.”

John Dragonette
John Dragonette

The winemaking seeks to accent this concentration texturally and aromatically while preserving the minerality.  Early experimentation with varying amounts of new oak has led them to what seems to be a relatively stable regime of 80% oak (of which only 10-20% is typically new) and 20% stainless steel, though again, the vagaries of vintage may shift these percentages.  “A winemaking technique will often evolve from what someone who’s inspired us is doing, but ultimately we want to express the truth of Happy Canyon,” says John Dragonette.  “For example, we’ve shifted to larger format cigar-shaped barrels similar to what Dagueneau is using, which is what most of our new oak is now, and that brings about a much slower evolution in the wines.”  Rather than create wines defined by the spice or structural character of new barrels, they are using oak as a very subtle accent, with the ultimate goal of, again, emphasizing the site-driven character of Happy Canyon.

The two sites they are currently working with, Grassiniand Vogelzang, create very different wines despite their close proximity and similar soils.  The Grassini shows a unique top note of very fresh coconut, along with kiwi, guava, and piercing minerality.  Sparks-Gillis says the wine’s green label is a nod to the character of the site.  “Grassini has a little more of a green spectrum to the fruit, which is not to say herbaceous or underripe.  This is more just-barely-ripe pineapple, kiwi, more of a freshness.” Vogelzang on the other hand is very deserving of its yellow/orange label: The more exotic of the two, its notes of fig, papaya, and musk are incredibly sexy, and more importantly, utterly singular; in short, it is the essence of Happy Canyon.

In a piece I wrote on Happy Canyon Sauvignon Blanc a few months ago, I said that no one had quite nailed it yet.  Maybe I was being a bit hard on the area, but that’s because I have such strong conviction that Happy Canyon is capable of producing some of the greatest single vineyard Sauvignon Blancs on the planet.  Now that I’ve had the chance to experience the Grassini and Vogelzang bottlings from Dragonette, and more importantly had the chance to experience them in the proper context, I can honestly say that these guys are nailing it.  Brandon Sparks-Gillis says there’s no magic formula; rather, their success is the sum of numerous small steps that elevate the wines to their highest expression.  “Getting from mediocre wine to good wine is not that difficult, but getting from good to great can be an overwhelming amount of work.  We feel like our wines are getting there, but 10 years from now I hope people can taste our wines blind in a lineup and say, ‘that’s Dragonette.’  And hopefully there’s an element of greatness there.”

Los Alamos Valley: An In-Depth Look At Santa Barbara County’s Unsung Treasure

July 21, 2014

Los Alamos Valley sign

In the past decade, Santa Barbara County has exploded with AVAs, and rightfully so.  As we’ve tasted the wines and analyzed the nuances of soil and climate throughout our region, we have begun to carve out special sub-regions of note that have a distinctive voice.  In addition to our early AVAs of Santa Maria Valley (est. 1981) and Santa Ynez Valley (est. 1983), we have Sta. Rita Hills (est. 2001), Happy Canyon of Santa Barbara (est. 2009), Ballard Canyon (est. 2013) and the pending Los Olivos District (likely to be established by 2015).  Yet one of the County’s most historic regions remains without a designation of any kind: the Los Alamos Valley.  This past week I spoke with numerous winemakersand farmers who have worked over the years with Los Alamos Valley fruit to hear their thoughts on the site character of Los Alamos, its various subzones, and the idea of an AVA. santa maria valley AVA wine mapsanta ynez valley AVA wine region When researching a region, I always start with soil; my love lies in the dirt.  Los Alamos, like most great regions, has a wealth of exciting soils.  Shale, clay, sand, gravel, sandstone, and a bit of limestone can be found in various pockets.  This variability within the region has led some to suggest that rather than a single AVA, the area should be broken down into several smaller AVAs.  “I do think it would have to be broken down for it to be true to definition, and that in itself might make it less feasible or practical to do so,” says Seth Kunin of Kunin Wines. There is also a notable difference in temperature between the valley’s west end near Vandenberg Air Force Base, which can be quite chilly, and the eastern end near Alisos Canyon, where things heat up.  Broadly speaking, Los Alamos Valley is 10 degrees cooler on average than Santa Ynez Valley, and 10 degrees warmer than Santa Maria, though again, there are more subtle nuances from east to west.  As a result of these variations in soil and climate, it is difficult to pinpoint a single variety for the region to hang its hat on.  Much like Santa Maria to its north or Santa Ynez to its south, Los Alamos has a multitude of varietal voices that express this place.

Thompson's rolling slopes vineyard
Thompson’s rolling slopes

Starting in the east, near the northern boundary of the Santa Ynez Valley AVA, we find perhaps the area’s most acclaimed sub-region: Alisos Canyon.  Running east of Highway 101 along Alisos Canyon Road, this area is paradise for Rhone varieties, though Cabernet Franc and Gamay also have potential.  The canyon is home to the famed Thompson Vineyard, which has produced legendary Syrahs for 20 years.  Newer sites, such as Martian Ranch, Watch Hill, and The Third Twin, show equal promise.  Despite being a very small region, Alisos Canyon is defined by several different soils, all of which have either sandstone or shale in their parent material.  In the southeast, at Martian and Alisos, there is Chamise shaly and sandy loam.  This acidic shale seems to imbue the wines, Syrah in particular, with brightness and lift even at higher sugars/alcohols.  Across the road, at Thompson, is Tierra Sandy Loam, an alluvial soil providing more textural breadth in the wines.  The Third Twin (formerly Los Tres Burros), Sine Qua Non’s site above Thompson, shifts into San Andreas-Tierra Complex, a much sandier, sandstone-derived soil.  As we shift toward the mouth of the canyon, particularly at Watch Hill, we see very sandy Arnold series soils, making this prime real estate for Grenache in particular.

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The climate is also ideal for Rhone grapes, a Goldilocks-like balance between not-too-hot and not-too-cold.  “For Rhones, Alisos Canyon is still a cool area and fairly uniform in temperature from its mouth east of the 101 most of the way to Foxen Canyon,” says Craig Jaffurs of Jaffurs Wine Cellars.  “As cool as it is, it is somewhat sheltered and warm enough that everything can get ripe yet have the long hang time that lets the flavors develop.  Things can get ripe without being crazy sweet.”  Kunin elaborates on this idea, stating “Alisos is in the Eastern corner of the hypothetical Los Alamos AVA, and so benefits from the warmer airflow of the Santa Ynez Valley. This tempers the predominantly cool coastal breezes that dominate the flats farther West and make them better suited to Pinot Noir and Chardonnay. In general, I think that it is this hybrid airflow pattern that defines Los Alamos.”  Many have suggested that Alisos Canyon should have its own AVA.  Larry Finkle of Coastal Vineyard Care farms many of the sites here (impeccably, I might add), and believes in the potential of not only the Valley as a whole, but Alisos in particular.  “I believe that Los Alamos Valley is special and deserves its own appellation,” says Finkle. “However, Alisos Canyon Road is unique and dominated by Rhone varieties.  As you move west of the town of Los Alamos, the dominant varieties are Chardonnay, Pinot Noir, and Riesling.  For this reason there should probably be at least two sub-appellations.”

lewellen wine

Moving just north of Alisos Canyon, before the town of Los Alamos, we head into the Los Alamos flats along Highway 101.  Lucas & Lewellen owns most of the land here, and has long advocated for the potential of Los Alamos.  Their vineyards contain a wealth of interesting grape varieties, 20 in all, ranging from Nebbiolo and Freisa to Dolcetto and Malvasia Bianca, functioning as a great window into what unexpected grapes may potentially shine in Los Alamos.  Soil here is alluvial, mostly Botella series (also prominently found in the southern Sta. Rita Hills).  As we continue up Highway 101, past the town of Los Alamos, we start to get into bigger plantings, often owned by larger companies such as Beringer, Kendall-Jackson, and Sutter Home.  This could go some ways toward explaining the lack of an AVA for Los Alamos Valley: these larger labels often blend the wines into Central Coast or even North Coast designated wines, rarely vineyard-designating or even putting Santa Barbara County on the label.  “With so many large producers/growers in the area, there hasn’t been the grassroots inertia to garner the acclaim, promote the region or gather data for an AVA application,” explains Kunin.

The steep slopes of Verna's Vineyard
The steep slopes of Verna’s Vineyard

Cat Canyon is the next area of note, located in the northern Los Alamos Valley, just east of Highway 101.  While there are still some bigger corporate plantings, there are also two of the valley’s most noted sites: Verna’s and White Hawk.  Verna’s Vineyard, owned by the Melville family, has served as the source for their more affordable Pinot Noirs, Chardonnays, and Syrahs.  These are some of the top values in California today, particularly the Pinot Noir, driven by a purity of place and a strong core of hard spice.  Jaffurs also produces a superb Syrah from Verna’s; to taste it next to their Thompson bottling is a great illustration of the large difference in site character between Alisos Canyon and Cat Canyon.  Across the street from Verna’s is White Hawk, a lauded source for Syrah.  Sine Qua Non’s Manfred Krankl has utilized this site for many years, and it is one of only two non-estate vineyards he continues to work with, while his protégé Maggie Harrison incorporates it into her flagship Syrah for her Lillian label.  Ojai’s White Hawk Syrah shows wonderful restraint, with great structure, purity and spice.  Viognier is promising from both sites as well, and Ojai recently produced a beautiful Sangiovese from White Hawk.

white hawk vineyard

Both Verna’s and White Hawk are essentially gigantic sand dunes, dominated by Arnold and Corralitos sands, and quite a bit colder than the southern and eastern portions of Los Alamos Valley (on a map, it lines up roughly with the eastern Sta. Rita Hills and the Santa Maria Bench).  One can taste it in the Syrah, which has more pronounced notes of peppercorn and leaner texture, as compared to the meatier, broader wines of Alisos Canyon.  “Verna’s is a cooler site- you can see the fog in Santa Maria from the top of the hill-side block,” says Jaffurs.  “The north (south facing) side of Cat Canyon is a different site from Verna’s which almost faces north – hence its relative coolness.”

Western Los Alamos Valley
Western Los Alamos Valley sunset, viewed from the eastern crest of Kick On Ranch

The final region of note is the valley’s far western edge along Highway 135, not far from Vandenberg Air Force Base.  As a resident of this part of Los Alamos, I can attest that it is very cold, very foggy, and very windy.  Again, there are some bigger/more corporate plantings to be found here, though the quality remains high, particularly in cool climate whites from the large White Hills property, one of the coldest, westernmost vineyards in Santa Barbara County.  The two star sites, however, are Kick On Ranch and Los Alamos Vineyard.

sand in kick on flats
Sand in the flats of Kick On
kickonrocks
Rocks in Kick On’s upper blocks

Kick On Ranch has garnered the most acclaim for, of all things, Riesling.  This should not come as a surprise given the early success of Santa Maria and Sta. Rita Hills with Riesling and Gewurztraminer.  Economics forced those areas to focus on Chardonnay and Pinot Noir, but these varieties remain and thrive in Los Alamos.  Graham Tatomer was one of the first to latch on to this site for his Riesling-focused label, with his single-vineyard bottling a top example of the austere minerality to be found at Kick On.  He has also recently planted Gruner Veltliner, a variety that should show great results here.  Ojai’s Adam Tolmach has also been making beautiful Riesling, as well as Pinot Noir, from the vineyard.  J. Brix are crafting gorgeous examples of Kick On across the varietal spectrum, including Riesling, Pinot Gris, and Pinot Noir in several different iterations (their Petillant Naturel Riesling is one of the top methode ancestrale sparklers I’ve tasted from California).  Soil in this part of the valley is quite sandy, consisting of Arnold, Corralitos, Betteravia, and Tierra series.  In Kick-On’s upper blocks, however, one finds fossils and large pieces of sandstone and shale.  “The ancient-beach soil is mesmerizing,” says Emily Towe of J. Brix.  “We can’t walk Kick On without stopping over and over to pick up shells, stones, fossils. It’s a whisper of history from when it was the bottom of the sea, long before it became the Valley of the Cottonwoods. The vines get to live in both worlds, in a way.”  The minerality in the whites here is amazing, with intensity rarely found outside of Europe’s chilliest climes.  Pinot Noir showcases an intriguing herbal side, with tomato leaf and root vegetable notes, along with dark fruit and spice highlights that are distinct from Sta. Rita Hills or Santa Maria. los alamos vineyard sign The other site of note is the legendary Los Alamos Vineyard.  Ojai’s Adam Tolmach and Au Bon Climat’s Jim Clendenen operated from a barn on the property here in their earliest days.  Gavin Chanin, who is now producing stunning Chardonnay and Pinot Noir from the vineyard, also has fond memories of his early time here.  “During my first harvest in Santa Barbara I lived next door to Los Alamos vineyard in a bunk house, and we used to drink beer and watch them night harvest with huge flood lights,” recalls Chanin.  “It’s got a lot of nostalgia for me.”  Los Alamos Vineyard, like its neighbors in this part of the Valley, is quite sandy, with steep slopes and incredible exposures.  Chardonnay exhibits an intense, almost searing minerality, with fruit playing a background role.  These are not wines defined by aromatic intensity; rather, they are almost entirely about texture and mineral presence, in a fashion not found elsewhere in California.  The Pinots exhibit a similar herbaceousness as that found in Kick On.  “Los Alamos Vineyard is very unique,” says Chanin.  “The wines are rich but held together with great acidity, freshness and minerality. It is my most coastal vineyard but also our warmest because Los Alamos is somewhat cut off from the ocean.”  To taste the wines from Chanin, or Au Bon Climat through their “Historic Vineyard Series” bottlings, is a revelation: they are unlike any other Pinot Noir or Chardonnay from Santa Barbara County.  These are site-driven, beautifully balanced wines that speak loudly of their origins.

So, what is the future for Los Alamos Valley?  The winemakers I spoke with were divided: some believe an AVA would be beneficial, some believe it should be broken into several small AVAs, some believe only Alisos Canyon should have an AVA, and some believe there shouldn’t be any AVAs at all.  Given the diversity of the region, this is no surprise.  “I hate the idea of type casting Los Alamos because it has the potential to do so much at a very high level,” says Chanin.  “Very often with AVAs people only want to plant/produce what the AVA is best known for.”  Craig Jaffurs shares his skepticism at an overarching AVA, though believes Alisos Canyon may be worth designating.  “The larger Los Alamos Valley has not shown enough distinction to warrant becoming an AVA.  Alisos Canyon would be a worthy AVA in the same sense Ballard Canyon is.”  Bryan Babcock, a Sta. Rita Hills veteran who has worked with such sites as El Camino and Loma Verde in Los Alamos Valley’s northern sector, is quick to caution against Pinot Noir becoming Los Alamos’ flagship variety, and also points to the challenges of fractured AVAs.  “I would not hang my hat on Pinot, at least not yet. If you try to be a Pinot appellation, you will be crawling out from under the Sta. Rita Hills and the Santa Maria Valley for the next 100 years… Also be careful about fracturing your AVA and destroying any potential clout that you would have had otherwise. If you don’t put together a critical mass of interest and players, you will witness the still birth of your AVA.”

There are currently, to my knowledge, no plans in the works to establish an AVA within Los Alamos Valley, though there is constant talk about it among the area’s vintners.  Perhaps we’ll never see an official designation for this area, which is a shame, as there are so many beautiful, unique wines coming from here.  As Seth Kunin states, “the concentration of flavor combined with unique structure [in Los Alamos] allows for significant ageing. Certainly some of the best examples of older (5-10 year-old) Syrahs that I have tasted from Santa Barbara County come from Los Alamos.”  I couldn’t agree more.  With the influx of new producers working with the fruit here, and exciting new plantings such as Mike Roth’s Mullet site, there is renewed energy in Los Alamos, carrying on the work of early pioneers like Ojai, Au Bon Climat, and Bedford.  Sites such as Thompson, Los Alamos Vineyard, White Hawk, and Verna’s are already legendary, and I have no doubt that we’ll be discussing Kick On Ranch, Martian, and Watch Hill with the same reverence in the years to come.  I hope that, as we continue to further refine our knowledge of site in Santa Barbara County, we continue to argue the merits of place as passionately as those I spoke with have done here.  It is this open dialogue and elegant exchange of ideas that will continue to elevate our area. A selection of Los Alamos bottlings to seek out:

Alisos Canyon
– Luminesce Thompson Vineyard Syrah
– Jaffurs Thompson Vineyard Syrah
– Ojai Thompson Vineyard Syrah, Grenache
– Kunin Alisos Vineyard Syrah
– Martian Ranch Grenache, Syrah, Gamay, Viognier
– Tercero Watch Hill Grenache
– Bedford Syrah
– Andrew Murray Watch Hill Syrah

Cat Canyon
– Jaffurs Verna’s Vineyard Syrah
– Melville- Anything from Verna’s Vineyard
– Lillian Syrah
– Ojai White Hawk Syrah, Sangiovese
– Tercero White Hawk Viognier, Syrah

Western Los Alamos
– Tatomer Kick On Ranch Riesling
– J. Brix Kick On Ranch Riesling, Pinot Noir, Pinot Gris
– Municipal Winemakers Kick On Ranch Riesling
– Stirm Kick On Ranch Riesling
– Forlorn Hope Kick On Ranch Riesling
– Ojai Kick On Ranch Pinot Noir, Riesling
– Chanin Los Alamos Vineyard Pinot Noir, Chardonnay
– Au Bon Climat Los Alamos Vineyard Pinot Noir, Chardonnay
– Clendenen Family Syrah-Viognier La Cuna
– Bedford Gewurztraminer, Riesling, Chenin Blanc

Winemaker to Watch: The Singular Zinfandel of Eric Bolton

June 24, 2014

Zinfandel wine barrel

I’m fortunate that I am in a position to taste some amazing wines from around the world on a regular basis.  As a result of this, when I assess wines from our area (or any area for that matter), I compare them not just with their local peers, but with my personal benchmarks for great wine on a global scale.  Santa Barbara County, I am proud to say, is making the best wines in its history, and it only seems to be getting better.  I am consistently pleased and excited by what is coming out of our little corner of the world.  Every now and then, however, I taste something that goes a bit deeper, that burrows into my mind and truly blows me away, forcing me to recalibrate the way I view a particular grape variety.  This past week I had that experience with the Zinfandel of Eric Bolton.

A graduate of CSU Fresno, Bolton has vast knowledge of the science of winemaking.  Yet he is not a mad scientist in the winery; rather, he prefers to focus on bringing in healthy, balanced fruit from properly farmed sites and let it do its thing.  Fermentations happen with native yeast, and there are no additions beyond sulfur.  Bolton first gained acclaim as head of the winemaking team for the Ambullneo (now known as Greg Linn) label.  While these have flown somewhat under the radar locally, they are stunning expressions of Pinot Noir: lots of whole-cluster, alcohols in the high 12s to mid 13s, an incredible array of floral and spice aromatics, and great longevity.  2013 marked Bolton’s first year stepping out on his own, making just around 40 cases of Zinfandel.

“The vineyard source is Tres Niños, right across the street from DePaola Vineyard near Lake Lopez in Arroyo Grande.  It’s a rocky clay loam,” Bolton states matter-of-factly. (Okay, so technically we’re in San Luis Obispo County here, but Bolton is making his wine in Santa Maria and he is the essence of SB County’s spirit through and through).  Despite being picked quite late in the season, the fruit was just barely/perfectly ripe, clocking in around 13% alcohol, almost unheard-of for modern Zinfandel. Bolton also embraced Zin’s textural resemblance to other thin-skinned grapes like Pinot Noir and Grenache and fermented the grapes 50% whole-cluster, a somewhat atypical decision that proved wise.  Nick de Luca of Ground Effect recently did the same with his Zinfandel out of Paso Robles and the results were equally stunning.  “You don’t really pick up the whole-cluster much now other than texturally.  It’s really shifted a lot in barrel,” says Bolton.

Mineral zinfandel wines
Mineral wines deserve a mineral backdrop

The Arroyo Grande Valley may be one of the most underrated locations in the state for great Zinfandel.  Colder than many of Zin’s more fashionable locales, yet warm enough to ripen Zinfandel to extreme levels should one choose to do so, it is a perfect spot for more classically balanced Zin.  Saucelito Canyon has long produced legendary wines from their estate here, particularly their small parcel of vines dating back to the 1800s.  Bolton’s rendition, however, is without comparison.  Opening with classic varietal notes of peach and brambly red fruits, it unfolds to more exotic aromatics of wet gravel, white pepper, and violets.  Texturally, the whole cluster provides precision and a lithe presence, with an intensely mineral finish reminiscent of chalk.  To find Zinfandel in this style, one would have to go back to the early iconoclasts, such as Ridge and Joseph Swan.  “I have to say Ridge would be the biggest inspiration,” smiles Bolton.  “Those Zins they made in the ‘90s were great.  I had an ’87 in 2006 and it was a wonderful wine, still going strong.  I also worked with Michael Dashe and liked what he was doing; he’s certainly an inspiration as well.”

Bolton will continue to make this wine in 2014, and hopes to add Sangiovese to his roster in the near future.  “I would love to do something that could stand head to head with great Brunello, but I have to find the perfect source,” Bolton says.  Given the beautiful wines he’s crafted thus far, I have no doubt that he could do great things with a grape that has perplexed many of California’s best.  For now, I’ll be grabbing all I can of his Zinfandel, as it is a singular wine of inspiration and place, and a new favorite.

All of the wines featured on our blog can be found at the Los Olivos Wine Merchant and Cafe!

In the Mouth a Desert: Dry Farming in Santa Barbara County

June 2, 2014

In the Old World, farming grapevines without irrigation is the standard. Even on the Greek island of Santorini, which averages just 3-4 inches of rainfall per year, the vines are, miraculously, not irrigated.  By comparison, Santa Barbara County’s average of 12 inches per year sounds like a deluge.  Yet the vast majorities of vineyards in our area, as well as the rest of California, are irrigated.  While grapevines require less water than many crops, the issue of water conservation in the vineyard is one that will need to be addressed more seriously in the coming years as our drought events become more frequent and extreme.  This week I spoke with two of Santa Barbara County’s dry farming practitioners, Bill Wathen of Foxen and Peter Stolpman of Stolpman, about how they manage the challenges of dry farming and the character of the resulting wines.

The growing conditions at these two sites are strikingly different.  At Stolpman Vineyards, in the heart of Ballard Canyon, “we are blessed to sit on a 3 foot layer of moisture and nutrient retaining clay with a 300ft deep slab of limestone beneath,” says Stolpman.  “Not only does the clay retain moisture, but it also retains the cold temperatures of the night.  The clay makes our land even better suited to dry-farming, as the impact of day-time heat is lessened.” Foxen’s Tinaquaic Vineyard, on the other hand, has much more challenging conditions, with a lot of sand, a soil whose extremely well-draining nature poses one of the greatest challenges for dry farming in Santa Barbara County.  “The soil profile at Tinaquaic is a little magical, as in I don’t know how these vines do it every year with only annual rainfall,” states Wathen.  “It is a deep sandy loam, unsure of the Series (ed. Note: the USDA soil map says it’s Arnold Sand), with pockets of Careaga sand. In years of normal rainfall the vine canopy can be quite aggressive, so there is a lot of retention. We generally average 2 to 3 tons per acre (3-4 pounds per vine) yields historically.”  Amazingly, even in these difficult growing conditions, Wathen is able to get sustainable yields and make it work without water.

Spacing in vineyards where the goal is dry farming is an important factor.  When one observes California’s historical vineyard plantings pre-1960s, which were essentially all dry farmed, spacing was very wide, and the vines were often untrellised.  As modern farming has looked to top sites in the Old World such as Burgundy and their farming practices for inspiration, California’s vineyards have moved to much tighter spacing, often as tight as meter by meter, occasionally even closer.  This poses much greater hurdles for dry farming as the competition for water increases.  Stolpman, who has variable spacing on his property, believes that the type of trellis is just as important as the spacing.  “Our spacing ranges from 10×5 to 3×3 in the vineyard.  The 10×5 blocks certainly adapt the best to dry farming, but we’ve also seen positive results in our 3×3 block,” he says.  “Key with the tightest spaced blocks is head-pruning and not expecting much yield per vine.  The jury is still out regarding our conventional 3×6 blocks where the six foot rows allow us to trellis the vines.  These vines are set up to carry more canopy and more clusters than the tighter head-pruned blocks.”

Wathen’s property has more space between vines, though he believes going even wider from the get go may have been more advantageous.  “When Dick (Doré) and I planted Tinaquaic in 1989, we really didn’t think through the irrigation issue. We planted what was high density at the time (8X4), and assumed that water grew on trees here at the ranch,” Wathen states.  “We were able to give each vine 1 gallon of water every 10 days through the first two growing seasons. After that, they seemed fine without water, so we changed strategy.  Ideally, yet after the fact, we should have gone on a 10X10 or 12X12 planting without a trellis, enabling us to cross cultivate.”

Both sites utilize cover crops, and are very cognizant of the timing in planting and plowing.  “We plant cover crop every year for erosion control and green manure,” says Wathen.  “The cycle here goes 1) disc and plant cover crop after harvest. 2) Disc the cover crop under early to late spring, depending on the annual precipitation that year; dry years earlier, wet years later. 3) Disc and roll a few times late spring to seal the surface.”

With 3 years of drought, culminating in 2014’s extremely dry conditions, farming adjustments have been made at both sites to make dry farming possible.  “We have elongated the weaning periods for younger vines,” Stolpman says.  “This year for instance, we gave all of the vines 12 years and under an overnight drink once in January and February to imitate normal rainfall.  We gave the very young vines another drink in April and early May.  We only irrigate during root days and from our own measurements know that water goes 8-12 inches deeper into the Limestone with less Lunar gravity.”  Wathen has also had to shift his approach.  “This year has been extremely challenging balancing the canopy,” emphasizes Wathen.  “You always need to be thinking about next year.  Adjustment farming is the key.  The rule of thumb is >20 inch shoot, 2 clusters. 12-20 inch shoot, 1 cluster. Less than 12 inch shoot, 0 clusters.”

So, is the character of dry farmed vines detectable in the glass?  Wathen and Stolpman have different opinions on the subject.  “We find we get a natural balance from dry-farmed vineyards as the vines regulate themselves,” says Stolpman.  “Because of the lack of water, the vines want to go dormant in the fall, and we try to pick while the vine is on its last breath, giving us a perfectly ripe crop.  Irrigated vines will continue green and happy, with no sense of the seasons, and winemakers may choose to pick much later at higher sugars.”  Wathen has a different take.  “I really have not seen any difference in ripening curves vs. irrigated fruit.  Believe me though, if I had the water, I would irrigate.”

As a lover and seeker of site character in wine, the issue of dry farming is one I’m passionate about.  There is a representation of vintage and place in these wines that can’t be denied.  While I love many, many wines that come from irrigated vines, most of whom are also managing their water use meticulously, there is a truth in wines from completely dry farmed fruit that seems to set itself apart.  “Balanced vines give balanced wines.  Dry farming allows the vineyard to give a truer expression of itself rather than the more modern, homogenous approach of irrigating, green-dropping, and picking late,” emphasizes Stolpman.  And when one tastes a bottle of Stolpman’s “Originals” Syrah or Foxen’s Tinaquaic Vineyard Cabernet Franc, it’s hard to argue this statement.  I hope that the conversation about dry farming becomes a more prominent one in the future of Santa Barbara County, and that we can have an open dialogue about how water, or the lack thereof, will define our future as a wine culture.

Some Velvet Morning: Ryan Deovlet and Refugio Ranch

May 12, 2014

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Journey just past the Santa Ynez River, into the hills off of Refugio Road, up a steep gravel driveway, and you will be greeted by the spectacular vistas of Refugio Ranch.  Rising dramatically into the Santa Ynez Mountains, this 415 acre ranch is a sprawling piece of property, comprised mostly of open spaces; just 27 acres are currently planted.  I met with Ryan Deovlet, Refugio Ranch’s contemplative winemaker, on an overcast Monday to explore the intricacies of this special site.

Refugio Ranch

We climbed into the ranch’s Polaris, and went zooming up a precipitous hill.  Rounding a bend, I was greeted by a tiny block of Syrah.  “This is the Escondido (hidden) block, Clone 383, which is a little bit compromised by daylight hours.” Tucked way back into a canyon on the ranch, one can understand both the name and the challenges of ripening in this spot.  “Because of the shadowing in this block we lose a couple hours of sunlight compared to the rest of the ranch.  It tends to be a little more red fruit, with a lot of the carpaccio, pepper, meaty character.  It actually inspired me to create a second red wine blend because it is so distinct from our other blocks.”

In talking with Deovlet, I quickly saw his desire to grow with the Ranch, willing to abandon previously held ideas or techniques if it meant better expressing a sense of place.  “I have total autonomy, but it’s a collaboration between all of us, Niki and Kevin Gleason (the Ranch’s owners), Ruben Solorzano, (of Coastal Vineyard Care Associates), and myself.  We’ll pull corks together and talk about the direction of the property and evaluate what we’re doing.  With these small lots, you take a risk sometimes and it doesn’t always work.  But for the most part, things are working out and they’re putting their trust in me and giving me autonomy.”

The farming here is essentially organic, though there aren’t currently plans to pursue certification.  Like many properties I’ve visited in the valley recently, I was impressed by the diverse ecosystem they’ve preserved and nurtured here and how they’ve adapted to the unique needs of the site.  “Kevin and Niki were cognizant of what they had here.  It’s a nice, cool sanctuary,” says Deovlet.  “They were very conscientious of where to plant and how to preserve the natural terrain.  It still has a raw, wild feel.”

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The diversity of the Ranch also applies to their choice of plantings:  Semillon, Sauvignon Blanc, Roussanne, Viognier, and Malvasia Bianca for the whites; Syrah, Grenache, a recent addition of Sangiovese, and Petite Sirah for the reds.  Deovlet also plans for some new additions, perhaps Picpoul or Bourboulenc to bring more acid and minerality to the whites, as well as some Grenache planted in their sandier river blocks.  One of the most intriguing varieties on the property is Malvasia Bianca.  Deovlet crafts a beautiful Spring white from this fruit, with a touch of residual sugar, a hint of spritz, and great acid, balancing the minerality of the Ranch with an easy-going exuberance.

A recently dug soil pit showing that intensely black loam.
A recently dug soil pit showing that black loam.

Speaking of minerality, the soils here are some of the most exciting I have seen in Santa Barbara County.  Black and lunar-like, with lots of rocky topsoil, it’s a clay loam with mudstone in its origins, quite different from the soils of the Los Olivos District AVA that stops just north of here.  “It’s organic, heavy earth, alluvial mountain runoff all captured within this little bowl we have here,” states Deovlet.  “We have great water retention.  The goal is to eventually dry farm everything, which we’ve been working with Ruben on.”  While these are mostly sedimentary soils, there is a bit of igneous material in their Petite Sirah in the form of granite, perhaps helping to explain why this grape expresses itself in such a singular way here.

Decomposed granite in the Petite Sirah block.
Decomposed granite in the Petite Sirah block.

“The Petite, for me, sort of serves as our Mourvedre, bringing a little more structure and putting a California twist on a Southern Rhone-inspired blend,” states Deovlet.  He and Ruben are also exploring a new farming technique, using a crossbar to spread the canopy in the fruiting zone on the Petite, with the goal of giving the fruit longer hang time while preventing issues with rot or mildew.    “We have to be very focused on canopy balance and low yields, with the intention that we can get all the fruit off before we hit the late October rains.  In ’09 and ’10 we had those storms come through before we got everything in and we learned some hard lessons.  That being said, if low yields over and over and over again mean the project never gets into the black, that project isn’t sustainable.  There has to be a balance in the farming.”

Petite Sirah crossbar
Petite Sirah crossbar

Deovlet and Solorzano have had to make some big strides very quickly in approaching the farming at the Ranch as the growing conditions are so particular.  “We haven’t had the most consistent of vintages, so we’ve had to learn on the fly.  I’m blessed to be working with Ruben; everyone calls him the grape whisperer, and it’s true, he’s very intuitive in his approach.”  While Deovlet initially had some concerns with the slightly higher pHs/lower acids the site was giving him, he’s learned to accept them, particularly after speaking to old world winemakers like Chave who see similar numbers.  In place of acid, the structure of Refugio Ranch comes from tannin.  “When I’m pulling fruit, it might be 25 or 26 Brix.  At those numbers, we see that ideal tannin development, and at this site the vine isn’t starting to shut down.”

When the subject of Chave, one of the great iconoclcasts of the Northern Rhone, arose, I asked if Deovlet still saw the Old World as his benchmark.  He thoughtfully replied, “I’m certainly inspired by the Old World, and you do find some of those aromatic markers here.  That being said, I like to have a foot in the Old World and a foot in the New.  I certainly take some ideas and inspiration, but we have this California sunshine, and these unique growing conditions, and I want to create something that speaks to the character of the Ranch.”  To that end, the project is expanding their lineup of wines based around what the vineyard has shown them thus far, from 3 different bottlings to 8.  While this may initially present challenges from a sales standpoint, their motivations are solely quality-driven.  “It’s not diluted in moving from 3 wines to 8; it’s the opposite, it’s listening to the vineyard and fine tuning our style,” emphasizes Deovlet.  “We’re making great strides in learning to understand the property, and how distinct it is.”

Grenache on the left, Alban clone Syrah on the right.
Grenache on the left, Alban clone Syrah on the right.

For such a young property, Refugio Ranch has made incredible leaps in quality very quickly, due in no small part to the passionate team in place.  “The Ranch, generally speaking, has been a beautifully organic evolution to learn, block by block, how to approach viticulture from a very individualistic approach, and the same in the cellar,” says Deovlet.  “I think that process has kept us in tune and taught us to listen to the wine.  The ultimate question is, stylistically, are we doing justice to this property?  They’re coming out of the gate delivering pleasure, and I think and hope they’re going to age as well.”  Their current lineup indicates that they are indeed listening intently to the voice of this place, and I expect it to become ever more clear and distinct in the coming years.


BUY:
REFUGIO RANCH 2014 ‘AQUA DULCE DE REFUGIO’ MALVASIA BIANCA, SANTA YNEZ VALLEY

REFUGIO RANCH 2014 SAUVIGNON BLANC, ‘TIRADORA’, SANTA YNEZ VALLEY, CALIFORNIA

Another Green World: From Farm to Table with Buttonwood’s Karen Steinwachs

April 21, 2014

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“All of these wines are grown for the table.”  With this one sentence Karen Steinwachs sums up the philosophical core of Buttonwood.  A working farm as well as vineyard and winery, Buttonwood is centered on the idea that wine’s ultimate purpose is to shine at table, where it can spark conversation and communion with friends and family.  I spoke with Karen this week about her farming and winemaking approach, as well as the unique environment that is Buttonwood Farm.

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After years in the high-tech world, Steinwachs decided to leave the rat race and pursue a long-held dream of working in the wine industry.  An ardent fan of Santa Barbara County wines, she managed to secure a gig at Lincourt in the fall of 2001, working her way up from the bottom as a cellar rat.  “I kept talking to the winemaker about ways that the winery could be more efficient, because once you’ve been in management as long as I have been, it’s hard to drop that attitude.”  A great student, she quickly worked her way up the ranks of such notable wineries as Foley and Fiddlehead.  When the opportunity to take over as winemaker at Buttonwood arose in 2007, she jumped at the chance.

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“I was very familiar with Buttonwood from attending their many events.  I loved the concept of it being a farm as well as a vineyard.”  Aware of the fact that she was stepping into a winery with a style people were familiar with, she approached her first vintage with the goal of learning about the character of the fruit, vinifying every lot separately to gain knowledge about the site character.  Through this meticulous approach, she was able to see the strengths and needs of the vineyard, and has gradually brought her own style to the wines to accentuate the site’s best characteristics.  “There have been changes since I took over.  The wines are now a little more approachable while still being age-worthy.  We work a lot on tannin management, because I want to be able to enjoy the wines while I’m still alive.  We’ve also worked on bringing more freshness to the whites.”

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There is no recipe here; rather, the vagaries of the vintage are allowed to shine and adapted to.  “We approach every single wine differently and adjust from year to year as we fine tune the needs of each wine.  I grow 10 different grape varieties here, and we’ve sought to make the wines more distinct from each other and really give them their own voice.”  This experimentation and exploration extends to the vineyard, where new grape varieties have been planted in the name of making more complete wines.  “We’ve grafted some of our Merlot to Malbec and plan to plant some more.  And on the white side, we’ve grafted quite a bit of Grenache Blanc, which grows beautifully here.  I see it becoming a signature grape of the Los Olivos District AVA.”

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The soils at Buttonwood are mostly Santa Ynez series, part of the uniform Ballard-Positas-Santa Ynez series that defines the Los Olivos District, though there is some diatomaceous earth, serpentine and sand in pockets.  They also sit on the aquifer that is common throughout the AVA.  “We have a very big aquifer here, and a lot of the oldest vineyards in the Santa Ynez Valley are in this part of the valley.  There are also a lot of own-rooted vines, and the roots here go incredibly deep.”  Much like Fred Brander, the architect of the Los Olivos District, Steinwachs feels the area is still defining itself, but has all the makings of a great AVA.  “It’s going to be a tough area to define because it truly is different than the other AVAs here.  Our defining factor is that our soils are totally uniform, unlike Sta. Rita Hills, Happy Canyon or Ballard Canyon.  I always get a minerality, which is a word that can be hard to define, but there is a rocky quality in our site that I find throughout the AVA.  The wines also tend to have great acidity, in part due to the big temperature shifts from day to night we have here.”

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Like many vineyards in the area, Buttonwood excels with several different Bordeaux and Rhone varieties.  However, Steinwachs sees two standouts in her work there thus far.  “I have to credit Chris Burroughs for the tagline ‘Blanc and Franc.’  Sauvignon Blanc and Cabernet Franc have been here since the beginning and grow beautifully.”  Even in cool years like 2010 or 2011, the Cabernet Franc here (as with all of their Bordeaux varieties) isn’t green or vegetal; rather, there is earth, cigar box, and raspberry fruit, with only a hint of pyrazine, an unmistakably Californian expression of the grape that has the balance and presence of great Bourgueil.  “Cabernet Franc is a fussy little diva, it’s like Pinot Noir.  You have to grow it perfectly or it throws a tantrum, you have to baby it in the cellar, but it makes great wines.  We do focus on leaf pulling and shoot thinning in the vineyard to avoid that green character, but generally we don’t find that bell pepper character from this site.”

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The farming at Buttonwood is some of the most thoughtful in the Valley.  While it incorporates elements of organics and biodynamics, it is most reminiscent to me of Japanese iconoclast Masanobu Fukuoka’s philosophy, adapting to the natural needs and environment of the site.  “We say that we’re farming ‘biologically.’  We don’t use any synthetic herbicides or insecticides,” says Steinwachs.  “Our theory is that if we keep the plants healthy and maintain a diverse environment, they’ll protect themselves.  Philosophically, we’ve really got our own way of farming, which is organically minded, self-contained, and focusing intensely on what nutrients the soil may need.  We’re constantly testing the soil to see how we can address the needs of our plants.”  As her friend and fellow winemaker Nick De Luca (a proponent of Fukuoka-inspired farming) says, “terroir is an unplanted field,” and in this sense, the farming at Buttonwood seems geared towards capturing the essence of the land as accurately and naturally as possible.

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Buttonwood Vineyard and Farm looks and feels very much like old school California.  Yet it also points the way to what the vineyard of California’s future will likely look like: wider spacing to address our growing water issues; cover crops growing wild; polyculture, with fruits and vegetables growing alongside grapes; in essence, a self-contained ecosystem where the farming adapts to the needs of the place rather than dogmatically following a prescribed set of rules.  “It’s not about me as a winemaker,” says Steinwachs.  “We farm for deliciousness, whether that’s tomatoes or wine.  We love the fact that people are coming back to the table.  It’s not just the eating and drinking, it’s the communal aspect of people getting together.  And that’s what Buttonwood is about.”

Busy Being Born: Angela Osborne and A Tribute to Grace

March 31, 2014

tribute to grace

A good wine captures its vineyard.  A great wine captures its vineyard AND the personality of its winemaker.  When I think of the wines that have inspired me- Didier Dagueneau’s various expressions of Pouilly-Fumé, Soldera’s Brunello, the Cabernet Sauvignon of Bob Travers at Mayacamas- I think of them not only as the essence of the place they grow, but as an encapsulation of their creators.  To that list I would add Angela Osborne of A Tribute to Grace.  She puts her heart and soul into every bottle, and one can sense her presence in the glass, a feminine, ethereal, joyful rendering of site and self.  I spoke with her this week about her new spring release and the character that makes these wines so distinctive.

Cynicism is impossible around Angela Osborne.  She radiates such positive energy that even when she discusses the more esoteric aspects of her winemaking philosophy or her views on farming, there is such genuine belief and lack of artifice that one can’t help but be compelled.  Take the hummingbirds that grace the corks of her current vintage.  “The Chumash believe the hummingbird represents the grandmother energy, and both of my grandmothers became angels last year, so now they watch over all the bottles of Grace,” says Osborne.  “There were 13,776 hummingbirds that came into the world this vintage, which was really powerful for me.”  It is these little details- imbuing something as mundane as a cork with so much love- that make her wines stand out.

This detail-oriented approach extends to the winemaking.  Her varied experiments in the cellar are some of the most thought-out and intriguing I have seen.  Techniques that may have worked in past vintages will be altered or abandoned completely if the current vintage or a burst of inspiration calls for it.  Her new release is a great example of this, in particular her Grenache rosé.  Angela’s 2013 is a wildly different take than her 2012.  The ’12 came from Coghlan Vineyard on the western fringe of Happy Canyon, was aged in large neutral oak puncheons, and went through full malolactic fermentation, making for a rosé with heft and richness.  The ’13? “The 2013 spent 24 hours on the skins, and then fermented cold in stainless, aged entirely in stainless, no ML.  It’s also from the Highlands this year.  Bottled on my birthday, March 3rd.”  Despite the critical acclaim she received for her previous rosé, she felt the need to do a total 180 and explore a new winemaking approach.  “I really liked the ’12, it was really soft and approachable, but I wanted to experiment this year with something a little higher acid, especially working with the Highlands.  It feels like it’s got lighter feet, a bit more playful, which suits me at the moment.”

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The Highlands that she speaks of is the Santa Barbara Highlands Vineyard.  It is a site so perfectly suited to Osborne’s style, and her chosen medium of Grenache, that it’s difficult to imagine her without the Highlands and vice versa.  Located on the eastern edge of Santa Barbara County, in Ventucopa, this lunar-looking site is one of the most unique in California.  “It doesn’t really feel of this world.  It’s very moon like.  Kind of silences you a bit,” says Osborne.  At 3200 feet elevation, and subject to an extreme continental climate, it is separated into two sections: the valley floor and the Mesa.  Angela’s single vineyard Grenache has typically been a mix of both, but with 2012, she has shifted to utilizing entirely Mesa fruit, with the valley floor being used for rosé and her Santa Barbara County blend.  While the valley floor is very sandy, the soils of the mesa are loamier, and, more importantly, laced with igneous rocks- basalt, quartz, gneiss, and granite- making for soil conditions that are singular within Santa Barbara County.

“The ’12 has an entirely different tannic structure.  This is the first year I’ve bottled the Mesa by itself, and there’s much more strength there.  It’s 50% whole cluster, whereas my valley floor blocks are all destemmed,” says Osborne.  Her Grenache from the Highlands has always been noted for its delicate nature and elegant texture, though she doesn’t worry about losing this with the addition of whole cluster; rather, she is seeking more structure, with the hope of giving the wines the ability to age like the great Chateauneufs, particularly Chateau Rayas, which she admires.  “I’ve yet to come to a point where the whole cluster becomes too much.  I hope it will give longevity, in a different way energetically than acid, but hopefully with the same ability to age.  I don’t want it to be overt, but I love the spice of Grenache, and I feel a lot of that comes from whole cluster.”  She also chooses to make the stylistic separation in the cellar between her varying lots of whole cluster or destemmed fruit in typically creative fashion.  “I always separate the fermentations into whole cluster, layered, destemmed, and whole cluster and destemmed,” says Osborne.  “I label my barrels as sun and moon, because I feel the moon energy is represented by the whole cluster, and the sun is the fruit.  So each barrel lists percentages of sun and moon.”

The future for A Tribute to Grace is wide open.  The Osborne clan is hoping to eventually split their time between Santa Barbara County and Angela’s home country, New Zealand, working two harvests a year, having a small patch of land to call their own, and raising a family.  It’s a goal that, like the wines of A Tribute to Grace, is beautiful and true.

Chalk Art: The Mineral-Rich Wines of Larner Vineyard

March 24, 2014

larner vineyards vines

If you think most winemakers are obsessed with soil, try hanging out with one who’s a former geologist.  Michael Larner shifted his career path from studying rocks to expressing their presence through wine and hasn’t looked back.  From the labels to the winemaking philosophy, the wines of Larner Vineyard are driven by a devotion to expression of the earth, and there’s a palpable passion for place in every bottle.  I took a trip to Larner with Michael this past week and was amazed by the dedicated farming and incredible geology of this special place.

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Located in the southern end of the new Ballard Canyon AVA, the vineyard was planted in 1999 and 2000, and currently has just 34 acres of grapevines.  The geological jumble at Larner would make any soil geek salivate.  In the upper hills one finds bits of the rocky Paso Robles conglomerate; there are chunks of Careaga sandstone, chert, and quartz; Marina sand overlays much of the property (“We have a running joke that we should have started a business selling playbox sand before we started the vineyard,” says Larner); and underlying everything is chalk- Larner’s defining soil.  Unlike the northern half of Ballard Canyon, which has harder limestone, Larner sits on a bed of very friable, and thus easily exchangeable, chalk.  I was somewhat surprised to find that the soils here, despite their chalkiness, are actually quite acidic, much like the acidic granite of the Northern Rhone.  “Our soil pH is around 4.5, though we chose to focus on rootstocks to address that issue rather than amend it with something like gypsum.”  In general, Larner’s approach to farming has focused on a natural approach and finding ways to let the vineyard most clearly express itself.  They have been farming organically for several years as well, and are wrapping up the official certification process.

A view of the chalk that so defines Larner
A view of the chalk that defines Larner

Like most of Ballard Canyon, Larner excels with several different Rhone varieties, along with a guest appearance by some delicious Malvasia Bianca, but the shining star is Syrah.  The Ballard Canyon Winegrowers are even taking the unique step of creating a cartouche bottle for estate-grown Syrahs from the region, along the lines of what one might see in Barolo.  “We’ve planted 7 different clones of Syrah, which allows us to get multiple expressions of Syrah from one site,” says Larner.  “Our idea was never to put 20 acres of one clone and one rootstock; we wanted diversity.”  This clonal diversity has also allowed Larner to observe the flavors imparted by the site separate from those imparted by clone.  “To me, the thread has always been that minerality.  I call it flint, and there is a lot of flint and chert here,” says Larner.  “There’s also a chocolate note, different from oak-derived chocolate aromatics, reminiscent of cacao.”

chunks of chert
Michael Larner showing off chunks of chert

The vineyard initially came to fame through the fruit it sold to small producers.  “By definition, the clonal diversity meant that we needed to find smaller producers to buy the fruit.  We couldn’t provide 20 tons that would ripen at once for a larger brand,” says Larner.  “As a result, these smaller guys started branding the vineyard, and really distinguishing the site in the eyes of critics and the public.”  While the Larner estate program has grown, Larner’s focus is still on the clients who made the site’s reputation. “People often think we’d be taking the best fruit for ourselves, but we always make sure our clients get what they want first and farm it to their specifications.  We actually end up with what they don’t want.”  The list of winemakers who purchase fruit here reads like a who’s who of Santa Barbara County: Paul Lato, Jaffurs, Herman Story, Kunin, Tercero, Palmina, Bonaccorsi, Kaena, Transcendence, McPrice Myers– and that’s not even the whole lineup!

The winemakers who purchase Larner fruit speak of the site, and its farming, as though it were a top lieu-dit in the Rhone Valley.  “Michael really wants his clients’ wines to be great,” says Craig Jaffurs, owner and winemaker of Jaffurs Wine Cellars.  “I think he takes our wine as a personal reflection.  Because of this, he’ll go above and beyond the call of duty to get our grapes farmed, picked, and delivered.  In 2010, a cool, tough harvest year, Michael offered to pick our grapes in sub-lots so we could maximize our quality.”

Looking down into Syrah, with Grenache on the right
Looking down into Syrah, with Grenache in the upper right

The wines from Larner Vineyard, across producers, are fascinating in their structure.  In my experience the wines need a few years in bottle to really strut their stuff, striking that perfect balance between minerality, spice, and fruit.  It is also a vineyard that seems to favor picking at relatively restrained ripeness levels.  “Larner shows its best at moderate sugar levels, not at the extremes,” says Larry Schaffer of Tercero.  “If you pick too early, the naturally higher acid in the grapes will be too prominent, as will the higher than normal tannins. If you pick too late, the verve that the vineyard brings because of the sandy soil does not translate into the grapes.”  As a result, there is a beautiful balance here between muscular structure and delicate aromatics.  “It produces a wine with rich but not heavy fruit and moderate tannins,” says Seth Kunin of Kunin Wines.  “In a blend it is the mid-range, filling in all of the gaps that may have been left by more high-toned or darker, more tannic fruit. On its own, in the best vintages, it shows earthy, smoked meat aromas along with the fruit, and has admirable length, considering that it still doesn’t come across as overtly tannic.”

Larner Vineyards sign

In addition to the huge soil influence, climate is a major factor here, as the vineyard occupies a cooler microclimate than most of the AVA.  “It seems to stay much cooler than other parts of Ballard Canyon and therefore things tend to move along much slower there,” says Schaffer.  “Bud break tends to be later and grapes just seem to take their pretty little time.”  Jaffurs agrees, attributing the quality of this site’s other star grape, Grenache, to this more moderate climate.  “Ballard Canyon, and his spot in particular, are in that sweet spot between the really cool marine influences of Lompoc and the warmer Santa Ynez spots.  He could have the best Grenache site in Santa Barbara County.”

Michael Larner explaining the geology of Ballard Canyon
Michael Larner explaining the geology of Ballard Canyon

Larner Vineyard is one of the most thrilling sites in a region filled with them (Jonata, Stolpman, and Purisima Mountain just to name a few).  The passion of Michael Larner, and his desire to elevate not only his vineyard, but Ballard Canyon and Santa Barbara County as a whole, is readily apparent.  “One of the things I look for in a vineyard other than site is an ‘impassioned grower.’  Michael certainly fits the bill,” says Jaffurs.  “He loves his vineyard like he loves his family.  He is hard working and committed, and always in good humor, even when things are tough.”  Kunin echoes these sentiments, saying “This business is one built on relationships – both in the marketplace and in the vineyard – and I am happy to have a lengthy and fruitful (no pun intended) one with the Larner family.”  This family oriented, hands-on, untiring spirit is the essence of what makes our area so special.  And ultimately, it is these intangible factors that give Larner Vineyard that little something extra.

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