Hawk Wakawaka Wine Reviews

In Love with Sherry + Champagne: Peter Liem compares the two

Hawk Wakawaka

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Jun 30, 2014

Comparing Sherry and Champagne

Just prior to the opening of Sherryfest West, Martine’s Wines and Valkyrie Selections hosted a Sherry and Champagne event at The Battery in San Francisco. The event included several flights of grower champagnes, followed by flights of grower sherry, all accompanied by a panel of experts.

The panel included Baron Ziegler of Valkyrie Selections, and Gregory Castells of Martine’s Wines to introduce champagne, and Lorenzo Garcia-Iglesias of Bodegas Tradicion, and Jan Pettersen of Bodegas Rey Fernando de Castilla to discuss sherry. Peter Liem opened the event with a discussion of the ways in which champagne and sherry unwittingly resemble each other.

The Houses Poured

The wine flights included Champagne Gonet-Médeville, Champagne Larmandier-Bernier, Champagne Saint-Chamant, then Fernando de Castilla, and Bodegas Tradición.

Champagne Gonet-Medeville offers a focus on refined freshness, rather than opulence. The wines carry delicacy, purity, and beautiful subtlety throughout.

Champagne Larmandier-Bernier gives a center line of salinity and freshness through a body of texture and fruit presence. The wines are all made with only native yeast ferment, a condition quite unusual in Champagne, and sparkling wine more generally. With the exception of their rosé, their wines are all 100% Chardonnay. The house is also one of the biggest proponents of bio-dynamic farming in the region, a recommendation that proves challenging as Champagne suffers high mildew pressure. Biodynamic farming, then, requires far more hands on viticulture in the region.

Saint-Chamant Champagne delivers a wine of opulence, with incredible complexity, while at the same time maintaining freshness. The wines open with age offering an easy balance of opulence and mineral freshness. Current release vintages from the last decade are still quite young and would do well with time in the bottle before opening.

Fernando de Castilla could be considered a boutique bodegas, or grower sherry house. It developed through a focus on only the highest quality sherry, wines made for the best of the local market. More recently Fernando de Castilla has begun to export these unique styles of sherry outside the Spanish market. As an example, Fernando de Castilla offers one of the only remaining examples of Antique Fino, a wine made through the older approach to sherry rarely possible today. To read more on the heritage of Antique Fino: http://www.crushwineco.com/crush-library/fernando-de-castilla-antique-fino/

Bodegas Tradición, another boutique level bodegas, seeks to create the finest quality sherry by avoiding or reducing filtering, and additives, and hand selecting the best lots for bottling. The result are wonderfully pure expressions of the wine. They also succeed in delivering beautiful older examples at small production levels.

The Discussion

The coupling of champagne and sherry appears at first an unusual choice. The two wines are thought of rather separately with bubbles from the cool Northern reaches of France seeming unlike fortified wine from the warmer areas of Spain. As Liem explored, however, in terms of methodology and production there are actually numerous insightful comparisons to be made between the two wines.

Following are thoughts from Peter Liem, during his introduction to the event.

Peter Liem (right) discussing the commonalities between Sherry and Champagne
Sherryfest West, San Francisco, June 2014

“Champagne and sherry are two wines very dear to me for personal, and professional reasons. On the face of it, sherry and champagne look like disparate things.

“Champagne is the epitome of cool climate, from Northern France, delicate, and low in alcohol. Sherry is fortified to be above 15% in alcohol, from one of the Southern most growing regions in Europe, and is low in acidity.

“There is a spiritual element common between the two, as well as commonality in the production processes. Both are very much about where each is made. They come from calcareous soils. We often say “calcium” for short.

“In Champagne, we have chalk. The rock, you can break it off. It is very old from the Cretaceous period. In Sherry, we have albariza. It is a younger soil, around 35-million years old, and is much more crumbly in structure than chalk. It is more akin to sand, than the rock found in Champagne.

“In Champagne, you find actual physical rocks. In albariza, when dry, which is 5 months of the year, the soil can be compact, dry, and very hard. When it rains, it turns to mud. Albariza is like a light, calcareous sand.

“The affect of both soils is to create a distinctive minerality in both of these wines. When we think about the minerality of these wines it becomes interesting to compare them. When we compare them, we can compare their processes.

“In the past we would say both come from rather neutral grapes. No one would say that anymore. Producers as recently as 10-years ago, champagne producers would say they were looking for neutral base wines because the character of champagne comes from aging.

“In general, the base wines of sherry and champagne are not wines we want to drink. Both of these wines rely heavily on yeast. In champagne, the secondary ferment, and lees aging contribute greatly to the wines’ character. In fino and manzanilla, the layer of flor affects wine in important ways. Both are aged for a long time.

“For champagne, 10-years is nothing for aging. Many of the best need 15 years to show their best. Sherry is very long lived. It undergoes very long aging processes.

“In terms of perception, there is also a lot in common. Both wines are largely misunderstood. Many people don’t even think of sherry as wine. People often think of champagne as apertif only. In actuality, sherry is a very complex wine. It is also the most food friendly wine on the planet, bar none. In terms of perception, there is a lot of work for us to do.

“Both wines are a product of blending. In some cases, these wines are the result of extremely vast blends. Non-vintage champagnes can be comprised of hundreds of base wines. A sherry solera can be 200-years old and encompass, for all intensive purposes, hundreds of base wines.

“Finally, both champagne and sherry have been sold, or marketed as brands. In both, the brand of sherry, or the brand of champagne is the defining element for the beverage. Sherry bodegas are known for giving a consistent product. A champagne house develops their blend early in the process, and is often known for it.”

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For more from Peter Liem on Champagne, check out his site: http://www.champagneguide.net/

For more from Peter Liem on Sherry, check out his site, also carrying his book on Sherry, co-authored with Jesús Barquín: http://www.sherryguide.net/

Peter Liem discusses his work on ChampagneGuide.net in an I’ll Drink to That podcast with Levi Dalton, episode 11: https://soundcloud.com/leviopenswine/peterliem

and his book, Sherry, Manzanilla & Montilla, written with Jesús Barquín in I’ll Drink to That podcast episode 38: https://soundcloud.com/leviopenswine/peterliembook

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Thank you to Noah Dorrance.

Thank you to Baron Ziegler, and Gregory Castells, Lorenzo Garcia-Iglesias, Jan Pettersen, and Peter Liem.

The Roles of Soil, Climate, and Man: Google Video Hang out w Brice Jones, Emeritus Vineyards

Hawk Wakawaka

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Jun 27, 2014

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Google Video Hangout with Brice Jones and Mari Cutrer-Porth Jones

Mari and Brice Jones on Google Video Hangout
with Dezel, James, Luke, Alex, Kimberly, Steve, Rosie bird and I
As you can see, we had fun.

Emeritus Vineyards, along with Charles Communication hosted a Google Video Hangout that brought together writers from around the country to taste and talk Emeritus wines together online. Brice Jones, president and founder of Emeritus Vineyards, and his daughter Mari Cutrer-Porth Jones, director of marketing and direct sales, led the discussion of Emeritus Vineyards farming practices and philosophy. Also participating in the video hangout were writers Luke Sykora, Dezel Quillen, James Melendez, and Steve McIntosh.

Thinking About Balance in Wine

Crediting his philosophy to time with winemaking friends in Burgundy, as well as Emeritus founding winemaker Don Blackburn, Brice discussed what he views as the three elements that combine in wine. As he describes it, soil contributes the character of a wine, climate its personality, and the people behind it its spirit or style. The trifecta earns mention on the Emeritus website as well, but through the video conversation we were able to probe deeper into the idea.

As Jones describes, soil, character, and the people behind a wine work together to create the final wine itself. Also essential to Jones’s idea is the point that, like a three-legged stool, balance is achieved through the way these elements work together. Too much or too little of any one of them and imbalance forms.

Through the course of the conversation, Jones invited me to help him explicate the role these three elements take, according to his model. Following is my response to that suggestion.

Personality as Climate

The idea of vintage differences gives insight into recognizing the notions of character versus personality or style in Jones’s concept. As Jones described, if we assume the winemaker and his or her practices have essentially stayed the same from one year to the next, wine made from a particular vineyard will retain its character from growth in the same soil, as well as its style from the winemaker’s approach. Importantly, the only things that have changed from one year to the next in this case are the climate conditions, and the age of the vines.

In this model, personality of a wine, then, would seem to show through the sorts of climate differences apparent through vintage variation. A cooler year might offer earthier flavors on pinot noir, for example, or fresher green elements on cabernet. Acidity may also be higher on a cooler year, as another example. Wine from a particular vineyard, then, may show as lean and less fruit driven on a cooler year, or broader and more fruit driven on a warmer. When the vineyard and winemaking crew chooses to pick its fruit, and how the clusters and canopy is managed, however, can also influence how these climate differences show up in the final wine. It is also understood that vine age plays an important role in the vines ability to regulate its quality and quantity during vintage variation.

Soil as Character

Importantly, the soil of the wine essentially does not change year to year. However, vineyard management choices affect the way in which soil character is able to impart itself to the wine, or not. As Jones describes, winemakers such as Aubert de Villaine, have it that irrigation changes the signature of the wine. The more reliant a vine proves to be on irrigation, the shallower its roots. Irrigation draws smaller root hairs towards the soil surface as drip irrigation clusters water within surface soil. As a result, root depth tends to remain abbreviated, and vines rely on drip irrigation for its water needs. Surface soils dry quickly between rain falls thus not offering vines water without irrigation. Part of Jones’s point is that in the case of shallower roots, vines are unable to express significant or distinctive soil character. As a result, such wines are more expressive of climate personality than of soil character.

California predominately relies on irrigation, seeing the lack of water through summer as detrimental to vine health. It is the case that vines need water to be established, demanding watering during the first two years to assist in the development of the vine. Vines that have been irrigated beyond that initial period also cannot simply be moved straight to dry farming. The shallower roots of irrigated vines need assistance over several years to grow towards seeking water at deeper levels.

The contrast between the character presence of dry-farmed versus irrigated vines defines heritage regions such as Burgundy in France, or Montalcino in Italy. For California, however, the reliance on irrigation rests partially in the climate differences from the state and pivotal areas of the Old World. Rainfall during the growing season in many Old World viticultural areas differs from its lack during that stretch in California.

Jones asserts that he was initially resistant to dry farming his vineyards. However, he credits Villaine with pushing him to reflect on the idea further. After long consideration, Jones recognized that even in California, where summer rains are scarce, vines flourished in pre-Prohibition when irrigation would not have existed. He chose then, along with his vineyard crew, to shift Emeritus’s Hallberg Ranch to dry farming over a five year period. 2011 was the site’s first fully dry farmed vintage.

Looking at 2011’s vintage profile serves as interesting example of the impact of dry farming, which then gives glimpse into the notion of soil character in wine. The 2011 vintage in California proved excessively cold, leading in some cases to sheer lack of ripening for later harvested varieties. To make matters more difficult, intense rains came near the end of the season. The effect, then, was that vineyards across the North Coast of California suffered delayed ripening, leaving fruit on the vines when severe rains (and therefore mold and mildew) hit. As a result, sites across the Northern part of the state simply had no viable crop. As Jones describes, however, with dry farming the Emeritus vines were fully ripe a week before the rains hit. All of their crop was picked before the rains, then, and the rains were not a problem.

Dry farmed vines must be self regulating in a way simply not possible with irrigation. With the luxury of irrigation, vines tend to increase crop size, and relax their pace of ripening. Without the stress of seeking water, vines signal to disperse seeds is less clear.

The choice of irrigation impacts root depth, and as a result vine regulation as well. The role of soil character, then, becomes more clear with older vines, deeper roots, and dry farmed sites. In the case of younger vines, and vines with shallower roots, soil character offers less apparent presence allowing climate to play a stronger role.

As Jones explains, dry farmed vines, with deeper roots in comparison to younger vines or vines with shallower roots, offer deeper color, fuller and more refined bouquet, and richer flavor with an ultra long finish, all with greater balance of expression to the wine as a whole. In the case of North Coast vineyards, the diurnal shift of the region’s climate gives ample acidity to the wines thus carrying the soil character of the wines through with a juicy personality.

It is clear that different soil types, and slope of vineyard (a way through which soil is presented) provide differing character to a wine. Where limestone, for example, puts incredible tension down the backbone of a wine, granite feels nervy, or Kimmeridgian offers the tension of limestone with the open palate of clay.

The Role of the Vineyard and Wine Team: People as Spirit and Style

Considering the effects of climate and soil, the role of the people involved in wine production are left to consider. As Jones describes, the people offer the spirit of the wine. Over time, he has come to understand that spirit as the winemaking style.

The people behind a wine make numerous important choices from where to establish, and then how to plant the vineyard, followed by what sorts of viticultural approach will be used, and then when to pick, and what winemaking will be employed in the cellar. The choices made along the way mitigate the effects that soil and climate can offer but also establish the style of the wine.

One of the most obvious places that people impact the expression of the wine is through variety and clonal choice in the vineyard. Matching grape type to soil profile marries the human element with the character of the vineyard site. Clonal choices too can be used to bring together climatic tendencies with the varietal flavor chosen. In the case of Pinot Noir, for example, Dijon clones are often seen as more fruit-and-flower expressive compared to some of the heritage clones, which can vary widely. Over time, as a vineyard gets older and adapts to its site, clonal differences become less apparent, just as vintage variation becomes less noticeable on older vines with deeper roots.

While the winegrowing team cannot reasonably change either soil or climate for a particular site, they can lessen their influence. Choosing to irrigate, as already discussed, changes the way in which soil expresses in the wine. Other choices like choice of root stock, or training style impact how the vine uptakes nutrients from the site, and helps to determine the vines overall vigor. To put that another way, the farming practices employed, including the way in which the vineyard is established, influence the fruit expression of the vines.

Within the cellar, winemaking choices arise from the type of wine the winemaker wishes to emulate. While any winemaker may have innumerable tools and techniques available to them, which they choose depends upon the winemaking philosophy that guides their methods. A winemaker that wishes to amplify soil and climate character, for example, might strive to lessen their own intervention in the cellar. A winemaker wishing to make a reliable expression from year to year irregardless of vintage differences may increase aspects of their cellar intervention as well as diversify their blending practices.

For Emeritus, the style of the wine arises, as Jones explains, from the approach of their founding winemaker, Don Blackburn. Blackburn’s training occurred in Burgundy. He went on to champion Pinot Noir, arguing that a proportionally higher number of the finest wines in the world originate with the grape. For Blackburn, cellar techniques learned in Burgundy were essentially to bringing subtlety to the wine.

As Jones explained, it is not that he is trying to make a Burgundian wine at Emeritus. In California we don’t have the climate, nor the soils that would allow us to do that. He has no desire to emulate wines of another region, no matter their quality. Instead, his goal is to make the best wines available from his site. With his long standing connections to Burgundy, Jones established Emeritus first with Blackburn, then bringing in Nicolas Cantacuzene (raised and trained originally in Burgundy) as assistant winemaker under Blackburn. Cantacuzene has since become head winemaker for Emeritus. In working with Blackburn, and now Cantacuzene, Jones has seen that utilizing cellar techniques cultivated in Burgundy works best for generating Emeritus’s style of Pinot Noir.

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Thank you to Brice Jone, Mari Cutrer-Porth Jones, Kimberly Charles, and Alex Fondren.

Getting to know Dowell: RH Drexel talks with Robert M. Parker, Jr.

Hawk Wakawaka

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Jun 25, 2014

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Getting to know Dowell: RH Drexel talks with Robert M. Parker, Jr.

Considering Robert Parker Jr

One of the most controversial figures today in wine proves to be writer-reviewer Robert M. Parker, Jr. After his appearance at this year’s Napa Valley Wine Writer Symposium criticisms of his speech raced around the internet. Even Parker’s positive statements there were often framed by others as problematic. He seems in many ways a man others love to hate.

Parker’s own occasional rants have contributed to the phenomenon. Two months prior to his appearance at the Symposium, an online missive hosted at his pay-to-read site, eRobertParker.com, criticized what he sees as movements currently occurring in wine. The movements referenced included what he described as low-alcohol wines that prove under-ripe, and pursuit of uncommon grapes to the detriment of quality in well-known ones. Though the piece opens as thoughtful, and carries too his vast knowledge of wine, many of his comments there do also deserve blunt critique. It is writing that falls into rant.

Criticism of Parker, however, often seems to outpace its subject, verging into such harsh territory as to not only remove humanity from its account of Parker, but also unwittingly from the author of the critique itself. Denial of the historical importance of Parker’s work also proves common, as if simple erasure of his work would be better.

But context must be kept. Parker has contributed immeasurably to the world of wine. His voice brought consumer interest to wine in a way that had not existed at such a level before. The accessibility of his rating system translated wine to consumers otherwise unfamiliar with wine’s language. Parker’s ability to enlarge consumer interest in wine previously has benefited all of us in wine today. Such benefit is true even as many of us now wish to dismantle such rating systems, and seek wines outside those most closely associated with Parker’s palate.

In public criticism, Parker’s palate is often reduced to a thirst for brute ripeness, or hugeness in wine. Talking about the man with winemakers, however, it becomes clear far more subtlety follows his tasting abilities. His love for wine too from houses like Rayas, most famously, would seem to illustrate an obvious appreciation for delicacy. Reading through tasting notes from Parker, especially earlier ones, his passion for wine is infectious. It becomes clear how he brought so many consumers to wine rests not just in his rating system, but also his enthusiasm.

One of the downsides of influence is its incredible power to act as mirror to all those looking towards it. Projection on leaders, or those with fame proves rampant as people end up speaking less about the actual person within the fame, than about the ideas they’ve cast upon him or her. More frustrating, finding people invested in listening beyond such preconceived ideas proves rare. More profiles written on such figures, then, don’t necessarily offer more insight into who they actually are.

With all of this in mind, in the last year I became interested in learning more about the man behind the Robert Parker phenomenon, that is, Robert Parker himself. In seeking the possibility of sharing an interview with him, I was lucky enough to discover my colleague and friend, R.H. Drexel, of the celebrated wine journal Loam Baby has known Parker for years. Conversation ensued.

Drexel’s slogan for Loam Baby proves apt here, “No haters.” The idea, no haters, doesn’t mean no critique. It means something closer to a notion at the core of Spinoza’s Ethics, “hate is never good” (E4P45). Because it blinds us. Because it keeps us from seeing how to escape the problems within what we’re hating. Because it keeps us from loving how much there is to love, and according to Spinoza, hate reduces our health, and our strength. Only love increases it. To put that another way, the clearest critique, or brightest insights can only ever come from a love for the truth.

After conversation back and forth with RH Drexel, and with Parker on his willingness or not to be interviewed, the following conversation was finally conceived. My interest has been in hearing from Parker himself, to see what it’s like to meet the man inside the mirrors. The idea finally came, then, to get to know Robert Parker through his conversation with a friend, here R.H. Drexel. The advantage of this approach is in removing the filter of my own interpretation, to let the man speak for himself. The opportunity means witnessing more of Drexel as well.

In keeping with the idea of gaining a less filtered perspective, what follows is an unedited transcript of the conversation between Parker and Drexel. The transcript offers a candid view of Parker, as well as a revealing sense of Drexel. The photos throughout were requested specifically for this interview, and have been provided courtesy of Robert Parker.

RH Drexel talks with Robert M. Parker, Jr.

Robert M Parker, Jr, age 4 or 5

RH Drexel: I have known you for years, Robert, but I can’t seem to bring myself to call you Bob. I guess I’m old-timey that way. It bugs me when I hear young celebrities on talk shows say they’ve been working with “Bobby” or “Bob” DeNiro. DeNiro probably doesn’t even care! I realize that this is my hang up. Anyway, you actually have 3 names: Bob, Robert and your nickname, Dowell. Which one do you prefer?

Robert M. Parker, Jr: I actually prefer Dowell, because my middle is McDowell, and Dowell was the name everyone called me from birth (although my father called me “Butch”) until I was in law school, and the professors started calling me “Robert” or “Bob.” I should have put a stop to it then, but for sure, Dowell has always sounded better to me than some common-ass name like “Bob” or “Robert.”

RHD: Okay, before we get to the fun stuff like discussing Breaking Bad, music, movies, Rayas and other stuff, I just want to get an important question out of the way.

So, as you and your wife, Pat know, on December 14^th, 2012, I had a severe mental breakdown. I had not been sleeping at all well for the five days leading up to that day, and working too hard, so when the story broke of the tragedy at the Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newton, Connecticut, I didn’t have the emotional resources to know how to process that tragedy. I guess the simplest way to put is this: I just broke…I was heartbroken, exhausted and mentally incapable of understanding what had happened. I was placed in a psychiatric ward in Southern California where I remained through the Christmas holidays and into the New Year.

Since then, I’ve had great therapy and am now back to my old self. But, I often think, if I, a 49-year old with a really great family, a wonderful circle of friends and a good job, fell apart in the face of that tragedy, how must young people have felt when that happened?

I mean, I was a quirky, sensitive kid. If something like this had happened when I was a kid, I don’t think I’d ever want to leave the family house again.

Which brings me to these talks that you and I have about children and technology. I think parents pick on their kids way too much about how they’re always looking at their phones. If I was growing up in this crazy, messed up world, I’d want a tiny, magic little screen that I could stare into, too, where I’d share smiley faces and silly stuff with my friends. I think that might very well be where I’d feel safest…there and the family home.

As a society, we seem to have made it safely through the Era of the Atari Console, so we should be able to guide our children sensibly through the Era of the Smart Phone.

I mean, in a parallel universe, if the Atari Console and the smart phone became animated and stepped into a boxing ring together, the Atari Console might very well kick the smart phone’s ass, if you’re the kind of person that measures the threat posed by your enemy in terms of size and foreign-ness. So, I think all the adults out there need to CHILL OUT about their kids and their phones. I mean, they’re just tiny little boxes they hold in their hands.

You’ve always given me good advice. What advice do you have for young people who are confused when their parents are always saying, “Put that thing down! I’m trying to talk to you!!!!!” but they think it’s the “coolest thing in the whole wide world.”

Robert, Age 6

RMP: I think conscientious parents are always trying to do what they think is the right thing, but they have to remember that they are usually at least 30 or more years senior to the kids they’re trying to keep on the straight and narrow path. I have a 27-year-old who’s moved back into the house. She was adopted when she was three months old from Korea, and while I’ve tried to be a loving father, building her confidence and, at the same time, a degree of independence, I’ve been somewhat laissez-faire in terms of some of the behaviors I would consider excessive, self-indulgent, or just not all that responsible. On the other hand, if I’m the good cop, my wife tends to be the bad cop. She leans toward being a strict disciplinarian trying to mold our daughter in her image – which, of course, I think is a great one, since I married her – but one size doesn’t fit all, and I think parents need to let kids find their own way. Try to give them guidance and hope that through a process of osmosis they absorb the very basic fundamentals of life – knowing the difference between real right and real wrong, and learning that life is nothing more than a one-way ticket, a journey where there’ll be ups and downs, you’ll get knocked down and kicked in the face, but if you’ve got some degree of confidence and a fighting spirit, you will bounce back. Just take the bad times with the good times, but cherish those good times, because that’s what it’s all about in the end. Whatever turns you on, turns you on, and most parents don’t really have a fucking clue about a kid’s private life or their inner likes or dislikes.

I went to a high school where only about ten percent of the students were considered “college material.” (These were the old, politically incorrect days, where the classes were arranged A, B, C, D and F, and you can imagine that the students in D and F were basically those with extra Y chromosomes and several years older, since they had repeated a few grades.) Moreover, I lived in a farming area, where the population was high-density redneck. I live in the same area today, but the demographics have changed 180 degrees, the rednecks just can’t afford to live here anymore, and the farmers have largely been pushed out of business by giant industrial conglomerates, so now the demographics of the high school I went to are basically all college-bound and impressive. The rednecks used to hang together and try to intimidate any of us who were considered college material, but as an only child, my father taught me to fight back, and fight I did. I got my ass kicked several times, but I always made sure that they didn’t get away with any bullshit, and after a while they stopped bugging me, largely because I was physically bigger than them, and even though they outnumbered me, they were essentially cowards. I have no idea why bullying would have increased in our society except that I think it reflects a certain insecurity among kids, and to try to pick on others is a sign of cowardice, weakness, and really is intolerable. No kid should have to experience that while they’re growing up with so many other pressures and demands, just trying to get through junior or senior high school and prepare themselves, if they intend to go further, for college.

Why do you think bullying is on the rise?

RHD: You know, when I was a little kid, my family and I watched the evening news with Walter Cronkite. He always seemed so calm and like the kind of grandfather you’d like to have. We were going through some scary times then, too, but after watching the news, I could tell that my mom and dad were pretty calm. That made me think everything was going to be okay. I remember praying every night for Walter Cronkite and Mr. President. At that naïve age, I thought they ran the whole country.

Now, I’ll visit with friends and they’ll have one of these 24 hour news channels on. And, adults will just be yelling at each other in the most uncivilized of ways. If I were a kid, I’d just surmise that our country is in deep shit if our adults don’t even know how to talk to one another with decency. And, if I were a kid with parents that maybe weren’t that tender-hearted with me, and if I felt neglected, I’d probably react to the world the way the adults act on television. I’d probably think, “if they can talk to each other that way, why can’t I? Seems like that’s how you get attention!”

Robert (on right) while attending University of Maryland

RMP: The 24-hour news cycle is something that drives me nuts as well. I love it when I’m traveling abroad, where the news consists of five minutes of headlines, thirty seconds of weather, and that’s it for the day, so why not go out to dinner or listen to some music and chill out. I’ve pretty much tuned out all of the talking heads from the major media to the cable channels, because it seems all scripted, all screaming, yelling, and shouting, just appalling incivility. All of it is unnerving, it promotes social disharmony, and it creates an impression that the whole world is completely fucked up – which it probably is. I’m answering this just as Iraq is collapsing, after the United States spent billions of dollars there and had nearly 5,000 young soldiers killed. Moreover, only God knows how many more were maimed and physically destroyed for the balance of their lives. I think it’s part of this new culture of anger, showoff-ism, and just rude-ass behavior that I don’t need to support and I have the option of refusing to observe it.

Okay, let’s lighten up and talk about some of our favorite things.

at University of Maryland

RHD: So, both of us are THE BIGGEST “BREAKING BAD” FANS EVER! I think what makes us giggle about this is that the show itself contains some pretty dark subject matter and characters, but whenever you and I talk about it, those discussions end up bringing out the best in us. We get animated. We laugh. We philosophize. Why do you think “Breaking Bad” became such an iconic show?

RMP: “Breaking Bad” is an iconic show and was great because it reminds us that, no matter how good our intentions may be, we’re never that far from the abyss. Here we have a teacher who’s totally dedicated to providing for his family, who learns he has terminal cancer and wants to take care of them. He’s smart enough and has enough connections in the neighborhood to begin producing state-of-the-art crystal meth. The show reinforces that essentially this guy is a good guy, but becomes evil through the noble intention of wanting to take care of his family. In the process, his power, his corruption, his moral fiber deteriorate to the point where he is as sinister as the assassins sent over to New Mexico from Mexican cartels to try to take over the meth market. It’s the classic good vs. evil sitcom fairytale, but it’s so well done, because you have a very likeable guy, a wonderful family, and in the process of wanting to provide for them, he becomes evil personified. I suspect it fascinates us all because none of us are really that far from “breaking bad” either.

RHD: Have you found anything to replace it? I mean, not replace it; it’s irreplaceable! But, have you found any other series to abate the Breaking Bad jonesing? And if so, why do you like it?

I myself have discovered “High Maintenance” on Vimeo. It’s a free little series that I love, but I’m already through the whole thing because each episode is pretty short.

RMP: There really is no other series even remotely similar to “Breaking Bad.” There have certainly been other cable shows that I’ve enjoyed immensely, “The Sopranos” and, more recently, Timothy Olyphant in “Justified,” set in Harlan County, Kentucky. In its own way, “Downton Abbey” is a masterpiece of classic British television and a look at a long-gone era. And who the hell doesn’t love an actress like Maggie Smith? By the way, a series I’m just beginning to get into, which is pretty kinky but I like it so far, is “Banshee,” but since I’ve seen less than one full season, I’m not sure where it’s going to go and whether it can hold and build interest, as “Breaking Bad” did.

RHD: I’ve watched two awesome movies lately. The first is called, “Mile…Mile and a Half.” It’s a documentary about a group of artists that hike the John Muir Trail. I simultaneously smiled and got choked up through the whole thing. And, I also liked “Frequencies,” though some of it went over my head so I need to watch it again. How about you. Any good film recommendations?

RMP: I haven’t really seen any good movies that have excited me recently, but I can share with you some of my favorite movies of all time. They would include, in no particular order, “Lawrence of Arabia,” “One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest,” “Simon Birch,” “Alien,” “L.A. Confidential,” “True Romance,” and “Schindler’s List.”

Robert and Pat, both age 19

RHD: So, the first real spiritual experience I had with a wine was with Rayas, a 1998 bottle that you recommended to me. While drinking it, over the course of several hours, I remembered the smells of a church I used to love to visit in college: cold marble floors, frankincense, candles burning, the wet wool coats of old ladies who’d spend hours there on rainy days. Anyway, that wine transported me. What’s the first time a wine really took you some place different and can you describe that sensation?

RMP: It’s funny that you mention the 1998 Rayas. That entire estate has always produced a sort of “heart and soul” wine under medieval conditions, from old vines, microscopic yields, and it walks the tightrope without a safety net between something quite vulgar and weird to something incredibly sublime, magical and complex. It’s always been one of my favorite wines in the world. The 1990, 1989, 1985, and the first two that really blew my mind, the 1978 and 1979, will always be among those cherished liquid memories that just take you to another world. Of course, the now-deceased Jacques Reynaud, who managed Rayas during the time I was visiting there (1978-2006) was a single man who had to endure an incredible number of the wackiest rumors and stories about him, but I found him compassionate and well-read. Once you gained his trust, he was a fascinating guy to taste with, and to talk with about wines or any other subject you chose. I had actually convinced him to leave his little, bucolic area of Châteauneuf du Pape and come to New York, and I promised I would come up and be his guide, but just several months later he dropped dead of, I believe, a massive heart attack while shoe shopping – a fetish of his – in Avignon.

RHD: You’re an avid reader, as am I. A few years ago, you recommended that I try buying an e-reader, which might be easier for me to travel with, rather than a heavy bag of books. Ultimately, do you have a preference between your e-reader and a real book?

RMP: I’ve been using a Kindle ever since they came out.

Robert and Pat, Gatwick Airport, 1971

RHD: Read any good books lately?

RMP: I read voraciously and always have. I tend to read two or three books at the same time, usually one work of non-fiction and at least one fiction, and I tend to jump between them trying to fall asleep at night, which is never that easy. I was a history major in college, and my interest in history has never really left me. Certainly, a lot of history is being created today and so much of it is basically history repeating itself, which in it itself is fascinating as well as depressing.

As to recently read books, the non-fiction includes “The Long Gray Line: The American Journey of West Point’s Class of 1966,” “Khartoum: The Ultimate Imperial Adventure,” “A Bright Shining Line: John Paul Vann and America in Vietnam” (second time I’ve read this), “The Guns at Last Light: The War in Western Europe, 1944-1945,” and a book I’ve read for the third time because I think the lessons it teaches are timeless, William Shirer’s “The Rise and Fall of The Third Reich.”

As for fiction, some of my favorite authors, I read just about everything they produce, include Daniel Silva’s “The English Girl,” Brad Thor’s “Hidden Order,” Lee Child’s “Never Go Back,” Harlan Coben’s “Six Years,” Stephen Hunter’s “The Third Bullet” (a Bob Lee Swagger novel), Don Winslow’s “The Kings of Cool: A Prequel to Savages,” and “Mission to Paris” by Alan Furst.

A couple more non-fiction would be “Zulu: The Heroism and Tragedy of the Zulu War of 1879,” “Not Taco Bell Material” by Adam Carolla, Charles Krauthammer’s “Things That Matter,” and Charles Murray’s “Coming Apart: The State of White America, 1960-2010.” And lastly, a sort of quasi-fictional book based on non-fictional events, and in real time, “In the Garden of Beasts,” by Eric Larson.

RHD: The best book I’ve read in a long time is called “Tibetan Peach Pie”, the Tom Robbins memoir. Personally, I think it should be in every nightstand in every hotel and motel across the nation, but that’s another conversation for another time.

Now, you and I (and countless people) live with the unfortunate reality of chronic pain. In a way, I think our mutual chronic pain has brought us even closer. I feel like I’ve tried everything under the sun. Lately, what seems to work for me is just watching television on my days offs, with the doors and windows in the house open, so that I’m getting plenty of fresh air and the sounds of nature, which I find comforting. You’ve been trying Hydrotherapy. Can you talk a little bit about that and how it’s working for you?

Robert, 1971

RMP: I’ve been plagued by chronic spinal pain that became debilitating and thus I chose to have a massive rebuild of my lumbar spine, with new discs on all five levels and then titanium rods and screws, so I’m somewhat pain-free now but still fighting the re-education in terms of walking unassisted. It hasn’t stopped me from doing everything I need to do since this eight and a half hour operation in late May of 2013, including four trips to California, three-plus weeks in Asia and several weeks in Bordeaux. I’m adapting, but there’s no question that the pain and disability can be incredibly depressing and you have to fight through it. For me, my dogs and music are relaxing. My wife also gave me the gift of an endless pool water well with a submerged treadmill, and while I’ve only gotten about 15 uses in on it between trips, I can walk 50 minutes on the treadmill at nearly two miles an hour without ever having to hold on to anything. I don’t have any pain when I use it, and that’s uplifting, but I will cherish the day when I can transfer walking unassisted on the treadmill thanks to the buoyancy of the water in this water well to walking on land unassisted. That day may never come, but I’m holding out hope that it will. But to answer your question, I think hydrotherapy or aquatherapy is really the future, especially as we age, arthritis sets in and we have joint pain. I’ve had one knee replacement and need another one, and I don’t have a trace of knee pain when I’m in water, which is a revelation for me.

RHD: I guess another thing I really enjoy on a rough day is just one really, really good glass of cold beer. Funny side story…I was hanging out with one of my young craft beer maker friends, and I told him, ‘You know, the best thing that came out of being in that scary psychiatric ward is that now, ever since I’ve been healthy again, every single beer I’ve had tastes about 100 times better than it did before I broke down.’

And, I swear, I saw this crazy glimmer in this kid’s eye, like he was thinking ‘maybe I should get institutionalized! 100 times better??!!!!!’ So I casually said, ‘You know, I think I exaggerated, it’s probably only 10% better now, maybe even 5%,’ and that seemed to talk him down from that tree. Those craft beer guys are a fun, crazy bunch. Though, I do maintain that every beer is 100% better than it was before the break down. What beers have you been enjoying lately? And, have you tried pairing them with food? I know you’re big into wine and food pairing.

RMP: As a product of the hippie movement of the late ‘60s, I think it’s probably natural to have an interest in all things alcoholic, and even beyond that, but the name of my wine journal, The Wine Advocate, sort of says that I’m hardly an advocate for other beverages. But I do think the boutique craft movement in the beer industry has been fabulous. You don’t need a whole lot of money to start one up, and tiny cult/craft breweries can become national success stories. Locally we have Dogfish Head in Delaware making an assortment of beers, all of them highly regarded, and many of them I find fascinating. I don’t really advertise a lot about beer, but I have tweeted about a number of unique beers. Now you’re seeing beers being fermented in old bourbon barrels, and I think sometimes they’re too heavy and too rich, but it’s funny that in the beer world, it seems like bigger and richer is what everyone wants, whereas in the wine world you have a group of hipster sommeliers who are basically advocating weird, undrinkable and deeply flawed wines. That sort of movement has not been accepted at all in the beer world, although one could certainly argue that some of the Belgian beers, with their high levels of brettanomyces and volatile acidity are indeed flawed, and that’s part of the appeal of them.

Travel with Pat (on right), 1970s

RHD: Okay, so let’s talk bucket list items, because one of mine involves you. I have this dream that I’d like to go to Burning Man. I want to go with wine-loving folks and set up some kind of camp in honor of Bacchus; of course, it will be weird, homey, delicious, dark, light and welcoming to all. Any way that you and Pat would consider coming out to Burning Man for a wine celebration like no other? And, do you have a bucket list item you can share here?

RMP: In response to your invitation to Burning Man, while in agreement with many of their principles (above all, gifting and self-reliance), I am also a lone wolf, and avoid any groups (lawyer and wine junkets are viewed with horror). I can’t change that.

I used to do what many people do when a new year starts – I’d make a few plans and try to improve myself as a person. But about three or four years ago, I decided I would just adopt something I call “Random Acts of Kindness,” and I’ve actually been quite good at it and consistent as well. The first episode was at a gas station where some beggar wanted to borrow money, and when I asked him what for, he said he needed cigarettes. I’m not an advocate of smoking tobacco, but I said, “I’ll buy you a pack. What do you want?” and the guy almost fainted. But of course, no good deed goes unpunished. He followed me to my car and wanted me to buy him a second pack, and I told him basically to fuck off. Apparently, even among the very poor, American greed is alive and well. But as far as bucket lists go, I’ve been one of those fortunate people who have done so many things that I dreamed of doing but never thought were possible – doing a wine tasting on the Great Wall of China in 2008 was certainly a bucket list item. Traveling the world many, many times and seeing so many extraordinary places would certainly have been on any of my earlier bucket lists, but I’ve done it. There are a few places I still haven’t gotten to that I would love to visit, such as parts of India, Cambodia, and a handful of other places, but my bucket list is pretty small. I think with the mobility issues that I’ve faced since this massive back surgery, the biggest thing would be to walk independently again. It’s amazing how we take for granted some of the most fundamental tasks in life, and then when they’re lost, you realize just how goddamned essential and important they are to you.

RHD: Okay, so we both love, love, love music. Basically, you and I will listen to anything once. Our tastes are very varied; classic rock, jazz, folk music, early hip hop, early country and everything in between. Now, most of my friends would be surprised to learn that I am a Justin Bieber fan. I really enjoyed that documentary about him, Believe. He makes his fans so happy. And, it appears that the young Mr. Bieber, at the unripe age of 20 years old, has a bigger sack than the entire staff of TMZ combined (go Justin!). What musical group or artist do you think it would surprise people to know that you really like?

RMP: Like you, I have very divergent tastes in music, from obviously the classical to rock ‘n’ roll and of course, the music that formed my early college years, the folk movement pioneered by Bob Dylan and, to a certain extent, Neil Young, Peter, Paul and Mary, etc. We do differ on Justin Bieber, as I would just like to kick his ass back to Canada. I’m sorry to say that, but I’m no fan of his. But normally, I don’t really care how nuts, weird or wacky a musician is, it’s really the music that counts in the end, just like the wine in the glass. You can be the biggest jerk-off or asshole in the world, and if you make a really good wine, that’s all that matters to me. I’m a big Austin, Texas country music guy, I have been for a long time, I think it’s the epicenter for some incredible artists who write their own music, play their own instruments, yet have never really gotten a huge following, and I really don’t understand why. Maybe there needs to be a “Music Advocate.” I’m talking about guys like Gurf Morlix, Danny Schmidt, and beyond Austin, singers and groups like James McMurtry, the Heartless Bastards (man – their lead singer, Erika Wennerstromon, has a great voice!), Todd Snider, Jackie Greene are all fabulous, still relatively young songwriters who may be writing the best lyrics since Bob Dylan’s classic years in the early and mid-1960s. Others that have their origins in Austin are the late Blaze Foley, Erika Gilkyson, Butthole Surfers, Robert Earl Keen, Slaid Cleeves, and Gary Clark, Jr. Anyhow, a lot these people just don’t seem to get much commercial attention, and I’m at a loss to understand why, but hey, that’s the way it is. I’ll buy ‘em and support’ em and tell as many people as possible about them and that’s all I can do.

Travel with Pat, 1971

RHD: You’ve been married to your lovely wife Pat for a long time and I really admire the relationship you both have. Any advice for couples who want to have a lasting marriage but find it tough sometimes?

RMP: Obviously, the best decision and the most fortuitous event of my life was meeting Patricia Etzel, who I first met when we were both twelve years old. We didn’t really go on a date until we were 15, and dating through high school and the early years of college was, at the very minimum, quite turbulent, largely because of me and my rather irresponsible attitude toward things. But when push came to shove, so to speak, I was relentless and got the girl and love of my life. We’ll be celebrating 45 years of marriage soon, probably by the time this interview is published. She’s my best friend, my lover, my confidante, and yes, no marriage can endure that long without a lot of compromise and back-and-forth, but at the end of the day, she makes me laugh, has a great sense of humor, loves good food and wine as well as music, and it’s always shocking how our interests are so similar. That’s not to say we haven’t had some pretty loud shouting matches over 45 years, but I don’t think we’ve ever gone to bed without kissing each other, no matter how pissed off I was at her for something. An interesting thing I can tell young couples is that most of the biggest fights you will ever have are over the most fucking ridiculously trivial things. Now, of course, you could always betray a partner, but I haven’t done that, and neither has she (to my knowledge), but I’m talking about stupid things. It’s amazing how something totally irrelevant and unimportant can cause fireworks. I think the key is, don’t stay mad and make sure you kiss each other before you go to bed no matter how mad you are at each other.

Enjoying a meal, Summer 2014

RHD: I really enjoy that television show, The Actor’s Studio, with James Lipton. I like when he asks his guests something like, “If there is a God, what do you hope to hear Him say when you get to heaven”, or something like that. What do you hope to hear?

RMP: Just getting to heaven would be a worthwhile accomplishment, and if God were there, I would probably try to get through the so-called pearly gates as quickly as possible in case he decided to change his mind. But if he was going to ask me a question, I suspect it would probably be one he asks many, and that’s “Were you good to people? Did you treat them as you would have wanted them to treat you?” And he might also ask if I thought I left earth a better place than when I entered. I think I could say yes to all that, and even pass a lie detector test on those questions.

But if God said anything to me, I would prefer the following: “Are you ready to see your parents and all those who you loved who predeceased you? And, by the way, all the dogs you’ve loved and lost since age four are here as well.”

What would you like to hear God say?

RHD: Well, I think everyone I know hopes they’ll have a little more money when they grow old and die than they do now. And, I don’t think it’s so that they can buy a fancy sports car or something like that. I think they’d just like to have some money to give to their kids and their grandkids, to make their lives a little easier. So, hoping that is the case for me, I’d like to hear God say, “Hey kid! You have some mad, moral ninja skills!…I mean, once folks with money transform themselves into the camel to undergo the great test, most of them can’t even find the needle. And, if they do, they kick it aside because they think it’s of no use to them. But, you walked right up to it and managed to fit your big nose and ears right through the eye of the needle. And, then the way you navigated both humps through the needle, without it ever breaking, and then flicked it off your tail with a little flourish and a not-too-bad pirouette….well that was just good old fashioned entertainment! Come on in, kick your shoes off, let me pour you a glass of wine!”

RMP: Well, Elaine, thank you and thanks to R. H. Drexel. In 35 years in the wine business, I have rarely had the chance to express myself candidly and be asked a series of questions that didn’t include anything about power – it’s so refreshing.

Winegrowing Santa Maria Valley (+ a hand drawn map)

California

Hawk Wakawaka

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Jun 10, 2014

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Winegrowing Santa Maria Valley (+ a hand drawn map)

This write-up appears as a follow-up to a previous article on Santa Barbara County wine growing.

For more information on over-arching growing conditions for the region, such as climate and weather patterns, please see that article, which appears here: http://wakawakawinereviews.com/2014/05/20/understanding-santa-barbara-county-wine/

Santa Maria Valley

Driving South through California on Highway 101 the sand dunes begin to appear as the road comes closer to the ocean. By San Luis Obispo (SLO) county (home to Paso Robles, San Simeon and its famed Hearst Castle, as well as Morro Bay) ocean succulents, and cypress dot the roadway, growing from sandy loam of the seascape. The highway hugs ocean through Pismo Beach, then cuts inland again lifting over a slight climb in elevation, through the drop on the other side. You’ve arrived in Santa Maria Valley.

Santa Maria Valley proves the second oldest appellation in California, after Napa Valley, and includes some of the oldest contemporary vineyards in Santa Barbara County (SBC), as well as some of the most distinctive Chardonnay plantings in the state. However, the area has received historically less attention for wine than its Southern siblings such as the Sta Rita Hills.

The Agricultural Richness of Santa Maria Valley

The Northern most appellation in Santa Barbara County, the land formation as well as the appellation of Santa Maria Valley include sections of San Luis Obispo county. From the North, it is the San Rafael Mountains that circumscribes the Valley floor, and the intersection of the Santa Maria River with the water flowing through North Canyon from Twitchell Reservoir that marks the SLO-SBC border. Bien Nacido Vineyards, for example, sits just inside the North-western edge of SBC while its strawberry fields on the flats sit just inside the South-eastern rest of SLO.

Santa Maria Valley proves one of the most agriculturally diverse, and active regions of North America hosting a range of berries, avocado, spinach, beans, squash, broccoli, cauliflower, and even a cactus nursery. With avocado entering the region in the 1870s, this section of California quickly became the primary supply for North America. It still hosts (one of) the largest groves in North America.

Grape growing through the region reaches back to the 1830s, with more contemporary vineyards being established beginning in the 1960s, many of those early own root vines still giving fruit. As a result of such agricultural diversity, the area includes one of the more residential farming communities in the country, with farm workers able to remain year round as they rotate between crops.

Local cattle ranching and indigenous beans find focus through the tradition of Santa Maria BBQ. It appropriately claims the title of Best BBQ in the West, offering a local-oak fired tri-tip that proves more spice-rubbed than sauced, coupled with a side of pinquinto beans. The beans stand as a reminder of the relevance of land formations in agricultural development. The small pink morsels originate from and grow only within this area of the Central Coast.

Winegrowing Santa Maria Valley

click on image to enlarge

Santa Maria Valley AVA offers the only valley in North or South America with unhindered ocean influence. No hillside formations rise within the center line of the appellation to shade or shield portions of the valley floor. The mouth of the valley opens to the Pacific, with the West-East narrowing funnel of the region cut by the San Rafael Mountains to the North, and the Solomon Hills to the South squeezing together near Sisquoc. The center of the valley is defined by the open pull of the Santa Maria-Sisquoc river bench.

The shape of the valley generates a clockwork regularity of fog at night through morning, then wind by afternoon. It is the wind that balances disease pressure from the ocean humidity. Open valley floor also means temperatures average one Fahrenheit degree warmer per mile driven East. Some slight nooks along the river bench, or canyon formation along the Northern mountain and Southern hills offer variation.

Considering Soils

Soil variation within the valley can broadly be cut into four types. Along the Northern portion of the Santa Maria-Sisquoc River colluvial soils cover slope sides giving rocky freshness to grapes grown throughout. Moving towards riverside, soils become unconsolidated as mixed alluvial soils appear from old wash off ancient mountain rains.

Bien Nacido, for example, grows vines from hilltop, through slope-side, and into the rolling flats approaching Santa Maria Mesa Road. The absolute flats they reserve for other crops. Walking the midslope vineyards of Bien Nacido offers a mix of rocky soils rolling into Elder Series, and then finally sandy loam near the bottom. Bien Nacido, and Cambria (growing directly beside Bien Nacido to the East) both contain a mix of colluvial and Elder Series soils, with some dolomitic limestone appearing near the tops of slopes, and shale in mid-slopes further East in the Valley. By riverside, soils are entirely unconsolidated giving a mix of some Elder series, and some sandy loam.

Across the street from Bien Nacido, the soils change, becoming unconsolidated alluvial soils. Rancho Viñedo grows in entirely unconsolidated soils, Pleasanton Clay Loam. In broader context these sorts of unconsolidated soils are often treated critically when it comes to grape growing. After rains soils like Pleasanton Clay Loam act like cement, as the soils do not absorb water easily crops grown in such ground tend to flood. However, in a region where rain is rare, thanks to the rain shadow effect of the San Rafael Mountains, such concerns become almost irrelevant. The rare cases when flooding does occur in the region come from ocean storms hitting so hard and fast the question of soil has little to do with the result. Flooding would have happened anyway.

On the Southern portion of the Santa Maria-Sisquoc River soils dramatically change. The Western portion of the appellation rises from ancient sand dunes, once part of the sea floor. Sections of the valley, then are almost pure sand mixed through in areas with silt from mountain erosion. The South-western quadrant of SMV moves from almost pure sand, into sandy loam as you travel North-east, or silty loam as you move into the Solomon Hills.

Sections of the newer Presqu’ile Vineyard, for example, appear as incredibly sandy giving a sense of suave tannin to red wines. By the time you reach the Dierberg planting a touch closer to the river, however, it has become more sandy loam. On the plateau of the Solomon Hills North of Cat Canyon, overlooking the valley, Ontiveros Ranch grows in unconsolidated silty soils.

Moving East along the Southern side of the river, the valley squeezes closer to the river bench, and the ground changes to predominately mixed cobbles and rocky loam. Riverbench Vineyard, for example, includes blocks on rocky clay loam, approaching Foxen Canyon, or more rocky plantings approaching the riverside.

While the North-eastern section of Santa Maria Valley contains a predominance of colluvial soils and Elder Series from the Mountains, sandy soils appear mixed throughout Santa Maria Valley with some sections of these vineyards including sandy loam.

Though the valley’s soils can be described through four major types, and the region’s climate has an overall sense of regularity, throughout the appellation there are subtler distinctions within sites that must be expected. As examples, thanks to the ocean influence salinity plays unexpected while sometimes significant role in vine vigor. Slight rolling character in what might seem an otherwise flat vineyard site can create slight air pools that change growing temperatures for vines in those sections. Individual vineyards, then, have significant internal variation.

Establishing Santa Maria Valley Wines

Modern day viticulture appeared in Santa Maria Valley in 1964, with the planting established by Uriel Nielsen in what is now the Byron Winery and Vineyard facility. The area benefits from the cool climate of SMV while hosting the slightly warmer day time temperatures that give darker red fruit in comparison to plantings on the Western side of the Valley.

In 1972, Louis Lucas and Dale Hampton would establish what would become the famous Tepusquet Vineyard, simultaneously pronouncing the great viticultural promise of the region shown through the cool climate, the ocean influence, and the water availability even in desert conditions. The Tepusquet Vineyard now stands in the Cambria Winery and Vineyard facility at the Northern side of the Sisquoc River.

Soon on the heels of the Nielsen and Tepusquet plantings, in 1973 the Miller brothers would begin one of the most influential vineyards of the valley, Bien Nacido. The site would establish itself as what was at the time the largest certified nursery-service-plus-vineyard in the state. By maintaining soil testing on a regular basis and ensuring the health of the vineyard through FPMS certification, Bien Nacido could not only generating crop for area winemakers, but also vine material for future regional vineyards.

These three early vineyards served as what were essentially viticultural test plots surveying what grape varieties, clonal types, and rootstocks could prosper in the region. Figures such as RIchard Sanford, while known more for his original plantings in Sta Rita Hills, also played key roles in helping to identify the appropriateness for Pinot Noir in the region, the valley’s signature variety.

Other vineyards, such as SIerra Madre originally planted in 1971, would prove influential for their later replants. Santa Barbara County includes a long history of influence on the more well-known Napa and Sonoma counties. Well established winemakers known for their North Coast wines utilized grapes grown in SBC to blend and bring added dimension to their North Coast wines. Off paper, then, SBC’s grape quality has been long established.

In the 1990s, however, that reputation was backed up by a series of purchases from big name wineries such as Robert Mondavi, and Jackson Family. In the 1990s, Robert Mondavi took interest in the Sierra Madre site, and decided to use portions to graft newer Pinot and Chardonnay clones in order to study their viability. The unique quality of the site became inspirational force for a range of winemakers both within the region and without. Mondavi’s clonal changes predominately remain within Sierra Madre, some of which offer fruit unlike that seen anywhere else in the state.

Newer vineyards such as Solomon Hills, or Dierberg both planted in the 1990s, and Presqu’ile in the 2000s, expand insight on ripening in SMV. Set near or on the Western boundary of the appellation, each receives cold air, and afternoon ocean wind bringing ultra cool climate focus to their fruit development.

Pinot Noir of Santa Maria Valley

Pinot Noir proves Santa Maria Valley’s signature grape. The valley’s signature marks its Pinot with red fruit character integrated through with the classic blend of Chinese Five Spice and tons of juicy length. The subtle complexity of this flavor study, coupled with the region’s mineral tension, and juiciness give it a profile distinctive from its Pinot Noir neighbors to the North and South.

Within the appellation, soil and temperature changes give fine-tuned distinctions to wines grown from different vineyards. Fruit from the South-western quadrant, for example, consistently carries the suave tannin of sandy soils, and a brighter red profile than the wines of the warmer North-eastern section. The sandy soils have also shown the ability to manage a high portion of whole cluster during fermentation to good effect.

With older vineyards such as Bien Nacido still showcasing own-root original plantings of Pinot Noir, now inter-planted with comparatively younger grafted vines of the same vine material, SMV also offers unique opportunity for winemakers to experiment with fruit from older and younger vines grown side by side. At Byron, sections of the original clonal and rootstock experiment planting are maintained allowing winemakers there the opportunity over decades to separately vinify fruit by clone-to-rootstock combination.

The best Pinot Noir from Santa Maria Valley has also proven its ability to age well. The subtlety of the valley offers its Pinots what is an almost brooding even while red fruit character, that turns outward again as it ages giving slightly older examples a beautifully surprising energy and lift.

Chardonnay of Santa Maria Valley

While Pinot stands as Santa Maria Valley’s best known variety, some of the most distinctive Chardonnays of California herald from the region. Unique clonal material grows through SMV offering distinctive flavor profiles from vineyards such as Sierra Madre.

The underlying Santa Maria Valley Chardonnay character shows up as Meyer lemon curd on toasted croissant with a long ocean crunch finish. Depending on area of the valley you can imagine that profile dialing down towards more mineral at the Western-reaches, or up towards riper in areas like Cambria. The ocean influence often gives a distinctively pleasing saline crunch or slurry to the white wines, in some of the cooler and sandier vineyard sites it verges into olive.

The mineral presence plus ample juiciness of the fruit give a lot of room for successful oak integration, and/or more reductive character. The two techniques give breadth and length of presence to the juiciness of the region’s fruit without having to dominate its flavor.

Other Varieties of Santa Maria Valley

Rhone varieties appear in small but successful portion through Santa Maria Valley. Most famously, Syrah has done well through the Northern-middle portions of the appellation with producers like Qupe bringing attention to the quality possible from the grape grown in the valley.

At the furthest Eastern side of SMV, Rancho Sisquoc grows a range of grape types successfully producing the range of Bordeaux varieties in warmer pockets near the close of the SMV funnel, as well as unexpected successes such as Riesling and Sylvaner.

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In Gratitude to Maya Angelou, Rest in Peace

Hawk Wakawaka

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Jun 8, 2014

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Maya Angelou Rest in Peace

As a Native person in Alaska the first question is always, who’s your Grandma? There it’s your family, and the place you’re from that decides who you are.

My great grandparents are Paul and Anna Chukan of Bristol Bay, Alaska. My grandparents are Gordan and Anisha McCormick. My Grandmother is Emily Ivanoff Ticasuk Brown of Norton Sound, Alaska. My parents are Melvin and Katherine Brown. I am the youngest of three daughters. I am Elaine Chukan Brown.

***

I grew up a mixed race girl in Alaska. My mother’s family was Aleut. My father’s Inupiat. Because of World War II neither knew their fathers of European descent. Instead, both were simply raised Native. For Native families, blood quantum is less a question than how and with whom you grew up. As a result, my sisters and I were raised Native too. In my guts, my head, my understanding of myself, I am simply Native.

I also know growing up mixed meant much of the time we passed. My fully Native friends were often mistreated, called “muks” by other kids in school. At times, overhearing the slurs, I’d demand those same kids I’d thought were friends call me “muk” too. They’d be shocked by my insistence. The point for me being, what do you mean by such a dirty word that applies to people you also love? The difference was I had a choice my more clearly Native friends did not. They had no mixed kid ability to disappear.

In adulthood, I found philosophy, literature, and creative writing as refuges from the confusion of slipping between cultural or racial norms. They were for me expressions of the complexities of humanity that gave room for my experience as perhaps not normal, but surely acceptable.

Still, Native populations across the United States are small, most isolated on reservations away from more mainstream populations. Worse, knowledge of Native life, whether contemporary or historic, by citizens of the United States is even rarer than the Native population as a whole. Mainstream media somehow fails to recognize the existence of still-living Native groups even with pertinent news events occurring daily.

Searching for mentors, or models to guide me forward, then, proved difficult. In my struggle to find exemplars for success beyond Alaska, the women I found, besides those of my family, turned out to be the non-Native writers Lucille Clifton, Alice Walker, and Maya Angelou. My undergraduate education was filled with their language. I was lucky enough too to work with Lucille Clifton in 2003 over a summer poets’ intensive.

Between the three of them, I was able to find voice for racialized womanhood. In a world where life as a woman of color proves an invisible struggle, Walker reminded that happiness must come from yourself even as others might deny it. Clifton celebrated the vibrant sensuality of survival in the midst of almost unbearable challenge. Angelou demanded we recognize our own phenomenal body, femininity, and lives.

Maya Angelou died last week. In high school, her work found me. It was my best friend at the time, Ginny Gallup, that introduced Angelou to me long before Clinton’s inauguration. Through it, Angelou demanded I see myself as not only valuable but beautiful, and vibrant. She also demanded that I must recognize such beauty because through it I could make others see themselves, not by pushing them, but by seeing them, by listening. In her work was the realization that by loving myself, I could better love others.

In 1993, for her to stand at the Inaugural celebration for a U.S. President was a revolution. This morning, the first African American First Lady of the United States gave one of Angelou’s eulogies, another sort of revolution.

Listening to the eulogy I find it hard to explain how much it moves me except to say, gratitude makes me who I am. Please listen. Amen.

With gratitude that family loves me, and mentors found me.

With gratitude too to Katherine.

Santa Barbara Wine: A Video Interview w Greg Brewer

California

Hawk Wakawaka

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Jun 3, 2014

0

Santa Barbara Wine

As some of you know, I’ve worked on a series of maps looking at growing conditions of Santa Barbara Wine Country. (the first of these SBC map can be found here: http://bit.ly/1nLhy1m ) There has been a delay getting back scans of some of the other maps so I’m not able to post those yet.

In the meantime, cdsavoia sent me their video interview of Greg Brewer. (You might recall they released a video of Abe Schoener here in the Fall. Here’s that link: http://bit.ly/1kAlUFq )

Cdsavoia produce short documentaries on work done in design, fashion, wine, and art. Their series is brilliantly done, offering several minute glimpses of the thought behind peoples’ work. Be sure to check out their site if you haven’t. Here’s that link: http://www.cdsavoia.com/

They read my work with Greg Brewer posted here previously and asked if I’d like to share their interview with him as well. It’s embedded below.

Talking Wine with Greg Brewer

Greg Brewer is one of the more fascinating winemakers I’ve been lucky enough to spend time with. His views of wine are synthetic, seeing thematic links between wine and other arts. He also brings a wonderfully open view of how style interplays with quality valuing difference more than dogmatism while maintaining refinement. It’s a view that proves refreshing.

Sitting down to listen to Greg Brewer inevitably includes discussions of art, light and space, music, and if you’re really lucky saké and food in Japan.

Brewer’s work both with Chad Melville at Melville Winery, and Steve Clifton at Brewer-Clifton brings admirable focus to social sustainability. Both wineries keep vineyard and winery employees year round, a reality that is uncommon in California. Their commitment is to making wine in a manner that allows not only the wineries to succeed, but their employees to comfortably subsist.

The film of Brewer made by cdsavoia gives beautiful glimpse into the complexities of Brewer’s approach. Check out it out below.

Cheers!

***

Thank you to Miguel De La Torre.

To read my previous writing on Brewer’s work in wine:

Diatom: http://wakawakawinereviews.com/2013/02/07/escaping-convention-calibrating-to-stark-conditions-a-conversation-with-greg-brewer/

Melville: http://wakawakawinereviews.com/2014/01/29/a-glimpse-of-sta-rita-hills-highway-corridor-melville-estate/

Brewer-Clifton: http://wakawakawinereviews.com/2014/02/19/the-taste-of-sta-rita-hills-tasting-with-over-200-years-of-winemaking-experience/

Happy Birthday to my Mom!

Alaska

Hawk Wakawaka

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May 29, 2014

1

Happy Birthday to my Mom!

my family when I’m about 8 years old. In back: dad, mom; in front from left: Melanie, Paula, me

One of the brightest memories I have of my mother she is singing in church. I am looking up watching her and she towers above me. Her voice chimes over the sound of the congregation. It is her face I remember most clearly, and its feeling. She is singing old gospel taken by joy filled calm.

My mother was raised in Bristol Bay, remote Alaska on the Western coast at the source of the largest wild salmon run in the world. The area rests on the ring of fire, a volcanic circle in the North Pacific that created a climb of islands, including the Aleutian chain and Alaskan Peninsula.

Bristol Bay is historically Russian Orthodox. As my mother tells it, when the regional priest arrived to town once a season, everyone would quickly get married, buried, and baptised. In summers, I’d attend service with Umma, my great grandmother, while my great grandfather, Grandpappy, assisted the priest.

Orthodox prayers were promises from the bible chanted to sound like singing. At prayer, the cabin sized building would be filled with a lifting, resonant song that at times felt like it could lift the church to flying.

Between the priest’s visits, prayers were kept by Grandpappy who had earned his way to becoming the church Reader. He assisted the priest during service reciting prayers from the back in call and response, and tended the church in the priest’s absence. The role was a deep source of honor for my family. In his 90s, when Grandpappy died he was buried in his gold Reader’s robe.

At home, each room of my great grandparents house held an Orthodox holy picture. They would rise and pray towards the picture, bowing up and down while saying their prayers in Aleut. Prayers would happen again at regular intervals throughout the day, before meals, at tea breaks, before bed.

My mother explained, you’re born Orthodox, you don’t become it as one would in Protestant tradition find Jesus. So there is never a moment of conversion. You are simply born Orthodox, and always will be. In marrying my father, my mom then also became Presbyterian, her Orthodox prayers uniting with gospel song.

In adulthood, I would come to think of that lack of conversion as definitive of my mother’s general character. Without conversion there is no pivotal epiphany or moment of change. There is only devotion. My mother carries in anything she does steady resolve without distraction.

At ten she began commercial salmon fishing with Grandpappy. “I was his only son,” she often jokes to explain how she, a girl, started so young. She was raised by her grandparents, and when he needed a fishing partner, my mother was the one that could help so she did. The launch of her salmon career would become a family tradition, each of us starting in our tenth summer (mine at the age of nine).

The steady resolve that carries my mother forward under-girds her persistence in work as well. Commercial salmon fishing, much like winegrowing, arrives when it is time and comes as fast and hard as that season demands. My mother raised us to understand when the fish came in we were there to catch them. Setting aside any questions of if it could be done would allow simple work to take doubts’ place.

One tide my mother, my brother-in-law, and I alone caught more than 20,000 pounds in two hours in a non-automated open skiff. I can’t explain how it was done but we hauled, picked, and delivered that entire catch ourselves, then returned mere hours later to do it again.

My mother returns in mere weeks to begin her sixtieth season commercial fishing. Today she turns seventy.

More than any other person in my life, my mother taught me it is never a question of if we can do what is in front of us, it is simply a matter of steady resolve occasionally filled by song.

from left: Melanie, my mom, Paula, and I, August 2013 on my parents’ 50th anniversary

Happy Birthday, dear mom. I couldn’t be prouder, or more grateful to be your daughter. Along with Rachel’s, your love, with dad’s matters most.

The Production of Sherry, a drawing

Hawk Wakawaka

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May 27, 2014

2

Sherry

Gratefully sherry’s reception in the United States has gone through a renaissance with a range of styles, and producers now available. It’s a treasure of a wine offering a range of weight and flavor, and surprising compatibility with the stubbornest of foods.

Growing up in Alaska, our days would close with Native-style smoke fish, and occasionally tundra berries frozen then thawed from our winter cache. The combination produced the best dessert — a rich savory fill of concentrated salmon flavor, alongside a nip of berries more sour than sweet. It’s still my favored dessert.

As an adult, closing a meal depends not only on the last taste of food, but also its beverage accompaniment. With a yen for flavors like smoked fish, however, few wines have the chance to stand up to the close of a meal.

Enter sherry. Fino goes brilliantly with smoked fish.

Sherry carries its own unique categories of production, taking grapes perhaps less interesting or long-lived for still wine (though there are a few examples of people making examples from Palomino), then fortifying them at varying levels depending on intended type, and aging them for years in a complex solara system that depends on either oxygen influence or development under flor.

The Making of Sherry

click on image to enlarge

Understanding the many intricacies of sherry production can be challenging, as can remembering how each of the styles is made. With that in mind I set out to distill the information into a one-page image that would retain the complexity with accuracy, while presenting it in a more accessible manner.

Above you will find the result, a drawing that explains production of each of the major types of sherry — Fino, Manzanilla, Manzanilla Pasado, Amontillado, Palo Cortado, and Oloroso.

Six Examples of Sherry

Following are notes on six examples of sherries available in the United States and well worth drinking. The notes progress by order of richness and weight, as would work too in stages through a meal.

Cesar Florido Fino offers delicate persistence with a saline crunch and seaside presence. The wine carries mineral clarity that would do well with oysters on the half shell, or lightly salty charcuterie and melon.

La Cigarrera Manzanilla Pasada does well with a light chill, offering both surprising brightness and complexity with saline crunch, nutty accents throughout, and pleasing savory elements all on pleasing texture. This wine’s seaside aspects and weight would do well with creamier, and lightly spiced seafood dishes.

El Maestro Sierra Amontillado Viejo 1830 brings complexity and great juiciness through floral notes with light nut on a spine of light cedar-tobacco. This wine evolves like crazy after opening, and continues to be enticing throughout. I’m inclined to say enjoy it on its own rather than worry about food pairings. However, it would do well alongside jamon, cured meats, and wild game, as well as firm cheeses.

Cesar Florido “Peña de Aguila” Palo Cortado gives rich, warming aromatics and palate of amber, cocoa butter, nuts and light smoke with tons of length and complexity. The wine is technically produced outside the sherry triangle, but still in excellent proximity to the ocean for aging. This wine would do well with duck, sauteed mushrooms, and firm cheeses.

El Maestro Sierra Oloroso 1/14 brings intensity, juiciness, and lots of length through nut and dried fruit elements mixed through with exotic spices hinting at amber and saffron. Serve only very slightly chilled, closer to room temperature, alongside stronger cheeses, dried fruits, or even spiced (not very sweet) desserts.

Cesar Florido Moscatel “Especial” depends upon an additional step. Grape must that has been heated to concentrate its flavors is added after fermentation in order to bring an additional layer of complexity. The wine carries baking spices, dried cocoa, and hints of nut on a sweet body with brooding length. This wine caps a meal perfectly alongside a nut and cheese plate, or just with coffee.

***

If you want to read more about sherry:

I highly recommend Sherry, Manzanilla, and Montilla, by Peter Liem and Jesús Barquîn. You can purchase the book here: http://www.sherryguide.net/ (Incidentally, Peter’s work on champagne is also excellent. You can read it here: http://www.champagneguide.net/)

From Eric Asimov, The Book on Amontillado: http://www.nytimes.com/2014/02/26/dining/the-book-on-amontillado.html?action=click&module=Search&region=searchResults&mabReward=relbias%3Ar&url=http%3A%2F%2Fquery.nytimes.com%2Fsearch%2Fsitesearch%2F%23%2Fasimov%2Bsherry%2F

Keep an eye out for Talia Baiocchi’s book, Sherry, due this October:
http://www.randomhouse.com/book/228136/sherry-by-talia-baiocchi

***

The above drawing, The Making of Sherry, was originally commissioned by Steven Morgan, Liz Mendez, and Steven Alexander for a sherry event that took place in Chicago this Spring. Some of the wines mentioned here were received as partial trade for that commission.

***

Hawk Wakawaka Wine Reviews remains ad-free without a pay wall, and takes hundreds of hours a month to research and write. If you enjoy and value the work you find here, please consider supporting this project with a monthly donation, or one in any dollar amount via the form below. Your support is greatly appreciated.

Thank you!

Understanding Santa Barbara County Wine

California

Hawk Wakawaka

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May 20, 2014

11

Traveling Santa Barbara County Wine

As some of you know, I’ve spent a lot of time traveling and tasting Santa Barbara Wine Country. The area grabbed my fascination for multiple reasons. It’s a region doing a big range of interesting (and tasty) things in wine, that also has fantastic long-term potential for continued evolution of both style and quality. Still, the area has been comparatively under regarded.

Talking enough with people throughout Santa Barbara County wine, what becomes apparent is not only the passionate commitment that people in the area hold for the place. There is also a sense of historical necessity pushing the region forward.

Winegrowers there now can be seen as riding a sort of third-wave of influence through the area. Modern vines first started going into the region in the early 1970s in a try-and-see-what-grows crazy quilt of plantings. By the 1990s appellations were being defined and people had articulated general swaths of guidance like Cabernet and its kin needed to be further inland, whereas Burgundian varieties could sustain closer to the coast.

Today, wines of Santa Barbara County benefit from the work of those previous decades to now produce wines on the backbone of such established knowledge with the flesh of experimentation and fine-tuning pushing forward quality.

Part of my interest in Santa Barbara County rests too in its geographical complexity. Comprehending the wealth of environmental, geological, historical, and climactic influences factoring into winemaking in the region is no small feat. How these factors intertwine in Santa Barbara County wine differs significantly from other regions of California.

After returning from my most recent visit in March I began drawing a series of maps that compile information about the unique characteristics of the region. The originals are wall size pieces that I’ve had professionally scanned to present here (they’re too big for my little home scanner).

As a first installment in a series on the region, the following map of Santa Barbara County represents crucial climactic and geographical influences on the region’s growing conditions with a presentation of the County’s AVAs.

The Growing Conditions of Santa Barbara County

Click on the image to enlarge. You can then zoom in further with your browser. One small error on this map — I wrote “Alluvial Soils from the Mountains” along the Northern rim of Santa Maria Valley, and the Southern Rim of Sta Rita Hills. Properly speaking alluvial soils are left by water in riverbeds. Colluvial soils are dropped from erosion off mountainsides. The areas marked with this notation does have some of each but I should have been clearer in how it was noted.

The Role of Rain

Santa Barbara County (SBC) receives very little rain through not only the growing season, but the year in general. While it is possible to dry farm in the county, sites must be carefully selected to do so. In Sta Rita Hills, for example, some people have been able to dry farm along the Santa Ynez River. In Santa Maria Valley, some have been able to dry farm along moderate elevation areas of mixed loam.

The lack of rain occurs for multiple reasons. Storms from the North travel through Northern California into San Luis Obispo (SLO), then hitting the Sierra Madre and San Rafael Mountain Ranges at the boundary between SLO and SBC. The mountains effectively stop rains from the North in a rain shadow effect before they ever hit Santa Maria Valley or the rest of SBC.

Storms from the South will occasionally bring rain North from Mexico, but only on occasion. Such events can be problematic, however, as these usually represent hot rain and warmer temperatures that can cause trouble for agriculture.

The County stands unprotected from storms off the ocean as the Coastal mountains turn East through SBC leaving valleys open-mouthed to the Pacific. Ocean storms rush in quickly bringing intense weather conditions that often pass just as fast. The intensity of these storms comes partially from the weather effect hitting mountains on the Eastern side of SBC, as well as the North-South oriented range in SLO, then rushing skywards as a result. As the storms impact the mountains and rush upwards, water falls from the cloud fronts creating flash flooding through the region. Such occurrences happen only on occasion, however, as usually such storms will have resolved over water before arriving on land.

The Turn of the Coastal Range

Santa Barbara County represents the only place in North or South America where the Coastal range turns fully from a North-South orientation to an East-West one. (There are, of course, other American regions that have some maritime influence through gaps in the mountains.) While other major wine growing regions along the Western side of the two continents tend to be shielded from ocean influence by their Coastal range, SBC instead hosts direct maritime relation.

As the mountains turn East they create open-mouthed valleys through the county that effectively act as funnels bringing maritime influence from the Pacific inland in a consistent breathing pattern through the day. As inland temperatures rise, cool air from the ocean is pulled East over SBC. Westerly winds start just after lunch time on a daily basis, as a result, so that even on higher ambient temperature days vines are cooled by the breeze effect. As inland temperatures cool through evening, fog sets in all the way to the far Eastern side of the County.

With the ocean influence temperatures increase traveling East through the region. On average the thermometer can be tracked at a degree Fahrenheit increase per mile traveled East, though of course geographical variation creates more subtle differences in specific locales.

Fog Blankets and Wind

With the Eastern-oriented mountain ranges fog and wind both play significant influence through the region. With the predominately open-to-the-ocean valley formations throughout SBC, fog and wind reach all the way to the far Eastern areas of the county. As a result, even the warmer Happy Canyon of Santa Barbara appellation at the inland side of Santa Ynez Valley still receives that daily cooling influence, for example, though less directly than plantings on the Western end of Santa Ynez Valley.

Ballard Canyon, on the other hand, stands partially defined by its unique position within a North-South facing notch between Buellton and Los Olivos in the Hills that run East from Sta Rita Hills AVA through the Santa Ynez Valley. Thanks to nestling into the North-South notch, the fog and winds impact on the appellation is softened slightly, and some plantings at higher elevation in the Canyon receive less of the fog.

Fog generally increases disease pressure, raising worries of mold and mildew. Within nestled Western pockets of the area growers must especially track for disease. However, at the same, thanks to lack of rainfall, overall humidity levels remain lower thus keeping disease pressures lower than other regions with comparable levels of fog.

Fog also coincides with diurnal shift, appearing as a symbol of the cooler nights of the region that support up-acidity for super juicy wines.

Pacific Ocean Currents

Proximity to ocean as well as particular placement along the Pacific offer moderate temperatures throughout Santa Barbara County. The California Current carries a strong cooling influence along the coast to the North.

SBC is the Southern most part of the State to receive direct influence from the California Current as below the County the North American land mass cuts further East with the current moving back out into the Pacific. Instead, coming up from the South, the more moderate Davidson Current brings warmer water temperatures September through February. The two currents meet and mix along the beaches of SBC creating a mild climate, and nutrient rich waters.

Soil Variation

Soil types vary significantly through the County with a full range from beach-type sands or sandy loams, abundant clay or clay loams, to unconsolidated rocky soils the result of mountain erosion, as well as rocky shale or Diatomaceous Earth. Limestone and chalky bands also paint through sections of the county visibly appearing in swaths of Ballard Canyon, for example. Even within single AVAs very different soil types appear, sometimes side by side.

Within the Sta Rita Hills, for example, overt soil changes visibly appear along roadside with more sandy loam showing through the Highway 246 corridor, and completely different profiles appearing on the Sweeney-to-Santa Rosa Road side. There, soils change by elevation with clay loam along the riverbed, shale appearing through the mid-slopes, and Diatomaceous Earth at higher elevation. Sta Rita Hills may be the only wine growing region in the world that plants in Diatomaceous Earth as the rock is rare on the planet (if not the only such growing region it is one of the few).

The soil variation through SBC supports a huge range of planting choices and wine styles.

What This Means for Growing Grapes

The reality of grape growing in Santa Barbara County is admirably varied. The region as a whole carries impressive up-acidity through the wines, meaning even naturally richer profile grapes grown in the warmer inland temperatures offer the promise of real juiciness.

Taking a simple one-hour drive West to East through any portion of the County will result in significant viticultural change. At the far Western portions of SBC even cool climate grapes like Riesling, Gruner Veltliner, Pinot Noir or Chardonnay can struggle to ripen. Cool climate Rhone varieties do beautifully through the area, as do warmer style Rhone wines further inland. At the far Eastern sides of the County, Bordeaux varieties prosper, with most appearing through Santa Ynez Valley, though some also showing in the Sisquoc section of Santa Maria Valley.

The viticultural variation of Santa Barbara County offers growers and winemakers the opportunity to work with a range of wines in short distance, a situation unique in the state. While many winemakers in California currently produce wines of similar grape types grown from a range of terroirs, or wine styles grown in differing conditions, few are able to do so in such compact driving proximity.

***

To read more on Santa Barbara County conditions:

Eric Asimov’s look at Chardonnays of Santa Barbara County: http://www.nytimes.com/2013/04/24/dining/reviews/rehabilitating-the-image-of-chardonnay.html?_r=0

RH Drexel’s excellent first volume of Loam Baby, entirely on Santa Barbara County wine: http://www.loambaby.com/v1.html

Richard Jennings on Santa Barbara County: http://www.rjonwine.com/santa-barbara/exploring-terroir-and-balance/

Climate in the County, and Ocean Influence: http://www.countyofsb.org/pwd/pwwater.aspx?id=27904

Sashi Moorman on the importance of Soils of Sta Rita Hills: http://wakawakawinereviews.com/2014/01/28/a-glimpse-of-sta-rita-hills-climbing-the-mountain-w-sashi-moorman/

Stay turned for more on Santa Barbara County with hand-drawn maps…

***

Hawk Wakawaka Wine Reviews remains ad-free without a pay wall, and takes hundreds of hours a month to research and write. If you enjoy and value the work you find here, please consider supporting this project with a monthly donation, or one in any dollar amount via the form below. Your support is greatly appreciated.

Thank you!

Three 2011 Tempranillos from Shake Ridge Ranch

Hawk Wakawaka

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May 15, 2014

2

Shake Ridge Ranch

visiting Shake Ridge Ranch, May 2013

In 2011 three different young winemakers began working with Tempranillo from Shake Ridge Ranch for the first time, producing three distinctive styles of wine– John Lockwood of Enfield Wine Co., Evan Frazier of Ferdinand Wines, and Jessica Tarpy of Gather Wines. In each case, the winemakers bring to their project an already impressive range of winemaking experience.

Shake Ridge Ranch hosts more than 46 acres under vine in a range of varieties and styles that celebrate the high elevation, warm days and cool nights of the region. The area receives ample, clear sun exposure giving good flavor and tannin development for warmer climate grapes, as well as a cooling breeze and evening temperature drops that keep acids in balance.

Shake Ridge Ranch also hosts a variety of soil types, solar aspects, and drainages allowing for differing expressions of fruit depending on planting location. Taking advantage of such conditions, viticulturist and vineyard manager, Ann Kraemer, has planted Zinfandel, as well as both Iberian and Rhone varieties via multiple training methods. One such example is Tempranillo planted in both head-trained, and VSP methods in multiple spots on the property.

Tempranillo from Shake Ridge Ranch

click on image to enlarge

Shake Ridge Ranch proves an opportune locale for Tempranillo. The elevation, soils, and climate bring healthy structure to the fruit’s flavor and juiciness balance.

Viticulture for Tempranillo proves tricky as the vine is both pest and disease susceptible, and the fruit suffers under humidity. Many of the newer clones (though Tempranillo is not so clone resplendent as many other grape types) have tight clusters that mildew easily in wetter conditions. The variety also readily absorbs potassium from soils, thus quickly gaining high pH levels that give a fat belly-no spine feel to its wines. Many New World examples have not yet found prime growing conditions thus losing structural focus and the pleasing rustic backbone available in Old World exemplars.

In Rioja, Tempranillo can be blended with Garnacha, Graciano, and Carignan with Tempranillo serving as the main component and structural backbone to Garnacha’s fruit, Graciano’s juiciness, and Carignan’s color and heft (there the variety is called Mazuelo). Old World Tempranillo, then, is more often found in blend. Still, examples of younger single varietal Tempranillo can also be found made in a clean fruit, no oak style. In the New World, when blended, Tempranillo is more often brought together with French varieties such as Merlot or Mourvedre to suit the fruit focused palate. As a result, finding stand-out New World single varietal examples can be trickier.

Shake Ridge Ranch: The Tempranillo Project

tasting The Tempranillo Project with the winemakers, February 2014

The Tempranillo project John Lockwood, Evan Frazier, and Jessica Tarpy began in 2011 offers interesting insight into the potential for varietal expressions of the fruit in a New World context.

Tasting them side-by-side-by-side also brings into focus the coupling of winemaking and site. The three wines each carry the mountain-rock crunch and mineral length offered by Shake Ridge Ranch, for example. Each wine also offers a purity of aromatics. Yet, the three wines also beautifully differ in style and fruit expression.

For me, part of the interest in the wines also comes from the way the three labels’ winemaking backgrounds so clearly carry forward in not only the wines themselves but the winemaking choices brought to bear. Where Lockwood utilizes some whole cluster fermentation, Frazier and Tarpy de-stem all their fruit, for example. All three winemakers here use ambient yeast.

Picking times and vineyard block choices also reflect their own particular views of winemaking. Shake Ridge Ranch includes three distinct blocks of Tempranillo. Beautifully, each winemaker approached Kraemer about the fruit separately, each selecting the block he or she wanted without conflict with the other winemakers’ preferences. Though the choices had not been discussed together in advance, they each got to work with their first choice fruit.

Following are notes on the three wines in alphabetical order by label (which happens to also coincide with picking times from earliest to latest).

Enfield Wine Co. and John Lockwood

walking Heron Lake Vineyard in Wild Horse AVA with John Lockwood (the vineyard Lockwood uses for Enfield Chardonnay), May 2013

“One of the things about making Tempranillo is there are no rules, but then there is the challenge of making all these decisions.” — John Lockwood

John Lockwood heralds from experience working with Ted Lemon at Littorai, and Ehren Jordan of Failla bringing with him, as a result, rootedness in the vineyard, and interest in whole cluster fermentation.

In selecting to work with Kraemer to make Tempranillo from Shake Ridge Ranch, Lockwood explains her continual attention in the vineyard proved crucial alongside the quality of the site itself. As Lockwood describes, he has found that as much as various viticulture choices like going organic, for example, matter, it is actually the amount of time and attention the vineyard manager gives to the site that shows most in the final quality of the fruit. His vineyard sites, then, are chosen based on his trust in the farmer’s loyalty to their land.

In making Tempranillo, Lockwood has experimented with levels of whole cluster fermentation varying each year not only proportions for stem inclusion but also length of macerated ferment. The idea has been that in having such an open field for Tempranillo, by trying different approaches he can discover which he prefers. Whole cluster fermentation, for John, offers textural interest and another level of sophistication for the final blend. In 2013 he bottled portions of the 100% whole cluster Tempranillo on its own both because of its appeal, and out of curiosity for how it will age compared to his blend with de-stemmed fruit.

John and I have been able to taste the individual whole cluster versus de-stemmed lots side-by-side and then blended at different points through multiple vintages. The whole cluster element brings a fresh floral lift to the wine without over doing the tannin structure.

The block:
John’s block at Shake Ridge offered a light crop of first fruit in 2011, having been established in 2009. The spot grows on a sloped North facing aspect, with slight Western exposure, in the Quartz Mountain area of Shake Ridge which shows both chunky quartz and blue schist through mixed loam. The vines are head-trained.

The wine:
Enfield Wine Co. 2011 Tempranillo, Shake Ridge Ranch, Amador
Enfield‘s 2011 Tempranillo brings a lithe fitness to fruit and fresh-herbs spice, cocoa, and long-lined mountain crunch. The wine opens into light strawberry blossom (without sweetness) on the nose and rose cream with winter violet accents through the mid-palate. There is a pleasing red fruit aspect coupled with stoniness throughout this wine that together give a pleasing earthy prettiness.

Ferdinand and Evan Frazier

tasting the full history of Ferdinand Wines w Evan Frazier, August 2013

“There is something especially useful about staying focused and trying to learn something by digging the 6 ft well, rather than 6 1-ft wells.” — Evan Frazier

Having launched Ferdinand Wines in 2010 with Albarino, while working as well with Kongsgaard Wine, Evan Frazier was introduced to the Tempranillo of Shake Ridge Ranch in 2011, and choose to make it his label’s red wine focus.

In selecting the two Iberian varieties to circumscribe Ferdinand, Frazier describes the project as keeping focus in order to learn more deeply about his wines. He describes his desire to work with Kraemer in a similar fashion, while also focusing on her viticultural gravitas. “I try to work with people that are really great growers, that I can also learn from and try to pick things up. When I met Ann I thought, what can I learn from her?, and then I decided to steer Ferdinand to Albarino and Tempranillo, two noble Spanish varieties.”

What Frazier has learned includes looking to old Rioja to glean vinification insights. Though the wine of Rioja arises from blending, the model can still offer guidance in varietal expression. Borrowing from technique he’s learned with Kongsgaard, Frazier de-stems all fruit as it comes in. He then treats the wine like a Rioja Reserva, giving it at least two years in barrel unless the wine itself indicates a need otherwise.

In 2013, Frazier was able to start working with Tempranillo from the Sonoma side of Mt Veeder also growing at higher elevation. We were able to taste the two lots side-by-side. The two wines carried distinct fruit expressions, with the Shake Ridge wine offering a more powerful presence, and clear tannin expression. By comparison, the Sonoma fruit came in more delicate with lighter tannin.

The block:
Evan’s block at Shake Ridge comes from the Quartz Mountain section, having been established in 2009, and offering a light first crop in 2011. The section grows on a lightly sloped Southwest-facing aspect with a cool air drainage running over rocky soils. The vines are planted VSP.

The wine: Ferdinand 2011 Tempranillo, Shake Ridge Ranch, Amador
Ferdinand‘s 2011 Tempranillo offers a velvety nose that runs through the lean-bodied palate carrying alternating layers of rich flavor and fine-tuned focus. Savory herbal elements couple with red fruit, light forest musk, and smooth cocoa-espresso lines. This wine moves with a silky tannin grip, lots of length, verve, and a lightly drying finish.

Gather and Jessica Tarpy, and Andrew Shaheen

Jessica Tarpy and Andrew Shaheen pouring at Shake Ridge, May 2014

“[Through wine] I have the opportunity to […] explore the realm of winemaking and viticultural practices with a notion to increasingly simplify the process, while continually making better and better wines.” — Jessica Tarpy

Bringing to Gather Wines (the label she and husband Andrew Shaheen just launched this month) experience in both viticulture and vinification with Favia Wines, Jessica Tarpy was among the first to work with fruit from Shake Ridge Ranch. Favia began purchasing fruit from Kraemer’s site as soon as it came online in 2005.

In considering the launch of their own label, Shaheen and Tarpy saw Tempranillo as the perfect fit. As Shaheen explains smiling, “I courted Jessica with Tempranillo, with old Rioja.” The fruit, then, carries personal significance for the pair.

Tarpy’s respect for Kraemer’s viticultural knowledge, however, also stood at the fore of their decision. Kraemer and Tarpy had hiked the ranch together, and worked multiple vintages through Favia to bring in fruit. Having such thoroughgoing knowledge of Shake Ridge and Kraemer’s talents in farming, Tarpy knew beginning Gather in partnership with Kraemer’s vineyard would be ideal.

Kraemer works with winemaker Ken Bernards to produce her own Tempranillo for her label, Yorba Wines. Tarpy and Shaheen already knew they consistently enjoyed Kraemer’s Yorba Tempranillo, so when fruit from the same block became available they jumped at the chance, and Gather was born.

Shake Ridge Tempranillo is co-planted at varying proportions in each of the blocks. Tarpy and Shaheen enjoy the extra juiciness offered by the Graciano and so choose to co-ferment the varieties together keeping the focus on lifted acidity for the final wine.

The block:
The original planting at Shake Ridge Ranch, Gather’s Tempranillo heralds from a block established in 2003, with a small first crop in 2005. Growing in deep but well-drained, very rocky soils of Josephine loam, the East-facing slope carries cool air drainage towards the bottom of the slope, and low vigor throughout. The vines are planted VSP.

The wine: Gather 2011 “Decimo” Tempranillo, Shake Ridge Ranch, Amador
Gather‘s 2011 Decimo Tempranillo offers rustic elegance — the soul of a wine raised properly that has decided to move to the mountains for life on the land. Lifting from the glass with both red and blue fruit aromatics, the palate is simultaneously giving and well-focused carrying dried brush edges of garrigue on well-integrated spice and mocha through tons of juiciness and a dark rock, ironstone mineral line. Light accents of raspberry petal lift the palate and accentuate what is otherwise only a lightly-present fruit focus.

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For more on the wines:

Enfield Wine Co.: http://enfieldwine.com

Ferdinand: http://ferdinandwines.com/

Gather: having only just launched, Gather does not yet have a website. However, the wine is available via Acme Fine Wine. Because the wine is so new, it is not yet showing on their website. Instead, call Acme directly to purchase, or for more information: http://www.acmefinewines.com/

POST EDIT: Gather Wines DOES have a website: Here’s the link: http://www.gatherwines.com/

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For more on Shake Ridge Ranch: http://wakawakawinereviews.com/2014/05/13/shake-ridge-ranch-winemaker-tasting-2014/

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Thank you to Jessica Tarpy, Andrew Shaheen, Evan Frazier, John Lockwood, and Ann Kraemer.

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