Vineyards and Varieties
Sources for NW Grapes in 2010

Last updated: Wednesday June 23, 2010 06:13 AM -0700

Grapes for order in 2010

Our Central Coast red grapes and white juices arrive frozen in Nanaimo in plastic, 23L pails.  For reds, each pail contains about 20L of crushed grapes (only the stems are removed), which is equal to about 50 lbs of fresh grapes.  For whites, we aim for 20L of juice per pail, but our experience so far is that the fill-level is a bit less than this. Grapes come north to Nanaimo in a single shipment (we charter our own reefer van) about the end of October, although it could be early November if a grape like Mourvèdre or Nebbiolo has a late harvest.

Estimated prices below, except for the Gewürztraminer which arrives fresh, are per pail. Final prices may vary. See the order form and the FAQs for more details. NW Grapes is a non-profit operation and even the Nanaimo Winemakers club derives no money from its operations. You pay only what the grapes cost, but you must be a member of a BCAWA-related club to order these grapes.

Click on the grape or vineyard name below to see more specific information on sources.  Go here for a Word version of the order form or here for a PDF version.  For estimates of current orders and availability (some grapes could already be sold out), go here.

Brehm Vineyards

Brehm Vineyards is the name through which Peter Brehm provides a full range of frozen red grapes and white juices of the highest quality to the North American market. We have regularly used Brehm's North Coast and Washington grapes to plug gaps in our own selection of Central Coast grapes. Sometimes we have bought grapes from the previous year's inventory; sometimes we have bought them fresh. For more information on Brehm's high quality grapes, see the Brehm Vineyards website. The full range of the Brehm grapes can be purchased in BC through Bosa Grapes.

Sauvignon Blanc (Napa, Brehm)

We have been on the lookout for a Central Coast source for Sauvignon Blanc for years, but we have yet to find something that can match the quality of Sauvignon Blanc we can get from Napa through Brehm Vineyards. This year we will get the 2009 Napa Sauvignon Blanc from the Brehm Vineyard inventory. This has already been ordered and is SOLD OUT. That's why it is not on the June10 version of the order list.

Enz Vineyard, Lime Kiln, San Benito County

This small vineyard is far from our normal haunts, although it is still Central Coast. We learned about it only this year when John Taylor phoned Ken Volk to ask if he could steer us to the source of some Paso Robles Zinfandel he made.  Ken is the man who built Wild Horse Winery in Paso Robles into a major undertaking and then sold it to run his own small winery (Kenneth Volk Vineyards) in Santa Barbara, where he can devote himself to making wines, not building a corporate winery. Instead of Paso Zin, Ken suggested we might be interested in some Zin he gets from San Benito County. Given the quality of Ken's wines, of course we were interested! We never would have come across this vineyard by ourselves, and we couldn't have got the grapes to Santa Maria economically even if we had. But piggy-backing on operations with Ken makes new things feasible.

Picture: Enz Vineyard, looking over the barn to some head-pruned Zinfandel vines planted in 1895. There are only 40 acres of grapes at Enz and it is the only significant vineyard in the Lime Kiln AVA. As the appellation name suggests, there used to be a lime kiln in this small valley and that means limestone-influenced soils! The vineyard is quite isolated, which makes it difficult to develop a winery on the property, because there is little opportunity for the drop-in traffic that small family wineries depend on.  Photo courtesy of Ken Volk.

 

Ken has been using fruit from this vineyard for years with considerable success. He now leases the entire vineyard and controls all aspects of vineyard operations and sale of the crop. The vineyard's assets are its limestone soil, many old head-pruned vines, and dry farming. We visited this vineyard with Ken during our trip to the Central Coast in May 2010. This year we will be getting some of the Mourvèdre and Zinfandel. The vineyard is also home to some Pinot Noir and one of the few plantings of Cabernet Pfeffer (which DNA testing shows this is Gros Verdot, the Bordeaux grape). 

Mourvèdre

We know this is a winner. When we visited Ken Volk's winery casually in 2008, we brought back certain bottles that appealed to us.  Don Graham chose a 2004 Enz Vineyard Mourvèdre. Even though Ken says 2004 wasn't one of the best years, we tasted it at a club executive meeting in March 2010 and we were IMPRESSED. The most common descriptor was "elegant" and we all agreed it had about everything that one could want in an aged red wine. [Full disclosure: there was some doubt expressed at this tasting about whether we could make such an elegant wine even if we had these grapes. The reason, I suspect, is that we already get good grapes and we knew we did not have anything this elegant in our cellars. Ken is a master winemaker and we are not so sure we are in that category! But at least we now know what is possible and we will be able to try with the same grapes. No more excuses that we can't make the very best wine because we don't get the very best grapes.]

We also brought a 2006 bottle back from our current trip and tasted it a club meeting in June 2010. Again, rave reviews.  Some research on the internet shows we are not alone in rating this Mourvèdre highly. For example, a recent wine story from San Francisco on the current interest in Mourvèdre as a varietal wine rated the Kenneth Volk Enz Vineyard Mourvèdre tops among California varietal Mourvèdre wines.

Picture: Mourvèdre in the Enz Vineyard in mid May, before bloom. The vines were planted in 1922 from stock introduced to California in the 19th century by a Frenchman.  DNA testing shows this is a different clone than the Mourvèdre grown by the Rhone Rangers of today, who rely on stock imported from France more recently.

Notice that these vines are "corona" trained. The main stem branches into a "Y." Each year two shoots from the previous year, from one each branch, are braided together to form a loop or crown connecting the two branches over the crotch of the "Y." It is from the this braid that this year's fruit-bearing shoots are allowed to develop. The braided crown provides support to the fruit and keeps it away from the ground.

The soil here is about 30 feet of decomposed granite (there are lots of rocks in it) with a layer of limestone beneath. The vines are dry farmed but the whole vineyard is near the bottom of a small valley, so there usually is adequate ground water from the surrounding hill slopes.

There seems to be an occasional Carignane and Zinfandel vine scattered among the Mourvèdre vines, but less than 5% of the total. 

Note the soil color in this picture: this is fairly close to the truth. The reddish cast in the picture above is the result of late afternoon light and the camera settings. The soil is definitely not red.

 

From our tastings and the reviews of others, it is easy to recommend this grape as a varietal. But many of the best Rhone blends from California also use a significant proportion (at least 20%) of Mourvèdre (along with Syrah and Grenache). So this is another way to go, especially with the option this year to get both Syrah and Grenache from Central Coast vineyards. More about Rhone blends.

Zinfandel

Unlike the Mourvèdre, which only comes only as one block of old vine, the Zinfandel in the Enz Vineyard comes in both "old vine" and "young vine" versions. The old vine was planted in 1895 and therefore qualifies as "century vine." It is head pruned, as one would expect. The young vine was planted in 1992, from the same stock as the old vine, and is on a simple trellis system. Both are dry farmed. Ken combines both types in making his Enz Vineyard Zinfandel.

We heard about this Zin before we tasted it, and we knew it would not be a "typical" Zin, if there is such a thing. One of the issues with Zin is that it can come in so many styles, from blowsy, raisiny fruit bombs (think Lodi) to elegant wines that resemble fine claret (think Dry Creek) and many people have a “cellar palate” for one kind or the other.  For historical reasons, in BC home winemaking circles, the cellar palate preference is for Lodi's fruit bombs, even though the more elegant Dry Creek approach usually commands much higher prices in the California market.  One report on the huge 2010 ZAP (Zinfandel Advocates & Producers Association) show in California in January 2010 talked about the different Zin styles and then said: 

Rising above the entire spectrum are those rare Zinfandels that actually achieve superb balance between fruit, acid, and tannin. These are wines that display some of the 'layered' characteristics of fine Cabernet Sauvignon. They express their distinctive terroirs and are exclusively the product of a single vineyard. The outstanding example, in our opinion, was made by Kenneth Volk (Central Coast) from dry-farmed Enz Vineyard fruit grown high in the limestone soils of the Gavilan Mountains. 

We did a very comprehensive barrel tasting of the Enz Zinfandel while we were at Ken's winery in the Santa Maria Valley—young and old vines, different picking dates, and so on. Part of our concern was to decide on an appropriate blend of old and young vine grapes. They pick at different times, but we intend to get some of both and pail them up separately, so you can judge for yourself if you want to make them separately. Orders will be filled with appropriate proportions of each type (as close as we can make the match), and the young vine and old vine pails will be priced separately so no injustice is done.

Ken combines both young and old vine sources in his wine, in proportions that vary a little from year to year. Our proportions will depend in part on our total order, but at the moment we are looking at a ratio of 2:3 for old:young vine. The young vines tend to have a bit more fruit; the old vines a bit more minerality. [For what they are worth, my brief tasting notes on the barrels of Zin showed the following. For 2009: more color in the old vine, with brighter fruit and a bit of bitterness in the young vine. For 2008: not much color difference between young and old (color is on the light side generally), with brighter fruit again in one picking of the young vine but not in the main picking of young vine, which was the only disappointment of the tasting; overall, the young vine might is a bit "thinner." On the spot blends seemed to be improvements over any individual component.]

And how does the wine turn out? We tasted Ken's 2007 Enz Vineyard Zinfandel at at our June 2010 club meeting. There were a few quizzical looks (after all, this is not Lodi or even Paso Robles) but even more smiles of appreciation. A couple of experience tasters immediately notice a "mineral" note in the nose and welcomed it. In the end, everyone who had already ordered Zinfandel, except one, decided the extra cost for these grapes would be worth it. [Note: We were paying $1800-2000 a ton for Paso Robles Zin in 2007. These Enz Vineyard grapes cost either $2500 per ton (young vine) or $3000 per ton (old vine). These higher prices are very reasonable prices for dry-farmed, low-yield fruit.]

But be warned that just because you get these grapes does not mean you will make the same wine Ken Volk does.  As we learned from detailed barrel tastings and discussion in Ken’s winery, he is a master winemaker and has a few more options to play with in his cellar than we will have in ours. But we should be able to come close.

Goodchild Vineyard, Santa Maria Valley, Santa Barbara County

Santa Barbara was known first, and is still probably best known, for its Pinot Noir and Chardonnay. This is a reflection of the cool climate areas of the region, either close to the coast (the Santa Rita Hills) or a bit farther inland in valleys that get a continual cooling effect from the sea air rushing inland. The Santa Maria Valley is a classic example of this coastal breeze climate. The valley is home to the famous Bein Nacido Vineyard. And it also home to the Goodchild Vineyard owned by Lucas & Lewellen.

Picture: The Goodchild Vineyard has two distinct levels. In this picture, we are on "the hill" and the Pinot Noir is behind us. This is not really a hill, just a higher bench in the Santa Maria Valley, but Louis Lucas decided at one point to call this his "hilltop" Pinot. That was until J. Lohr threaten to sue him over the "hilltop" name, which it uses for some of its Cabernet grown in Paso Robles. The irony is that the gentle rise on the east side of Paso Robles  that J. Lohr calls a "hill" is not really a hill either.

The Goodchild Chardonnay lies immediately below in this picture, before the trees. The large patch of green visible on the bench on the other side of the Santa Maria Valley is the Bien Nacido Vineyard, which is famous for its Pinot Noir and Chardonnay. Goodchild is in good company.

Pinot Noir

The Pinot Noir in the Goodchild vineyard is exclusively clone 667. The traditional view is that Pinot Noir is better if you have a blend of clones, but that is not always the case. A number of Santa Barbara's best Pinot Noirs are single clone productions, and clone 667 is one that is recognized to grow well in the area and to make very fine wines on its own. Certainly we have not been disappointed. If we have hit a "home run" with any grape we have got from Santa Barbara, it is this Pinot Noir. Now we are beginning to understand what Sideways was all about.

In 2007 we got our first Pinot Noir from the Goodchild "hilltop" vineyard, and we also got some from Oregon.  An April 2008 tasting in the Club showed the Goodchild Santa Barbara Pinot to be clearly superior, and we we went exclusively with this source in 2008. The 2008 grapes were excellent: perfect numbers and great flavor. The wines have quickly become favorites in the cellars of those who made it.

This a more complex Pinot Noir than you might be used to. One judge at a BCAWA competition was overheard to say about a Goodchild Pinot Noir that "this must have something else blended in." But not so. The judge was just not familiar with the Santa Barbara terroir and the complexity that clone 667 can convey. It has lots of fruit including the high notes, but there is depth as well.  

It is easy (very easy) to recommend this grape highly—and the price has come down this year. This Pinot used to be our most expensive grape, but demand and supply are finally coming into balance again for Santa Barbara Pinot Noir after the Sideways effect.

Krieger Vineyard, Summerland, BC

Gewürztraminer

We return to our Gewürztraminer source of the last few years—Peter Krieger's vineyard in Summerland. His vineyard is on one of the premium hillsides for Gewurz.  Peter's crop previously went to Sumac Ridge, and now it goes to Red Rooster (apart from the small portion we get).  This Gewurz will arrive in Nanaimo as fresh grapes, probably in late September or early October.  Winemakers prefer to work with fresh grapes in making Gewurz in order to be able to control skin contact (different people generally prefer anything from almost no skin contact to as much as 24 hours contact, before pressing).

In past years we have been rather dependent on the winery to determine picking times. But our experience is that the winery picks a bit too late (wineries have many priorities to manage). So this year, Peter Krieger will be making some of his own measurement as the crop matures and our grapes will be picked when the grapes meet our specifications (we want lower Brix and more acid than we sometimes get by waiting for the winery data).

Los Alamos Vineyard, Los Alamos, Santa Barbara County

This Lucas & Lewellen vineyard is located on Highway 101, just south of the small town of Los Alamos. The Los Alamos area is the only major and well-defined grape growing area in Santa Barbara County without its own AVA. Almost everyone agrees that it should have its own AVA or AVAs, but for the moment it officially travels only under the Santa Barbara County designation.

This vineyard is a combination of two vineyards. The original one was planted mainly to Riesling in the old days when Riesling was in fashion. Most of it has since been grafted over to Chardonnay, Pinot Noir, Viognier, and Merlot (the climate is very like Carneros, which explains the similarity in grape varieties). But Louis Lucas also jumped at the chance to buy a nearby (across the road) Cal-Ital vineyard when it came on the market. This is one of California original Cal-Ital vineyards, from the era when Italian varieties were to be the next big thing (before Rhone varieties became the next big thing).  This vineyard is a goldmine of Italian varietals (Nebbiolo, Sangiovese, Dolcetto, Barbera, and whites). While one might think that the area would be too cool for these Italian reds, that is definitely not the case. (You have to remember that these Italian reds grow best in the cooler hills of Italy). The people who planted this vineyard knew what they were doing.

Picture: Louis Lucas is explaining some of the finer points of grape cultivation in the Los Alamos Vineyard. He comes from a family that grew table grapes in the Central Valley, but he has been planting and cultivating vineyards on the Central Coast for decades.

He has, he likes to say, "made and lost millions [of dollars] several times over." Vineyard development is a precarious business.

Louis can talk grafting, canopy management, irrigation, frost protection, and similar topics seemingly forever. But what he says is fascinating even to relative novices because he is so passionate about his grapes.  

Chenin Blanc

This grape, though somewhat out of fashion because of the large quantity of poor quality stuff California once produced, can be very good. It is often described as the "French Riesling" because of its fruit and acidity. 

This is a new grape for us from the Central Coast. Lucas & Lewellen only have a small quantity of it in their Los Alamos Vineyard and do not normally sell it to others. They make their own Chenin Blanc which retails for $20. However, we will be able to get some settled juice from their tanks.

Lucas & Lewellen describe their Chenin Blanc this way:

A slight touch of residual sugar is left behind in this wine to accentuate the rare tropical fruit flavors of lychee, mangosteen and pineapple. The wine is exotic when young and will develop familiar aromas of honey and caramel as well as pear with age. Upon entry the wine is round and creamy but it has a fine edge on the mid-palate and finish.

There is the usual poetic license in this description, of course. How many people have mangosteen in their flavor memory bank? But we tasted both the 2008 (in bottle) and 2009 (in tank) versions of this wine on our visit in May 2010 and both were very good. All three of us who tasted it are buying some of this juice.

Merlot

We were getting very good Merlot from Paso Robles, but when we switched our processing to Santa Maria in 2008 we looked for a more convenient source. Louis Lucas offered us some from the Los Alamos Vineyard, saying simply, “I have good Merlot.” Ardison Philips, our processor, who also gets this Merlot for hs winery, said, "You are not going to find Merlot much better than Louis's." Our Club tasting in March 2010 bears this out. Although the 2008 grapes came in with high Brix (26.6), they had reasonable numbers otherwise and they have produced a flavorful wine with good varietal character. When those at the tasting were asked what they would base a Bordeaux blend on (this Merlot or the Paso Cab Sauv we were tasting), most people chose the Cab Sauv, but a number of people (including some of the best palates) chose this Merlot.

Los Alamos is closer to Carneros in climate than it is to Paso Robles. But Merlot does well in cooler conditions. Both of the sources Peter Brehm uses for Merlot are in the Carneros area. 

This Los Alamos Merlot can serve many winemaking purposes: it can be a varietal (then you could have a real version of that  "f***ing Merlot" of Sideways fame); it can be the main ingredient (or an important one) in a Bordeaux blend; or it can be the Bordeaux second fiddle in a super Tuscan blend.

Sangiovese

We got these grapes in 2008 and they have turned out well. Most people used them for "super Tuscan" blends with some Bordeaux grapes. (I used one pail of Merlot and one of Petit Verdot to three pails Sangiovese.) These super Tuscans are turning out to be delicious. As John Taylor says, "Everyone should have one of these blends in their cellars." I agree that you will find yourself turning to it often. McKeon-Phillips Winery also uses this grape to make a "super Tuscan," which they call the "Leonardo," and it is their most popular red.  One person, who was not going to order more this year, just won a silver medal with his blend and changed his mind. Another "super Tuscan" is in the works.

But you can also make a varietal Sangiovese.  Lucas & Lewellen do this under their Mandolina label. One of our Club's best wine makers made a barrel of Sangiovese straight up in 2008 and describes the results as  “rich, full of ripe fruit, and delicious.” 

Solana Vineyards, Paso Robles, San Louis Obispo County

We used to get many more grapes from the Paso Robles area than we do now because we shifted our processing to Santa Maria and shipping fresh grapes from Paso adds complications that do not make sense for small volumes. But we still keep up with our contacts in Paso Robles and can return there when we have a large enough order to justify transportation.

Solana Vineyards is new for us because we come to it via McKeon-Phillips Winery (our processor), which sources grapes there. Solana is on the east side of Paso Roble, but at the lower level of the hills to the north (not the flat land along Highway 46 East). It sells to smaller wineries and home winemakers and has its own website. McKeon-Phillips, which won an award for the best Malbec in the 2009 San Francisco International Wine competition using grapes from another Paso Robles vineyard, has switched its Malbec sourcing to Solana and is "more than pleased" with the result. We will consider adding this Malbec to our order list next year, after we have a chance to taste it again. A barrel tasting on this trip was very positive.

Petit Verdot

We were very happy with the Valley View Petit Verdot we got in 2008, but our orders this year are light. As it turns out, our processor (McKeon-Phillips) has decided to source its Petit Verdot from Solana Vineyards in Paso Robles. So we have the opportunity to piggy-back our small interest in Petit Verdot on this larger order, which is a real convenience for us. One plus of this move will be a lower price—probably closer to $90 per pail than the initial estimate of $110.

Solana advertizes its Petit Verdot as a "Certified French Entav" clone. It was grafted on to Cabernet Sauvignon stock in 2003. The Solana Vineyards website says this about is Petit Verdot:

This grape produces a very rich, deep reddish-purple color, has a strong tannin structure, a higher titratable acid content, and adds an exotic floral and spicy perfume to the resulting wine.  Their aroma can be strong and encompass earth, leather, smoke and cigar box tones. The taste includes peppers, spice, minerals and smoke. The high tannin content may require longer oak aging to soften both single and blended varietal wines.

In our experience, Petit Verdot from this area of Paso Robles, and on the Central Coast more generally, does not have the tannin structure that textbooks might lead you to expect. There is nothing to be feared here.

TBD, Santa Ynez Valley, Santa Barbara County

Grenache

Our Grenache Noir vineyard is really no longer TBD, it is just we cannot tell you the name because technically it is under an exclusive contract with one of the well known and pricey Rhone-varietal wineries in the Valley. We haven’t been able to taste this grape made into wine, but we have every reason (vineyard site, low-yield growing practices, expectations of others) to think it will be good.

Grenache from the Central Coast is very much in demand these days (for good reason, I think) and there are not many acres planted compared to Syrah.  We are lucky to have this source. And now, with the Mourvèdre from Lime Kiln, we finally have all the ingredients to make a Central Coast Rhone blend.  The Santa Ynez Valley is rapidly becoming known for Rhone-style wines. There are more than a dozen wineries in the area that focus on Rhone-style wines, including Zucca Mesa, Fes Parker, Jaffurs and Qupe among the better known with Andrew Murray, Bedford, Beckmen, Blair Fox, Curtis, Demetria, Foxen, Iris Rideaux, Stolpman, tercero and others on the rise.

Valley View Vineyard, Santa Ynez Valley, Santa Barbara County

Because of Pacific breezes and fog, many grape growing areas of Santa Barbara County are cool and noted more for their Pinot Noir, Chardonnay, and other white grapes than for reds. To grow Bordeaux reds successfully, you need to be in pockets farther from the coast. Valley View Vineyard, the "home ranch" of Louis Lucas, is one of these pockets. Just east of Solvang, it faces south to the Santa Ynez River.

Picture: Valley View Vineyard, looking north. The Santa Ynez river is behind your back (in this picture) and Louis Lucas's home is just visible on the top of the rise on the right. This vineyard excels at Cabernets and Petit Verdot. The Syrah is up on the hillside, top left.

Cabernet Franc

We got Cab Franc from Valley View in 2008, and apart from the very low YAN, the numbers were good. A tasting of a sample of this wine (still unoaked) at the March 2010 Club meeting showed it is turning out very well. It has classic, fully ripe Cab Franc flavors with good structure. At the tasting, one person said "this wine speaks to me" and decided on the spot to make a barrel of it as a varietal. This certainly makes sense.  McKeon-Phillips also uses this source to make a varietal Cab Franc which sells for over $40. While this may be typical high-pricing by a boutique winery, it is still a very good wine.

During our 2010 visit to the Central Coast, we learned that this 2008 Cab Franc had won double gold in a competition for someone who had recently bought two barrels of the bulk wine from Louis Lucas.  Buy finished wine by the barrel, put your label on it, and win medals—a bit easier than our approach!

Of course, you can also use this Cab Franc in Bordeaux blends. It should certainly be one pail of your five or six for a 55L barrel. Another approach would be to feature the Cab Franc as some other wineries in the Santa Ynez area do. For example, Blackjack Ranch, one of the very few California wineries to get 5-stars from Robert Parker for Bordeaux style wines, recently released its 2007 Harmonie ($75 per bottle) as a Pomerol-St.Emilion style blend with 61% Cab Franc and 39% Merlot. Yes, there is life in Bordeaux blends beyond Cab Sauv!

Cabernet Sauvignon (clone 6)

We had already committed to a Paso Robles source for Cab Sauv in 2008 when we tasted the Valley View Cab for the first time. The Lucas & Lewellan website likes to say "many consider [our Cab] Santa Barbara County's best Cabernet Sauvignon." Rancho Sisquoc and Blackjack Ranch might quarrel with this, but the Cab from the Valley View Vineyard is very good—we can attest to that from our tastings. Not only does Valley View have the right microclimate, Louis Lucas is a master of canopy management, which is also an important factor in getting full ripeness and minimizing the methoxypyrazines that can give wines the bell-pepper notes that take them beyond a pleasant herbaceousness.

During our 2010 trip we tasted both bottled and 2009 barrel versions of some of the different clones and blocks of Cab Sauv from this vineyard.  In the end we opted for clone 6 as our first choice (and a particular block of clone 337, if we have to go to a second choice).  Clone 337 is the general go-to clone in Napa and Sonoma.  Clone 6, on the other hand, is more rarely planted because its yields are so low (fewer bunches, smaller bunches, smaller grapes, with about 1.5 tons or less to the acre as a result).  However, clone 6 is generally considered to make superior wine.  In our tastings, various 337 options were very attractive, but with more herbaceousness than clone 6.  On two different occasions (in a bottle tasting of older vintages  and in a 2009 barrel tasting) clone 6 just jumped out at me and my first words were a rather unsophisticated “I love this stuff.”  Clone 6 will cost us more, because of the low yields, but it is definitely worth it if you love Cab Sauv.  With clone 6, you should also anticipate a lower-than-usual juice yield per pail because of the small berry size.

Syrah

There is lots of Syrah grown in Paso Robles and Santa Barbara and we had many offers to sell us some (the situation is very different for Grenache). Santa Barbara County also has the distinction of growing both "cool climate" and "warm climate" Syrah. We have decided to go with the Valley View Vineyard because we know it produces good grapes and our Grenache will also be coming from the Santa Ynez Valley.  If you put these two grapes into a blend, you would have the prestige (and it is quickly becoming a prestigious matter) to have a Santa Ynez Valley Rhone blend. Valley View qualifies as "warm climate" Syrah, but not Australian warm!

White Hills Vineyard, Los Alamos Valley, Santa Barbara County

This large vineyard (about 2400 acres of vines) sprawls along Highway 135, just west of Los Alamos in the Los Alamos Valley. It has been owned by Meridian-Beringer-Fosters for years. Kendal-Jackson and Sutter Home also own large vineyards in the area. As you drive along, you see lots and lots of impeccably-maintained vines but no ownership signs and no wineries!

This area is perhaps the coolest grape growing area in California and it is devoted to white grapes, including Riesling and Gewürztraminer.  But the real glory of the area is the Chardonnay and Pinot Gris, which we have been getting since 2005.

Chardonnay (last chance?)

The White Hills Chardonnay has been a winner for us every year since 2005. And this is not just cellar palate. In the 2010 BCAWA provincial competition, all White Hills Chardonnays won medals and the best of class was a White Hills.

Unfortunately, this may be the last year we can get these grapes. The vineyard is in the process of being sold (Fosters is dramatically down-sizing the the wine side of its operations) and there are other changes afoot for Meridian. So this may be your last chance to get some of the grapes that help make Chuck Ortman, the former winemaker at Meridian, into California's "Mr. Chardonnay."

As you will discover, Santa Barbara Chardonnay has a distinct flavor profile with more pronounced tropical fruit. This flavor is especially intense in the White Hills juice.  It has made delicious wine in several styles. A very cold and clean ferment produces a delightfully fruity wine that drinks well within months. But you can also barrel ferment and use traditional MLF and sur lie aging for a less fruity and more complex Chardonnay style.

On our to the Central Coast in May, we knew  that we might be losing access to the White Hills vineyard before long, so we began tasting other Chardonnays more purposefully. And while there is no doubt that there are many fine Chardonnays available on the Central Coast, we did not find one on this trip that we liked better than (or as well as) the White Hills. All three of us on the trip came back and increased our order of Chardonnay!

Planning for Red Blends

Bordeaux Blends (a.k.a. Meritage)

Typically, this is a blend of Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot, and Cabernet Franc. Any one of these grapes can play the leading role (and does in the various regions of Bordeaux), with support from one or more of the others.  Smaller proportions of Petit Verdot and Malbec, as well as the rarer Carmenere, can also be added. Any one of these Bordeaux grapes can stand on its own, but the most refined and complex wines tend to be blends. Usually the most important decision is deciding on your major ingredient, which is usually your best grape.  In France it depends very much on your area in Bordeaux. In Napa it is almost invariably Cabernet Sauvignon.  For example, Chateau St. Jean's famous Cinq Cépage (which self-consciously includes all five varietals) is over 80% Cab Sauv, enough to be a varietal Cab!  In other areas, Merlot might dominate.  For example, Sumac Ridge's Meritage and Pinnacle are about 40-50% Merlot, with about equal portions of Cab Sauv and Cab Franc making up the rest.  In the discussion of Cab Franc (see above), I note that a blend based predominantly on Santa Barbara Cab Franc could work out well. It is not necessary to have all five grapes in the blend.  Any two of the traditional Bordeaux varietals is enough.

Recommendation for a basic Bordeaux Blend: One approach to blending is to make significant quantities of each variety and then experiment with blending proportions once you have an idea about the characteristics of the individual wines. You will end up with varietal wines and various blends.  For a general recipe, however, try: two pails Merlot, and one pail each of Cab Sauv, Cab Franc and Petit Verdot.  Five pails are usually enough for a 55L barrel. If you emphasize Cab Sauv in your blend, just remember that Cab Sauv typically takes a few years to develop the mature flavors for which it is famous.

All the Central Coast Bordeaux red grapes can make excellent varietals. Up to 15% of other Bordeaux grapes can be added for balance and complexity.

Rhône Blends

France's Rhone is a complex wine-making region, with many distinct appellations and a large variety of grapes and wine styles. Syrah is the dominant red grape in the cooler northern Rhone, while Grenache, Mourvèdre and other grapes play a larger role in the warmer southern areas.

California's interest in Rhone grapes and Rhone-style wines has exploded in recent decades. The reason is that Rhone grapes grow amazingly well in many areas of California, where the variety of micro climates easily matches the Rhone. The California winemakers specializing in Rhone-style wines are often referred to as Rhone Rangers.  The Santa Ynez Valley is rapidly developing a reputation for its Rhone-style wines. 

Syrah is easily the dominant Rhone red grape in California (for whites it is Viognier), but Grenache is the newest darling, and plantings of Mourvèdre and other red grapes, like Cinsault and Cournoise are on the rise (as are plantings of Marsanne and Roussanne among whites).

In creating Rhone-style blends in California, the most common ingredients are Syrah, Grenache, and Mourvèdre.  Each of these can also be made as a varietal, and even as varietals these wines will often include a small proportions of one or more of the other grapes to add complexity.

Among the true blends, some will favor Syrah, others Grenache, as the main ingredient, but often there are significant proportions of all three—Syrah, Grenache, and Mourvèdre. 

Recommendation for a basic Rhone Blend: Two pails Syrah, two pails Grenache, and a pail of Mourvèdre.  You can top up with Viognier, but no more than a few per cent total. However, you should feel free to follow your own preferences and the quality of the various grapes available. Given the quality of Mourvèdre available to us in 2010, I would have no hesitation going to 40% of it in a blend.

Super Tuscans

The first "super Tuscans" were made almost exclusively of Bordeaux grapes grown in the Bolgheri coastal area of Tuscany (as opposed to the picturesque interior hills where Sangiovese is king). However, in the last few decades, "super Tuscan" has more commonly come to mean a wine that blends Sangiovese and one or more of the French noble grapes, made with modern methods and aged in French oak barrels. Blends with Cabernet Sauvignon were the first to be tried and are still the most popular, but Merlot often makes more sense because its development time as wine more closely matches that of Sangiovese. My personal favorite in recent years has been a blend with Petit Verdot. Even Syrah can be used, and recently I have seen a couple of high-priced Central Coast blends featuring 50% Syrah and 50% Sangiovese.

Blends typically are 50-85% Sangiovese, but there are no real rules. The French grapes add color, structure, and complexity, while the Sangiovese adds the flavor and crisper acidity we associate with Chianti. The great thing about these wines, especially ones with Merlot or Syrah as the second fiddle are that they are enjoyable quite early (as early as year two) and will still improve with age.

 

Prepared by Rod Church