May 2009 Archives

My Wednesday appointment was actually with Lee, who was John's local contact in Paso. John had spoken to me a few days and informed me he had to be in Temecula. I found this a little dubious since we had agreed on the date some weeks earlier but he assured me Lee was really my main man anyway. This turned out to be true. In our phone conversation John revealed the high end Santa Rita chardonnay vineyard - it was Presidio, owned by Doug Braun. I had met Doug when the class toured his vineyard, which is certified 100% biodynamic. The tour had been fascinating and Doug is a successful grower and winemaker with deep roots in the area. Unfortunately he has been screwed over by the TTB, as his properly lies directly adjacent to the boundary for the Santa Rita Hills appellation. This means that he's outside the appellation, meaning that I could not put the magic "Santa Rita Hills" moniker on the bottle. I've had his chardonnay and it's excellent - you can really taste the soil (in a good way), but the price tag for the grapes, which was already high for a cash-strapped newbie,  now became too high,

 

Lee picked me up at my motel around 11:00 on Wednesday. He drives an enormous black SUV, and off we went. Our first stop was a large vineyard near the airport. I was vaguely aware of the existence of Paso Robles Airport but I'd never seen it. It's off in the boonies on the Eastside; the vineyards are slowly closing in on all sides of it. I'm sure when it was built there was not much of anything around except perhaps grazing land and the odd isolated ranch. The airport itself seemed deserted and is only for small private craft.

 

Lee is a local vineyard manager and has a good handle on the area, which he proved immediately by getting lost. Shortly after turning around and trying a new route he had to stop and pull over. The poor guy was sick and he had to run out in back of his truck and vomit. An inauspicious start. He did seem to feel much better after our unplanned pit stop and explained that it seemed to be a reaction to the medication he had taken for a chronic sore throat. The good news is that his sore throat had disappeared since taking said medication..

 

After conferring with someone at the winery on his cell phone Lee found the vineyard (ironically the winery and tasting room is on the Westside). The vineyard is a large spread (I think about 130 acres), featuring several varietals. We were looking at Mourvedre and Viognier. Following our visit here the Grenache vineyard was next, which this winery had used but was now dropping. Lee explained to me that the winery was scaling back on its Rhone program, thus grapes were available.

 

After meandering up and down a few vineyard blocks we found the Mourvedre. There was a post marked MV at the head of the row, so I was certain it was indeed the Mourvedre block but it looked like, yes, most vineyards. The latest in a series. We got out and looked. It all looked fine to me, per usual. The only thing I noticed is the vines had already been cropped a bit and that they were spaced very far apart, which I presumed meant machine harvesting. Lee assured me the fruit would be handpicked however, which as small production craftsman and artisans, we prefer, damnit. There was a sufficiently small amount of the Mourvedre in relation to the size of the vineyard that it was probably the case.

 

Following the Mourvedre visit we looked at the Viognier in a nearby block. It looked... pretty much the same. No problems I could discern. It was time to check out the Grenache vineyard.

 

Whereas the West side district is much more hilly and densely forested, Eastside Paso Robles resembles horse country more than wine country. In fact what it looks like is horse country with a lot of vineyards thrown in. The overriding impression I always get when comparing the two is a sense of expansiveness and light - while there are plenty of rolling hills in the east, they don't have may trees on them, whereas the Westside roads (except for the main drag, Highway 46), are filled with towering trees. You still see horse ranches and hay fields on the Eastside, and you also see lots of vineyards, many of them planted very recently.

 

We rolled into a more or less residential district, which seemed to have originally been oriented towards homeowners who wanted to keep a horse or two on their property. The tracts were very large by residential standards (between 10 and 20 acres it appeared), and some of the intrepid homeowners were clearly more focused on grapes than horses. We rolled up to one of these estates, a typical California ranch house on a hill .surrounded by about 15 acres of vineyards. The Grenache vineyard was on the highest point of the property, situated in front of the house; the rest of the vineyards were on a sloping hill on the perpendicular to the Grenache. The other vineyards comprised Cabernet Franc, Petit Verdot and Petite Sirah, an eclectic mix. I've noticed more and more Petit Verdot around Paso, so I guess maybe some see it as another of those varietals of the future, although I've never discerned all that much personality in the noble old Petit Verdot grape (one of the 5 Bordeaux varietals, originally used to contribute color, spice and tannin I believe). Similarly I've always had a soft spot for Cab Franc, although it's usually found in somewhat cooler climes than Paso (in Bordeaux Cab franc is much more prominent in the cooler climate Right Bank)

 

The Grenache was well established, planted 10 years ago. It looked, well, it looked fine and indeed well-established, planted East-West to avoid the worst of the scorching late summer heat waves. The vines were bushy and Lee assured me they would be thinned in the weeks to come - he does the vineyard management for this vineyard, known as Longshot.

 

Okay, vineyard is not dying, looks OK, tour over, let's get some samples. We had arranged to meet the rep from the first vineyard in town. He handed us some barrel samples of the Longshot as well as the Viognier and Mourvedre from the estate and I parted with lee, promising to give him a report on my impressions. Lee was a little concerned about Longshot, as they had the whole production of the vineyard unaccounted for - he asked me several times if I knew anyone else who wanted Grenache. Since just about everyone I know buys fruit by the pound rather than the ton this was unlikely but I assured him I'd ask around.

 

One of the pleasant surprises I encountered as I toured with Lee was that the fruit here in good old Paso Robles was lower priced than I expected. Having come off a vintage where I paid $1900 a ton for far away fruit from Amador County, and knowing that Santa  Barbara County Rhones commanded over $2000 a ton, I was quite jazzed when Lee told me the grapes I would look at today would be around $1600 a ton.

 

It was about 2:00 PM so I decide to head off to Cass Winery. Cass had been touted to me by a wine drinking friend who had taken his maiden trip to Paso recently and stumbled onto Cass, where he'd had a good time and in fact joined the wine club, something he doesn't do lightly, even when drunk. I was a little bit tired of playing wine maven; it's time to play tourist. Cass is buried on the Eastside so after a quick lunch near my motel I was back heading Eastward, in the same general direction as Longshot. Vineyard.

 

To get to Cass you head out on Highway 46 East, one of the three major arteries heading in and out of Paso Robles. About five miles out of town your turn off a side street and travel past the usual Eastside mix of horse farms, vineyards and emptiness. At the end of the road about 3 rolling miles later you hit Cass, a substantial estate off by itself, featuring several acres of vineyards and a large tasting room / winery. Cass is additionally distinguished by having a well-regarded café, as well as the usual gift shop featuring the usual gifts.

 

I sidled up to the bar and started tasting some wine, something I have much more experience in than sidling up to a vineyard and examining immature berries and trellising strategies. The wines were good and the tasting room was nearly empty; I was relaxed and started quizzing the girl pouring the wines about the winemaking techniques. She was new and didn't know the answers but lo, here comes the winemaker. She was happy to refer my queries to Lood.

 

Lood is an engaging guy in his mid-twenties with a thick Afrikaner accent. We started yakking about his techniques, which he was proud to share with me and shortly into our conversation he remarked that I seemed to be in the industry. I guess I am, tourist afternoon notwithstanding, so I revealed that I was in Paso looking for 2009 grapes. Lood motioned to a middle aged gent who'd just walked in and said "that's the guy to talk to about grapes." Sure enough it was Steve Cass himself.

 

After introductions Steve asked what I was looking for. I mentioned that I would love some Sangiovese. I don't know why I said this. I think I wanted to be a little esoteric. There were chuckles all around, and shakes of the head from Lood and Steve. I appended this with my Mourvedre/Grenache quest. Steve didn't know about the Mourvedre but he was fairly certain they would have Grenache for sale. Would I like to try barrel some barrel samples?

 

Um, OK.

 

The barrel room is right off the tasting area: Lood and I proceeded next door, Steve remarking he would be joining us shortly. We first tried some Grenache, since that was for sale. It was nice, reminding me a bit of my Amador Grenache, a bit candied but with good acid and, as I'm finding with a lot of Grenache, a bit too pale on the color. The mourvedre was next, a step up in class, very tasty, medium bodied. I decided this one was a keeper, assuming Steve could find me some grapes to sell.

 

Steve soon joined us, followed by three other winery employees: junior partner Ted, junior partner Ted's wife and Steve's son Brian, who is in charge of the wine club. Lood was soon darting from barrel to barrel, offering us various barrel samples. The tasting session soon evolved into a strategy meeting (the Paso wine festival was coming up in 3 days), and there I was enjoying the wine and listening to everyone talk shop. I was on the inside, both figuratively and literally and I must say it was damn hospitable.

 

After spending over two hours at Cass I hit a couple of more tasting rooms (4 Vines is open until 6:00, so it tends to be a natural last stop) and returned to my motel room pretty drunk. Actually very drunk. It was time to taste the barrel samples I'd gotten earlier in the day.

 

First off, the Grenache. This was the one I was most interested in, and possibly the most important wine of the Ritual 2009 vintage. I poured a bit into my complimentary four vines wine glass, looked at the color (pale). Smelled the aroma (nice!). Took a sip. Excellent! Boy, this is good. I was suddenly excited, visions of high scores, international awards and massive acclaim dancing in my fairly addled head. All for an affordable price!

 

I tasted the Mourvedre: flat. I tasted the Viognier: flat and fizzy, if that's possible. Scott the vineyard manager had warned me that the samples had been pulled two weeks earlier and suggested I get some fresh ones, so this was not a shock. Except that the Grenache kicked ass.

 

I retasted the Grenache. Earthy and fruity, none of that candied overtone that could be common in California Grenache. Still tasty, I was psyched up. I also realized I was pretty drunk and shouldn't make any hard decisions until I retasted in a more sober and thoughtful frame of mind.

 

As Thursday morning dawned I realized I was not in the mood to visit more vineyards with Matt Turrentine (or anyone else). He hadn't called so I was presuming it wasn't going to happen. He hadn't checked in since our original

conversation but I felt there was a minor threat of him calling me that morning. He did not, to my relief. Drinking heavily the last two days certainly didn't help my predisposition to take long rides out to distant vineyards - being around a wine area had triggered my basest instincts i.e. drink lots of wine! Perhaps I need to adopt a more "professional" (i.e. sober) approach to these wine country excursions?

 

I decided I would come back in a week to taste some fresh samples; Lee also had a Viognier vineyard he wanted to show me. I called him the next day and relayed my affection with the Grenache, as well as my disappointment with the other two and confirmed I'd be back in a week to revisit the wines, check out the Viognier, and maybe cut a deal. Lee was happy I liked the Grenache - he's the manager of that vineyard of course, and was only showing me the other one as part of his relationship with Agajanian. He also reiterated that he needed to move the rest of the output of the Grenache vineyard and asked me (once again) if I knew anybody to take the rest of the fruit.

It's about a 3½ hour drive from Los Angeles to Paso Robles. I would be staying at the Paso Robles Travelodge, the cheapest accommodations I could find that did not seem life-threatening. Paso Robles the town has grown considerably since I started visiting on wine tasting excursions in the late 90's, in sync with the explosive growth of Paso Robles the wine appellation. Formerly an area mostly known as cattle country it is now firmly entrenched as a legitimate player in the front ranks of California wine. When I first started going up there it seemed that the great majority of vehicles were pickup trucks, frequently driven by cowboys or farmers of various stripes. There was a core collection of wineries along the various routes, including some very prominent  and well-established producers such as Justin and Peachy Canyon, and a good assortment of various others, including Tobin James (who have the largest wine club in the world - I think Justin is right behind), Eberle (well known Cabernet producer), and many others. So there was never a shortage of places to visit. When I first started to explore Paso the hallmark of the area was high powered zinfandel, frequently accompanied by high powered petite sirah. There were also various Cabernets, Merlots and every other well known California red (except of course pinot noir. It gets hot in Paso. There are even a couple of pinot specialist now, however). Whites were not really on the radar, and Rhone wines were rare.

 

Things have changed in the last 10 years. Rhone wines, both red and white, have spread quickly in parts of California. but they have taken over in Paso. Paso Robles is the leader in both quality and quantity of fine Rhones by a considerable margin. Not only have the Rhone reds taken to the area but Rhone whites (notably Viognier and Roussanne but also Grenache Blanc and Marsanne here and there) have also proven to be great fits for the area. While there are still many (possibly even an ongoing majority) of wineries happy to pour you a delicious zin or petite, my feeling is the Rhones have taken over for good as the signature theme here (of course you can have it both ways, and many wineries feature the old classics along with a nice and ever-growing Rhone selection). As a footnote to all of this I've found recently that the Cabernets are really nice now as well.

 

Having witnessed (and tasted) this metamorphosis firsthand, I am more impressed by those tasty Rhones every time I go into Paso. And make no mistake, most are not lacking in the alcohol department but they bring elegance and control to the boisterous Paso fruit in a way that many of the local zins and petites do not. A mild shocker to me is the success of Viognier, now the signature white grape in a region never previously known for decent whites of any kind. Viognier likes considerably warmer climes than Chardonnay or Sauvignon Blanc (forget about something like Riesling, which does best in outright chilly conditions), and it seems to like Paso's. In fact many of the better Viogniers come from Eastside Paso, not the cooler Westside.

 

The Westside-Eastside demark in the Paso Robles appellation is the 101 freeway. The "Westside" extends to within about 5 miles of the Pacific Ocean while the Eastside stretches several miles beyond the Paso Robles city limits out wards to the Southeast (the wineries and vineyards directly East of town are some of the oldest in the area and only extend a few miles before giving way to predominantly nut trees and lots of open space). This Southeastern region seems to be where the growth is occurring on the Eastside.

 

The Westside wineries have long campaigned for their own appellation (this was recently turned down by the TTB) and like to boast about their Westside credentials at every turn.

 

"It's cooler on the Westside"

 

"The Westside gets breeze and morning marine layers from the Pacific Ocean"

 

"The Westside has rolling terrain at higher elevations and superior soil."

 

"Don't be a chump. The Westside is way better"

 

(not a direct quote on that last one)

 

This is in contrast to the Eastside vineyards, which may boast about many attributes, but rarely tout their Eastsideness.

 

There is growing sentiment however that the "Westside" is a perhaps arbitrary and/or political boundary, amidst growing evidence that soil types and microclimates are distributed more randomly within different areas in various  reaches of the appellation.

 

My personal experience is that when the Paso Rhone eruption was in its nascency the Westside indeed had a large edge on the Eastsiders I have found recently that you can certainly get some top-flight wines from Eastside vineyards. I was hoping that was an ongoing trend; the vineyards I was going to look at were on the Eastside.

 

One of the original engines behind the Rhone explosion in Paso Robles was Tablas Creek Winery. Tablas Creek is a collaboration between the Perrin family and Robert Haas,the owner and importer, respectively, of Chateau de Beaucastel. Chateau de Beaucastel is a top estate in Chateauneuf du Pape, itself the top appellation in the Southern Rhone. The story of Tablas Creek is told better and in more detail in many other spots but, briefly, the Perrin and Haas families decided to do a joint venture in California that would feature Rhone varietals, based on the actual cuttings from the Beaucastel estate in France. This was quite a commitment, as introducing a new clone into California requires a quarantine period of several years. The business plan also involved purchasing a large tract of vineyard acreage, as well as building a winery facility, tasting room, reception areas, organic farm, etc. An ambitious undertaking.

 

After searching up and down the state a site deep in the Westside of the Paso Robles appellation was selected, apparently based on its similarity to Chateauneuf du Pape in both soil (rocky limestone) and climate: "the remarkably Rhône-like Paso Robles climate" as the Tablas Creek website puts it. Tablas Creek has been a great success and is one of the most prestigious and well known wine operations in Paso at the moment. They also make excellent wines, and they do so consistently every year. I've enjoyed many Tablas Creek wines and can honestly say that none of them has been worse than above average, with many being in the top rank of my wine tasting experiences (ironically they even make a decent chardonnay). The impressive results of the Tablas venture created an implicit stamp of approval for any venture in Paso from then on that had Rhone grapes on their mind. At this writing the Tablas Creek estate has seven of the thirteen allowable Chateauneuf du Pape grape varieties under cultivation and guess what? The other six will shortly be released from quarantine, meaning the Tablas estate will soon feature every grape variety found in Chateauneuf du Pape.

 

As a side note, the Tablas clones that originated from the Beaucastel Estate are available commercially and are planted at many sites throughout the state. In Charlie's vineyard in Amador County (my Grenache and Mourvedre source for 2008) all the Rhone varietals are 100% Tablas clones.

 

Before my trip I once again perused the grape available ads in Wine Business Monthly again. There was not much of interest with the exception of a tempranillo listing, right there in Paso Robles. $1800 a ton, more or less par for the area.

 

Tempranillo is a grape associated with Spain, where it's prominent in many of that country's most prestigious wines. Although most red varieties found in France are also found in Spain, Tempranillo is unique to the Iberian peninsula in European viticulture (it is usually known in Portugal as Tinta Roriz and used mostly for port). It's commonly claimed both in and out of Spain that widespread cultivation of Grenache originated in Spain and later spread to France (this status is also claimed for Mourvedre). While this debate will likely go on indefinitely (and Spain indeed has a large amount of Grenache (Garnacha in Spanish), often found in world class wines), there is no doubt that Tempranillo is the flag bearer as Spain's unique noble grape (A recent trend in Spain sees many Garnacha vineyards being grafted over to Tempranillo).

 

I've had a few Spanish tempranillo-based wines, and for the most part they are very nice (especially the more expensive ones, for some reason), a rich, tannic and earthy drink, best with similarly rich and earthy Spanish foods (hams, paella, etc). The most famous Spanish wine, Vega Sicilia Unico is a blend of tempranillo and various other grapes, usually Bordeaux, varieties (some potential combination of cabernet, merlot and/or malbec and occasionally some other Spanish grapes - tempranillo is always tin the majority). I've also had a few California Tempranillos, and two of them have really stood out - a blend from Core that included Grenache and syrah (a combination that can be found in Spain) and a wine called El Loco from Four Vines in Paso that I think might have had Syrah in it but was mostly Tempranillo. I've also had a handful of California Tempranillos that were pedestrian. Truth to be told, I haven't had enough of it to form an opinion on the California version but I know that good Tempranillo is a very fine thing.

 

Was California Tempranillo in my future? Shouldn't I focus on finding the Rhone grapes and a cash flow white? A definite yes on the latter and a definite who knows? on the former. My thinking on the Tempranillo is I need a way to break through. Tempranillo is certainly spreading and is considered pretty exotic right now (much the same way Sangiovese was when first promulgated in California 10 to 15 years ago). Producing a Tempranillo might attract attention. Producing a poor Tempranillo would be a disaster of course.

 

The other reason I answered the ad is I was going up there any way and was curious to take a look and see if I felt the karma, as a certain quasi-psychic connection had inspired me take a flyer on Solano County a year ago.

 

I called the number on the ad and spoke to a woman named Ciel. It turns out the vineyard was 3 or 4 years old and this would be the first vintage where they would keep the grapes (the small amount of fruit in previous years had been dropped ). She was looking for someone to commit to the whole output of the 3 acre planting - she estimated it would 3 or 4 tons this year, growing to about 11 to 12 tons in subsequent years. She stressed to me that the price they were asking was miniscule compared to their investment in the venture. This was true without a doubt but it didn't mean the grapes would be worth the money. In fact I'm confident the vines are too young to produce wine of much merit for the next year or two. Whoever would commit to the whole vineyard would have to have a strong sense of future glory from a totally unproven parcel.

 

There are usually two forces at work when I'm in a discussion about some sort of flyer like grabbing some obscure Tempranillo grapes. One side of me is an ongoing fantasy of an established guy with a proprietary winery where I could conduct mad-scientist experiments on whatever interesting grapes I came across, without much regard to commercial potential and upfront costs.  The other side (the head instead of the heart? The angel? The devil? The accountant?) assured me I have neither the money or physical resources to play around with a ton of tempranillo (I was assuming my superior powers of persuasion would get me a ton instead of the whole lot). I was going up on Tuesday and since my vineyard appointments were on Wednesday I arranged to check out the tempranillo on Tuesday afternoon.

 

The drive was uneventful and I rolled out to northwest Paso Robles to look at young Tempranillo vines. My sporadic role as wine maven means I look at vineyards. I'm not sure what to look for, especially in early May. Naturally, if the vines are yellow or red, or dead, that's a no go. Similarly, if there are huge mounds of trash interspersed with the vines, or infestations of insects, that's probably not good either. These situations haven't come up - what I always see are rows of verdant grapevines. Frequently the proud grower will point out the trellising methodology to me, or they'll remark upon the density and spacing. This is very important but generally it goes past me. Bad winery owner!  I learn the most, if I learn anything, by tasting a sample. The only time I really noticed anything was last year, when I went up to Amador County to look at the vineyard (long after I made the deal for the grapes). The mourvedre was going crazy, with shoots all over the place; in some spots they were meeting in the middle of the row!. The grower chuckled and remarked upon what a vigorous guy that rascal mourvedre is. Even to my inexperienced eye it looked like it was badly in need of some cropping. I've realized since I was absolutely right, Charlie was letting the rascal mourvedre go crazy to make up for his disastrously small Grenache harvest.

 

It was a nice enough visit looking at the young tempranillo vineyard, chatting with Ciel and playing with the squadron of border collies who roamed her vineyard. She remained adamant about having someone commit to her full production. It strikes me as naive, as she's asking full pop for young and untested grapes. I can't really imagine anyone taking a flier on it. There is other Tempranillo available in the area, at similar prices. I assuredly did not feel a karmic connection to the vineyard, so I was off to some general wine tasting with some local friends before my vineyard appointments the next day.

 

As I was eating lunch that day I received a call from Matt Turrentine, of the Turrentine wine brokerage. Turrentine was actually taking me seriously enough to call me and ask me what I wanted; I reiterated the Grenache-Mourvedre idea. Matt was cordial, asking me what my expected selling prices were and assuring me they dealt with several properties in the area (which I knew from the website listings). He said he might be back around Paso Robles Thursday (I was scheduled to leave early that day) and could possibly show me a couple of vineyards. Why not, I was up there already and might as well get the full lay of the land. He promised to call me to let me know. I was elated at having furrowed myself into a position where I could be a discriminating buyer.

 

I've just returned from Paso Robles Grape Search 2009 has started n earnest. The syrah came out well so I re-upped for another six tons. I had a suspicion the Amador County connection would be a one-shot when I bought the grapes and nothing has occurred since then to change my mind - the Grenache came out nicely but there's only one barrel and I suspect it was lightning in a bottle (so to speak) - my gut feeling is most years it's a high alcohol kind of item (not really a good attribute for a relatively light red like Grenache). Also, Charlie offered me Mourvedre but no Grenache a month or so ago. When I inquired after the Grenache he replied "there might be some later", sounds like a no to me.

 

My impression of the high alcohol tendencies of Amador come from personal experience drinking gigantic zins from the area. I used to really like those wines; at one point it was a almost a competition between myself and a couple of like-minded zinfandel-loving friends as to who could track down the highest alcohol zinfandel monster, Mmmm, feel that ocean of fruit and alcohol drown out, um, most everything else.

 

I outgrew the nuclear powered zin fixation fairly early in my wino career, although a nice zinfandel will always be welcome at my table .Charlie in Amador has zin and offered me some of that. Last year I had a wine called "Problem Child" from Linne Calodo, a small winery in Paso I'd heard about it from my (Paso adjacent) Templeton friends, who are up on the hot wineries there long before anyone else I know

 

I stopped by with some friends and we sampled some wines. "Problem Child" had just received a fabulous score from one of the 2 heavy wine critics (i.e. Robert Parker/Wine Spectator). It had sold out immediately but the winemaker apparently had just found a cache he didn't know he had, so we were informed it was available for sale - no tasting though.

 

All of the Linne Calodo wines were very solid but high priced. I was really curious about this "Problem Child" wine for some reason despite my frequent ranting against the wine score mindset. What the hell, I plunked down the $55,

 

"Problem Child" is a mix of zin (mostly), and about 15% each of syrah and mourvedre. A month later I brought it over to some friends and it was so good we drank it while waiting for dinner - all gone by the time dinner was ready. Terrific wine, extremely tasty The zin-mourvedre-syrah combo really resonated. Since this is not a common blend I'm intrigued by the possibilities, especially since Linne Calodo's pricing leaves plenty of room at the lower end.

 

Charlie sent me down some zin made by Mt Aukum, who take his Grenache (when I first considered buying the Grenache the Mt Aukum is the one I tried). Apparently Mt Aukum had never released it, since it came in an unlabeled bottle

With a little home printed tag on it describing the contents.

 

I was curious to see what he had as a way of perhaps trying my hand at some impromptu zin-mourvedre blending. What he had was one of the highest alcohol unfortified wines I've ever had; after half a glass I felt like I'd been doing vodka shots. My blending plans involving zinfandel are on hold for now.

 

Paso Robles is the primary spot for Rhone varieties in California. Only Santa Barbara County really gives it any competition in that area in California but the Santa Barbara style is a very different one from Paso Robles - Paso wines will be more in the spirit of the Southern Rhone, with exuberant fruit and a certain devil-may-care attitude (I'm really taking the wine anthropomorphism to its limit here) while the Santa Barbara style can be said to display a certain elegance, even formality in some cases. I find both styles appealing but the style I was looking for was perhaps related more to the Paso fruit. Additionally I was pretty sure anything I could get my hands might come in lower on price than Santa Barbara County. The fact that no one in Santa Barbara County ever returned my grape inquiry emails also contributed to my looking northwards.

 

I decided it was time to chase down some Paso Grenache and Mourvedre. Grenache and Mourvedre are relatively  rare in Santa Barbara County and planted widely in Paso. Mourvedre is an inconsistent grape in the cooler Santa Barbara climes - it likes a nice flash of heat at some point and is a very late ripener. The Santa Barbara Grenache can be quite nice but there just doesn't seem to be that much around. Well, like I said, I don't know for sure, but certainly no one was offering me any.

 

This year I decided to try to track down grapes early; I didn't want a repeat of last year where I ended up getting unknown grapes from faraway places at the last minute. Unfortunately no one knew who I am; I sent out some emails asking for grapes. I thought I asked nicely, but no one even wrote me back. I know some one must want to sell grapes at some point, even to an unknown like Ritual Wine Company; there was something wrong in my approach.

 

After my initial blind overtures to various growers did not elicit a response I looked into engaging a grape broker. I didn't know any grape brokers but I figured I could find them. My problem with it was they would take a cut that would inflate the price but, hey, I need grapes.

 

After perusing some web sites and links I stumbled onto some grape and bulk wine brokers. The most important of these, it seemed, was Turrentine. Their website listed all sorts of nifty grape opportunities. How about some merlot from the Alexander Valley? 50 tons available! Perhaps you're more in the mood for whites? 22 tons of chardonnay waiting in Napa, 50 tons of Pinot Grigio in Contra Costa looking for a home or maybe get slightly exotic with some Rousanne from Paso Robles? It's all there, literally hundreds of listings, no prices or principals listed of course. Naturally a prospective buyer or seller has to be vetted by Turrentine and, more importantly, Turrentine arranges the transaction and takes their cut.

 

There's plenty of Grenache and Mourvedre from Paso Robles on the web site.I decided to register, and in addition made inquiries as an unregistered "guest" at the same time. I specified some Grenache and Mourvedre lots, aiming for the ones that had the smallest tonnage available. I never heard back on the lots, nor did I receive a response to my application to become a registered user of the fulsome Turrentine web site. This was mildly disappointing but not surprising.

 

I'd found another grape broker web site, a company called Allied Grape Growers. I sent them an email:

 

Hello

 

We are looking for the following 2009 vintage CA grapes:

 

Mourvedre (Paso Robles)

Grenache (any region)

Chardonnay (Central Coast)

Sangiovese (any region, piccolo clone preferred)

 

How's that for some lingo? I'm specifying Sangiovese clones, oh boy. It sounded good at the time, I think.

 

I did get a response:

 

Mike:

Thanks for contacting us.  What quantities are you talking?  We don't handle small quantities, so I may not be able to assist you.

Thanks.

Jeff

 

A response! Of course I was barking up the wrong tree but at least the tree had acknowledged me.

 

So I replied:

 

We only do small qtys so it may not be a fit, we're looking for 4 toms of chard and 2 tons of each of the rest - can you point me to a broker who does small lots?

 

And Jeff replied:

 

Try gary agajanian

 

So I did.

 

After some back and forth phone calls I got referred to a man named John who worked with Agajanian. I outlined my needs, reiterating the Grenache-Mourvedre-Chardonnay trilogy (maybe not worry about Sangiovese right away). Yes, they might be able to help me out, he knew some people in Paso, and he might hook me up with some Monterey vineyards.

 

I was hopeful; at last there was some sort of opening.

 

In the meantime I had periodically checked the Wine Business Monthly ads for grapes. These were woefully short on grapes I wanted; they seemed to be filled with people selling bulk wine, or grapes from Lodi, or huge lots of cabernet or expensive pinot noir. Not much happening there for Ritual Wine Company.

 

A week or so later I decided to look more closely at the print edition of Wine Business Monthly, scouring the ads for more grape brokers. I did not find any. I did however find an article about an enterprise in San Francisco called Crushpad, a custom crush facility that handled all phases of the process for (presumable well-heeled) clients who wanted their own wine label. Crushpad would handle the legal maneuvers source the grapes, make the wine and bottle it. The client presumable would decide what kind of grapes (from Crushpad's lengthy list of grape suppliers) and, I guess, design the label and try to sell the stuff, although this last part is of course strictly optional as far as Crushpad is concerned.

 

I went to Crushpad's web site and their list of grape suppliers was indeed impressive - there's even a good selection of French wine grapes in addition to the long list of California growers. I called and asked if they handled grape brokering for non-clients (i.e. me). No they did not but the winemaker there advised me to call Larry Kavanaugh. Larry works for (one guess): Turrentine.

 

I called Larry and explained that I was in search of grapes - he agreed to call me back the next day (Saturday), when he could talk.

 

Larry in fact called me the next Monday morning - I explained the situation and we talked a bit. He told me Matt Turrentine (the 3^rd generation of Turrentines in the grape and wine brokering business) would contact me and talk with me further about my grape needs - subsequently we could go visit some vineyards.

 

Shortly after Larry's call I received a call from a man named John who worked at Agajanian. He'd found a couple of sites in Paso, a chardonnay site in Monterey County and a higher end site in Santa Barbara County, in the Santa Rita Hills.

 

The Santa Rita Hills have rapidly become one of the top, probably the top pinot noir appellation in the Central Coast. The Santa Rita Hills themselves are a narrow range stretching from the outskirts of Buellton to about 5 miles outside of Lompoc. It's a cool climate area with both rolling and very steep terrain hat also has some higher elevation vineyards. The pinot noir from there in a good year is quite sublime and I recommend it highly. It's also expensive, a typical bottle running between $40 and $75. The chardonnay has not received the same accolades but the general assumption in California is that a good pinot noir area produces a good chardonnay. One of the top labels in Santa Rita, Sea Smoke, gets upwards of $50 for their chardonnay; other Santa Rita chardonnays are all over the map, price-wise, but it is without a doubt a high prestige appellation.

 

The price for the chardonnay was $3500 a ton, higher than the $2500 per ton maximum point I'd specified. John mentioned that the grower was also a winery and that he might let me make the chardonnay at the winery, thereby saving me crush and short term storage fees. It still came out to $3000 a ton but I was thinking it about it - putting an appellation like Santa Rita Hills on my label might go a long way towards legitimizing my enterprise. Think halo effect, as a car maker might do in producing a sexy sports car for the purpose of getting people into a showroom.

 

John and I set up a time to meet in Paso Robles about 2 weeks hence: we would hit a couple of the Paso vineyards and then travel north 1½ hours to Monterey County. It would be a long day; we would meet at 9:00 AM. He would let me know about the Santa Rita chardonnay as well when we met.