Syrah Panel Santa Barbara Vintners April 2016 Episode 7
The last of the winemakers to speak at the Syrah Seminar was Chad Melville of SAMsARA. He spoke on his 2012 SAMsARA Syrah from Donna’s Block at Melville Vineyards that Chad helped plant back in 1998.
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Melville to SAMsARA
When you hear the name Melville you think Sta. Rita Hills. Chad Melville worked with his father and brother to plant and build Melville Vineyards and Winery. He continues to work with Melville as their head winegrower. With his own label, SAMsARA, Chad is able to do small batches and take a few more chances in the wine making process. The winery is garage/warehouse in Lompoc. Their home page gives you the definition of their name, it is originally Sanskrit and in Buddhism speaks of “the process of coming into existence as a differentiated moral creature” and in Hinduism of “the endless series of births, deaths and rebirths to which all beings are subject”.
The SAMsARA Syrah from Melville Vineyards
The Syrah Chad had with him was a 2012 Melville Vineyard Syrah. This was pulled from 5 rows of Donna’s block at Melville. Donna’s Block is in the Northwest section of their Estate Vineyard and is planted on 20 feet of sand. It was 50% whole cluster which will give you more tannins and structure, native yeast, basket pressed and in barrel for about 2 years. I will mention that this is a current release that you won’t find on the website. They have a Priority Release list, followed by a Mailing list and if there is any wine left over after that, then they are posted on the website.
You can find SAMsARA online at http://www.samsarawine.com/ They have a tasting room in Los Olivos at 2446 Alamo Pintado Avenue that is open Thursday to Monday from 11 am to 5 pm and by appointment on Tuesday and Wednesday.
Be sure to try to get to the next seminar! The Santa Barbara Vintners will have one during the Celebration of Harvest Festival, which happens October 7-10. Here’s a link to more information. http://www.celebrationofharvest.com/
WTS: All right staying in Sta. Rita Hills for our final wine, number 8 the 2012 SAMsARA Syrah, Melville Vineyard, located along highway 246 near Lompoc. Planted in 1996, by Ron Melville and his sons, Melville Vineyards grows Pinot Noir, Chardonnay and Syrah. The Syrah Block is 9 different clones planted in 1998 has deep light textured sandy loam soil. Chad not only makes this wine, he grows it. Tell us about what goes into a bottle of SAMsARA Syrah.
Chad Melville: Thanks. This is such a pleasure to be here and to listen to all these great winemakers and growers and to be able to taste through these fantastic wines and to see the differences of the climates and the soils and how they impact. The SAMsARA…I only work with Syrah from cool climates. Sta. Rita Hills that has been touched on is a very extreme cold climate. If you guys are familiar with the Davis program with the way they dissect the regions, one through five with five being the hottest, one being the coldest, there are some years where Sta. Rita Hills doesn’t even register one. So it’s that cold, right? What makes it really unique as well is that we have really early bud break. So we typically get bud break in Syrah in early March, which makes for a really long growing season, given that we are picking Syrah typically in the middle of November. Some years we even go to December. So it’s crazy right? The idea that growing Syrah is easy in a cold climate is completely false. It requires just as much time and effort to grow Syrah as it does Pinot Noir, so our farming costs are essentially the same. It’s a late ripening varietal, so it’s DNA, its propensity is to just naturally ripen late. You put that in a cold climate, you’re asking for a little bit of trouble, right? It’s also a very friendly forgiving grape. It will always produce a lot of fruit. You can plant it in the concrete outside and you would have a vineyard. It will grow anywhere. So it requires you to drop a lot of fruit in a cold climate to insure that you can get it ripe, and again, we’re still picking it quite late in the season. So there’s a lot of risk there, right? But there is also a lot of reward and with cold climate Syrah you tend to get; I love when Mark said this “quivering tension”. You get that fruit; you get that Syraness that’s there, that tannin, the deep dark richness. You also get this vibrant quivering acidity that’s there. It just makes it really unique and different. It doesn’t make it better than anyone else’s it doesn’t make it a better climate than anyone else’s; it just makes it different and unique. With this wine in particular, it’s 50% whole clusters, so there’s kind of an additional layer or integration of tannin. It’s completely neutral wood, so the idea was to get little tiny slivers of blocks within Sta. Rita. So this is five rows of our Donna’s Block at Melville, which is in, as well as Zotovich, pure sand. So neutral wood, 50% whole cluster, bright acidity, bright fruit and this kind of extra layer of tannin.
WTS: Chad told me he likes to push the envelope with SAMsARA. What does that mean?
Chad Melville: I do it all natural, so it’s native yeast, it’s basket pressed, and it’s in barrel for 2 years. It goes to bottle unfined and unfiltered and it’s in bottle for 1 year. So this is the current release here. It’s really about procuring really beautiful clean concentrated fruit and then kind of getting out of the way. So for those of you who know much about the winemaker process, it’s a pretty non-manipulative approach. And in terms of pushing the envelope, you know those are things that you can typically do when you are producing smaller amounts. It’s a lot risky and maybe even partly crazy or non-advisable to be doing native yeast with big fermentations. Basket pressing just simply is inefficient if you have a lot to do, so it typically something that you find with smaller productions. But also the wine sits in barrels almost 20 months without any SO2, but it’s in a really cold environment. So by controlling the cellar it allows me to take that risk. All those little things are really pushing it. I mean I only make 125 cases of this wine, so you can sleep a lot easier when you are making smaller lots. If I approach it this way at Melville, it would be a little nerve wracking.
WTS: SAMsARA has a tasting room in Los Olivos and all of these wineries will be pouring today at the 34th Annual Santa Barbara County Vintners Festival Grand Tasting at Riverview Park. I hope you all will be going. It’s from 1:00 to 4:00 this afternoon and all of these wineries will be represented there.
Syrah Panel Santa Barbara Vintners April 2016 Episode 6
This Episode of the Seminar takes us West toward the coast to the chilly area of Sta. Rita Hills. Winemaker, Mark Horvath speaks about his Sta. Rita Hills Syrah from Zotovich Vineyard.
Crawford Family Wines
Crawford Family Wines produces small lots of Pinot, Chardonnay and Syrah in the “garagiste” style of winemaking all from the Sta. Rita Hills AVA. They pull from vineyards like Babcock, Bentrock, Radian, Rita’s Crown and Zotovich. They recently started a Rhone program from the Ballard Canyon appellation, but today we are diving into their Sta. Rita Hills Syrah. While working in Sonoma, Mark took UC Davis extension classes which introduced him to a group of energetic and enthusiastic Santa Barbara Winemakers. An opportunity arose at Babcock and Mark joined as Assistant Winemaker. While there he met Kenneth “Joey” Gummere and the two formed Kenneth-Crawford Wines. They produced wines together for 10 years. Mark and his wife Wendy now have Crawford Family Wines (read the transcript or watch the video to find out more about the name)
Sta. Rita Hills Syrah
When you hear Sta. Rita Hills you usually think Pinot Noir and Chardonnay. This AVA is cool climate and these Burgundian grapes do well here, but so does Syrah. Most of the area is planted to Pinot Noir (2100 acres) or Chardonnay (500 acres) with the remaining planted 140 acres divided between such varieties as Sauvignon Blanc, Viognier and Syrah.
Syrah here buds early and harvests late, so there is a lot of hang time. Mark speaks of March bud break and November or December Harvests. This allows for elegant Syrahs with bright acidity.
Crawford Family Wines has a tasting room in Buellton in the Zaca Creek Industrial Park at 92 Second Street Suites G & H. They are open Saturday and Sunday from 11 am to 4 pm and by appointment the remainder of the week. Visit their website at http://www.crawfordfamilywines.com/ or give them a call at 805.698.3889.
Be sure to try to get to the next seminar! The Santa Barbara Vintners will have one during the Celebration of Harvest Festival, which happens October 7-10. Here’s a link to more information. http://www.celebrationofharvest.com/
Syrah Panel Santa Barbara Vintners April 2016 Episode 6: Mark Horvath on Sta. Rita Hills Syrah
The Transcript
Wendy Thies Sell: Okay. “Go west young man!” they said and so west we shall go, to the Sta. Rita Hills. Mark Horvath of Crawford Family Wines makes small lots of wine, focusing on fruit from the Sta. Rita Hills. He sourced his Syrah for this wine from Zotovich Vineyard, with it’s deep sandy soils on the 246 corridor between Buellton and Lompoc. The fruit here ripened slowly in the cool foggy climate. Mark, tell us about this wine and why you are so passionate about Sta. Rita Hills.
Mark Horvath: Sure. First of all, thanks for coming. I appreciate everybody being here, thanks for inviting me. I’m really proud to represent the Sta. Rita Hills up here today. I moved here and started making wine here in 1998. No one was really making Syrah from the Sta. Rita Hills then. There were a few isolated plantings. I was working for Bryan Babcock at the time and we had a section of Syrah that he really hated. He never wanted to put much effort into it, he just didn’t feel like it was the right place. But every year we made the wine, I was struck by how interesting it was, how it held onto it’s acidity. We’ve been talking about how in these cool climates Syrah really hangs on to it’s acidity and there was a freshness and a vibrancy about that wine. It would be big and rich on the one hand but then have this tremendous backbone of acidity that would keep it fresh and bright. It was very peppery, it was very spicy, it was not his cup of tea, but for me it really ignited this curiosity. I had a project for a number of years called Kenneth Crawford Wines that some of you may remember, and our goal out the gate was, we always knew we would make some Pinot and some Chardonnay and some other things from the area, but our goal out the gate was to make some Sta. Rita Hills Syrah, and as much of it as we could. At the time there was even a bit of resistance, in the Sta. Rita Hills to us championing Syrah, because the focus of the area at the time, trying to establish itself in the marketplace was very specific to Pinot and Chardonnay. We really felt like we were bucking the trend, by promoting Syrah, but we were convinced that Syrah in the Sta. Rita Hills, in that climate, was special and unique and worthy of that attention. So I’ve been making Syrah from the area for a very long time. I don’t think I’m as brave as Scott. You’re drinking the youngest wine here is mine. Partly purposeful, partly the dynamics of a very small winery, in needing to get wine out into the market. I bring the fruit in, it cold soaks for a few days, it is then inoculated and spends a good 14, 15 days during fermentation, pressed off, I use only neutral barrels for this wine, because again, like these other guys, I really want to let the fruit shine through. I want you to smell and taste Sta. Rita Hills fruit. I agree, I’ve made wine from fruit from Ballard Canyon from the Los Alamos area, they are all excellent Syrah producing areas. What I love about the Sta. Rita Hills is the really dark earthy qualities we get in the Sta. Rita Hills, that tar and creosote, maybe fresh tobacco leaf, that kind of thing that comes out of the wines. But I’m really most struck by the structure of the wines from the area. That sort of quivering tension we get between rich ripe fruit and striking acidity and a bit of minerality that we get in the core of that wine. That’s what I love about the Sta. Rita Hills. There it is.
WTS: Mark also produces Pinot Noir. Can you compare and contrast, producing Syrah with Pinot? What are the differences for you?
Mark Horvath: Well, comparing and contrasting Syrah and Pinot Noir in the Sta. Rita Hills in particular, is really interesting because I think Pinot Noir has a lot of the same characteristics in the Sta. Rita Hills that Syrah has in that, it is such a cool and challenging area to grow grapes in. Same thing happens with Pinot Noir, I think Sta. Rita Hills is rather famous for making somewhat dark, rich, but definitely spicy Pinot Noir. Our Pinots are known for being on the spicy side, and I think that’s very distinctive about the area. Syrahs are the same way. I think there’s a lot of sandy soil. You know Zotovich Vineyard is a really interesting vineyard in the fact that it’s not a very interesting vineyard to look at. It’s a very flat, very simple deep sandy vineyard, and yet the fruit that comes out of there is just extraordinary. You know, I source from these really dramatic hillsides in a lot of different areas in the Sta. Rita Hills that are really amazing to look at and as a winemaker, you stand there and go “Wow, this is going to make something interesting, I mean, look at this soil, look at this aspect, and the wines are awesome. Then you go over to Zotovich and you stand there and it’s like “Hmm.” , you know, I hope this does what I think it’s going to do, and it does every time. It’s really interesting and unique. I think its…Larry touched on it, there’s all this sand on the surface and it is like beach sand at Zotovich, it’s probably 12 to 15 inches of just beach sand. But then below that you’ve got all this ancient seabed, you’ve got sedimentary rock, you’ve got all this really interesting stuff, that I think the vines really dig deep for. And it’s what ends up making the wines so unique from there. I think the Sta. Rita Hills has this great, I use the word “tension” and probably too much, but I just feel like between ripe rich fruit and vibrant fresh acidity, both the Pinot Noirs and the Syrahs have that same characteristic, obviously different flavors and aromas, but that structure, that tension, that freshness in the wines, I think holds through whether it’s Pinot, Chardonnay as a matter of fact as well and Syrah. I think the area is known for that.
WTS: Can you tell us where the name Crawford Family comes from?
Mark Horvath: So my middle name is Crawford. My first project with “Kenneth Crawford”, it was our middle names, it was better than Mark and Joey’s wine. That just did not have the right ring. I told my dad early on “Horvath is not going on a label, it just doesn’t work for a wine label.” I had to deal with Horvath my entire youth and so I wasn’t going to put it on a label. It’s also my Mom’s maiden name and my Mom was instrumental when we moved here in helping finance a young winery and so it’s sort of an homage to Mom as well. So, yeah, Crawford is my middle name.
WTS: Thank you for sharing, I didn’t know that. And so Crawford Family Wines tasting room is in Buellton.
Mark Horvath: That’s it! Right around the corner, right by Pea Soup Andersen. I use a little of the PSA yeast as a matter of fact. It’s been known to float around my winery too.
WTS: His lovely wife Wendy, gotta love a Wendy, she is at the tasting room today.
Our Syrah Seminar Series continues with Scott Sampler of the Central Coast Group Project speaking on his “Names” 2012 White Hawk Syrah. This is another Syrah from the Los Alamos Valley in Santa Barbara County. This Valley lies at the mid point, North and South of the Santa Barbara Region.
The Central Coast Group Project
The first thing that strikes you about Scott Sampler is his humbleness. He is quiet and almost a little shy. Even the name of his winery “The Central Coast Group Project”, is not all about him, it’s meant to be inclusive of all the people that helped him along the way to bring this wine to fruition. Of course once you get him speaking on wine…And today he was speaking on his White Hawk Syrah.
We met Scott at the beginning of the Spring Weekend at the Big Bottle Bash. We happened to be sitting with a friend of his, Eric, who helps him in the winery (again…another in the Group). Scott came by to pour some of his wine, and Eric had already prepared us for tasting something different. Scott is playing with maceration times. Typical extended maceration times are from 7 to 44 days, but Scott poured us a Grenache that had a 100-day maceration period and a GSM that had been 120 days in maceration.
We had an opportunity to have a more in-depth conversation with Scott at the Larner Fête, and there will be more on that to come!
Wendy Thies Sell shared one of my favorite quotes from Scott with us, and you will find it in the transcript below. Wendy said “The first time I met Scott…I was crazy enough to ask him ‘Are you like a mad scientist…?’ and without even blinking he said ‘No I prefer to think of myself as more of an alchemist.’”
Extended Maceration
Okay, so let’s delve into a little on this extended maceration thing.
First off, what is maceration? It’s the time during fermentation when the grape skins and colors are left in the juice. Dr. Vinny likens it to steeping tea. http://www.winespectator.com/drvinny/show/id/42983
You also sometimes hear about “cold soak” or “cold maceration”. That is when you leave the grapes on the skins in a cold temperature, this keeps them from going into fermentation. Cold soaks pull color and flavor typically without pulling so much in the way of tannins.
Extending the maceration during fermentation you get more color and flavor from the grape skin and seeds. This can also change the wines texture. You can add complexity, but you can also overdo tannins, which can make the wine astringent where it will overly dry your mouth out. I did read about Polymerization, where the mouth feel is rounded because the tannins form a chain. (This is way sciency and I will do more research and speak more with Scott, because this kind of thing fascinates me).
So Scott, in April, still had grapes macerating from the 2015 harvest. I look forward to tasting these!
The Central Coast Group Project 2012 “Names” White Hawk Syrah
At the seminar we tasted Scott’s 2012 “Names” White Hawk Syrah from White Hawk Vineyard in Los Alamos. This was his first vintage. He picked all of the grapes on the same day, but separated them into lots according to block and clone. This had a 43-day maceration time, and then aged 20 months in neutral French oak with 18 months on the gross lees and he produced 150 cases.
They are a working winery and do not have a tasting room, but…they can occasionally do a tasting by appointment. You can reach them at (805) 874-2316.
Be sure to try to get to the next seminar! The Santa Barbara Vintners will have one during the Celebration of Harvest Festival, which happens October 7-10. Here’s a link to more information. http://www.celebrationofharvest.com/
Syrah Panel Santa Barbara Vintners April 2016 Episode 5: Scott Sampler – Central Coast Group Project on White Hawk Syrah
We broke the video of Scott’s portion of the Panel discussion into two parts and the Transcript holds extra information not included in the footage.
The Transcript (with extras)
Wendy Thies Sell: Next up is another wine sourced from White Hawk Vineyard in Los Alamos, Central Coast Group Project’s 2012 “Names” Syrah.
The first time that I met winemaker Scott Sampler was February 8th, 2014. Michael Larner had invited me to come to the Buellton Bodegas, where he and several others make wine. And he said, “You should go meet Scott, you should go taste his wines.” And the door had a big sign, “DO NOT ENTER and or Knock”, and I was afraid of what we were going to find in there. But it was February, and Scott still had Syrah cold soaking in bins in his winery that had not been pressed yet. His 2013 harvest, still wasn’t over in February. He pulled back the plastic covers and I was intoxicated by the aromas. And then we tasted from the barrels and I realized that he was on to something. That wine in the barrel is what we are tasting today. He believes that he is probably the only winemaker, anywhere doing this. 2012 was Scott’s first vintage with this wine label and this is his first time on a wine panel. So thank you so much Scott for debuting your wines with us.
Scott, tell us about this unique, labor-intensive way of making wine.
Scott Sampler: Well I wouldn’t say I’m the only person doing long maceration, skin post fermentation macerations, but now I’m doing 6 month, 7 month macerations and those are a little bit unusual, a lot unusual for red Rhone varietals or just about any varietals. It’s pretty unique in California. There are some crazy Italian wine makers that I’ve liked over the years and that’s kind of where I started, where I got the idea to experiment with this. I kind of like to say that my grandmother taught me how to make wine, ‘cause it’s like cooking sauce. It’s like something that you can understand after fermentation, you stir and taste and as the flavors develop over time then you develop structure and depth and balance and then you press.
Two weeks before the harvest in 2012, I didn’t have a project. The first project that I was in just fell apart and I didn’t have any grape sources and I didn’t have anyplace to make the wines. And so, I started telling people. People like Michael Larner, who I was getting fruit from previously, actually stepped in and figured out a way for me to get fruit. At White Hawk, fortunately it was a bumper crop in 2012. Some of the vineyard managers were able to sculpt areas out of sold out vineyards, where I could get my fruit. White Hawk was definitely one of my favorite vineyards. I’m kind of a younger, …well not in age, but in experience, wine maker and I’d been going to Silver Lake Wines when it opened, and there’s this cool guy, George, he used to be the sommelier at Campanile, the classic restaurant in LA, and he had this dead vintage White Hawk Wines, I mean, it was a dead label. They had made an estate wine and stopped making it. So he had these old vintages, 2002, 2001, and I was tasting these in 2010. I thought the fruit was amazing. It kind of had the structure and the spice and some of the more savory qualities that I like from the Northern Rhone, but it also had the California sunshine beaming through it. So when I came up here, I sought out this fruit. It’s really hard to find, because at that time I guess Mesa Vineyard Care didn’t even have a website. I finally found it and was just lucky that someone was just coming off the vineyard when I made the phone call and got on. The reason why I called it the Group Project was because of the generosity of all these people. I was in a different industry before this and what really struck me, was just how generous the wine culture is in this area, how generous winemakers are with each other in terms of the knowledge of making wine. I just feel greatly honored to be up here with my comrades.
WTS: Scott makes many, many different Syrahs and you’re really focused on Syrah, while you do make other varieties. Tell us about the other wines that you make. There are quite a few.
Scott Sampler: I do mostly red Rhones, so Grenache, Mourvedre, Syrah, some skin fermented Viognier and a have Merlot, Cabernet, Sangiovese, but this is all coming out later. The 2012 vintage, because I was just scrambling for fruit 2 weeks before harvest, is just all Syrah, Grenache & Mourvedre. I essentially made 4 Syrahs from White Hawk. I picked all the fruit on the same day, and then vinified it separately. So different clonal selections, different blocks, all vinified separately, all native ambient yeast, meaning that I don’t inoculate, but you know there’s a lot of yeast floating around in the air. I used to joke that I used the PSA 246 (laughter from the room), Pea Soup Andersens 246 yeast strain, because where I was making the wine that year was very close to Pea Soup Andersens. It was really hot, that fermentation was really hot, and the 2012 ferments were really hot they got into the 90’s. Now I’m making wine at the Buellton Bodegas. I was making wine with Michael Larner at his first spot and then moved with him to the Buellton Bodegas so now my fermentations are a little cooler. This had a 3-day cold soak, it was 43 days on the skin pomace stirring every day and then pressing. Neutral oak 20 months, racked once at 18 and then bottled at 20. Sulfured twice, I don’t use any sulfur through these long extended macerations, I try to keep things alive for as long as possible.
WTS: Scott your 2015 Harvest isn’t over yet is it? (This is April of 2016 keep in mind)
Scott Sampler: No.
WTS: He hasn’t pressed the fruit that was picked yet in 2015.
Scott Sampler: No I’m still totally all in the 2015 harvest, just pushing (Chris Hammell “summer is coming”). I know. At first you start out with a lot of fear that your wine might turn, there’s a lot of risk of oxidation and other bacterial and microbial things that can happen. As I’ve been doing it, I’ve just been able to do it longer and longer and the wine goes through different cycles and so I’m trying to see how far I can go. I like where it’s going, it goes kind of deeper and deeper into the grape. We’ll see, maybe, I don’t know. I’m pushing it to the edge this year. We’ll see what happens.
WTS: The first time I met Scott I said, I was crazy enough to ask him “Are you like a mad scientist in here?” and without even blinking he said “No I prefer to think of myself as more of an alchemist.” So Scott does not have a tasting room but you’ll take people by appointment.
Scott Sampler: I’m happy to show people around if they give me a call and I’m around, I’m happy to introduce people to the winery.
Syrah Panel Santa Barbara Vintners April 2016 Episode 4
Larry Schaffer – tercero on White Hawk Vineyard
This episode of the Syrah Seminar in Santa Barbara includes the conversation with Larry Schaffer of tercero. He speaks on White Hawk Vineyard in the Los Alamos Valley and his 2011 White Hawk Vineyard Syrah.
Larry is the President of the Santa Barbara Rhone Rangers Chapter, so he is obviously into Rhones. He is passionate about his wines and if you catch him in the tasting room or at an event, you are in for a Great conversation. We had a chance to speak with Larry last year at the tercero tasting room, here’s a snippet of our conversation about Rhones. https://www.crushedgrapechronicles.com/terceros-larry-schaffer-love-rhones/
larry schaffer tercero
Larry sources from Vineyards all over the Santa Barbara area but today he spoke specifically about the Syrah he gets from White Hawk Vineyard. He tells us about the vineyard and it’s soil, the 2011 vintage, how he makes this wine, as well as giving us insights on why Syrah is currently such a great value. Below you will find the video and transcript from the Syrah Seminar.
White Hawk Vineyard
White Hawk is located in the Los Alamos Valley on the East side of Highway 101. It is in Cat Canyon in the Northern part of the valley East of Cat Canyon Vineyard. The vines here work extra hard because the soil is so sandy, cuasing low yields and intense berries. It sits at around 900 feet elevation, and the south facing slope gets lots of morning fog.
White Hawk Vineyard on the Santa Barbara Vintners Viticultural Map.
This 75 acre vineyard is mostly planted in Syrah with a little Chardonnay. The vines here are custom farmed for the many wineries who source fruit here, including: Herman Story, Longoria, Silver Winery, Wild Horse, Sea Smoke, Sine Qua Non and Andrew Murray, in addition of course to the two wineries pouring Syrah here today, tercero and Central Coast Group Project.
His tasting room is in Los Olivos where you can find Mae Apple pouring his wines Thursdays through Monday 12 to 5 ish or by appointment.
You won’t find tasting notes here. They encourage guests to discover the flavors without being “lead”.
They are located at 2445 Alamo Pintado Ave, Suite 104, Los Olivos, CA 93441, (the entrance is actually located on San Marcos).
tercero Wines Tasting Room
Be sure to try to get to the next seminar! The Santa Barbara Vintners will have one during the Celebration of Harvest Festival, which happens October 7-10. Here’s a link to more information. http://www.celebrationofharvest.com/
Syrah Panel Santa Barbara Vintners Spring Weekend 2016
Episode 4: Larry Schaffer, Winemaker tercero
The Transcript
Wendy Thies Sell (WTS): Alright, our next area to visit is Los Alamos, home to White Hawk vineyard. We will taste 2 wines from Whitehawk. First up is tercero’s 2011 White Hawk Syrah. Wine maker Larry Schaffer studied viticulture and enology at UC Davis. He began his career as the enologist at Fess Parker Winery, before starting his own winery tercero. Larry’s focus is Rhone variety wines and he told me that his goal with every wine is to have it be a transparent look at that vineyard, that vintage, that variety or blend. Larry, thanks for being here and tell us about this wine and working with White Hawk Vineyard fruit.
Larry Schaffer: Well, thank you Wendy, and I want to thank all the other panelists, and thank all of you guys. It’s always a pleasure to have a number of people in a room talking about Rhone varieties. It doesn’t happen often enough. Before I get into this specific wine, I do think it’s important to give a nod to those that came before us and have really created the ability for us to be sitting up here, talking about these; definitely Bob Lindquist. I think, when you make wine you kind of think “I’ve arrived. I’m able to do what I want to do because I’m here” but really the only reason we’re here making Syrah is by the fact that people before us worked with this variety through thick and thin and have continued to work with this variety. People like Craig Jaffurs, people like Joey Tensley, Doug Margerum, Bob Lindquist and all the folks at Zaca Mesa. So I just kinda want to give a nod to all of them.
So my wine is my 2011 White Hawk Syrah. This is actually a future release. I kinda share the same, some of the same ideologies as Michael Larner in the fact that I like my wines to stay in oak for a long time. So 2011 was a really special vintage. I remember talking to winemakers up north, and by mid October they had picked everything. They got hit with massive rains. It was also a frost year so crop levels were quite low. But as the panelists before me were saying, when it rains in Paso and north, if it rains two inches, we might get a half an inch. We don’t get a lot of rain and one of the great things about Syrah, the clusters tend to be long, they tend to be relatively loose and any wind after a rain as long as its not humid, they’ll dry out, we’ll continue moving forward. So in 2011, I picked these grapes on October 28th, which was relatively late for this vineyard. I started working with this vineyard in 2010. In the one-acre block that I was working with, I got two and a half tons in 2010, in 2011 I got less than one. So I did not have to go through the vineyard like Chris and Trey and knock all the grapes off, there just wasn’t a lot of grapes there for me to work with. I brought the grapes in, partial whole cluster in the bottom of my fermenting bin and then crushed on top of that, cold soaked for a couple of days. I made this wine at Andrew Murray Vineyards production facility and it was a very cold year so the ambient temperature in there was really cold. I waited for about 4 or 5 days for it to kick off and then I inoculated. It was about a 2 week fermentation, manually punched down 2 to 3 times a day, pressed and settled and then barreled down to 3 to 7 year old French Oak barrels. Oak is not a bad thing and I agree with Chris. I personal don’t use new oak, I’ve never used new oak on any of my wines. The newest oak barrel I’ve ever used on my reds is 3 year old oak. I like everything else to shine through and the oak to be in the background. But that’s not to say that oak is a bad thing, I’m not saying that. So again, a cool vintage and what strikes me about this wine, is the acidity. There was great natural acidity in 2011, because of how cold the vintage was all the way though. And I think with Syrah especially, but with all red wines, I think acid is kind of the key to the longevity of it, the liveliness of it. One, more acid is going to mean a lower pH, it’s going to mean that that wine is going to stay fresher longer. The other thing, I don’t rack my wines, so this wine stayed in older French Oak for 30 months. So after it was put into barrel, it stayed in barrel. I topped it, I SO2ed it, but I did nothing else to it until right before bottling when it came out of barrel. By doing that theoretically I keep the wine tighter. You imagine if you take a wine out of barrel you’re decanting the wine. You’re going to move it into a different trajectory. It’s not a better or worse thing, it’s just different. I want to keep my wine as tightly wound as long as I can so that when it gets into bottle, it starts its aging process, because I will keep my wines in barrel for a couple of years and normally in bottle for a couple of years before releasing. Enjoy! Thank you.
WTS: Larry told me that for the price there is no better value in red wine, in California than Syrah. Tell me more about that.
Larry Schaffer: Without a doubt. I mean if you think of the fact, so a couple things. One, and Chris kind of alluded to this, Syrah is a relatively new variety in this country, compared to many other noble varieties that people drink. The first variety labeled Syrah in this country was in the mid 70’s. That’s not that long ago. A lot of the plantings that we’re tasting today were planted 20 years ago and less. And a lot of that is really…it stems from the fact that even in the Rhone, even in the Northern Rhone, the wineries we are talking about like Chave, those wineries were not known in this country very well until the 80’s and the 90’s, when reviewers like Robert Parker started really talking about that region. People had talked about Bordeaux, people had talked about Burgundy, had not really talked about the Rhone. So the Rhone region as a whole, Rhone varieties are still relatively new in this country. But in terms of value, you can certainly spend more than 35 or 40 dollars on a Syrah, you don’t really need to, to get a tremendous wine. And that’s throughout Santa Barbara County and really throughout the state of California and even into Washington. There are places where the prices are going higher than that, but Syrah, really both in Syrah and Syrah blends, offers great value in all different kinds of styles,not cooler climate or warmer climate per se, but everything in between. Because Syrah is a bit of a chameleon, it will grow well anywhere and it really comes down to site and winemaker in terms of determining style, in terms of how ripe they want to get those grapes and how ripe they want to make that wine.
WTS: Briefly tell us about White Hawk Vineyard. It’s very sandy, right?
Larry Schaffer: It is. I’m gonna let this guy next to me talk a little bit more about it, but it is sandy, it was planted in the 90’s. I believe Benjamin Silver of Silver Wines assisted in the planting of it. Similar to Larner, which I also get fruit from, it’s chalky sandy soil. If you drive up the vineyard, you better have a car that can get you through the sand and back down or else you’ll be stranded. It really is amazing, your feet kinda sink in. Because of that I tend to find the grapes have a lower pH higher acidity and lower yields naturally without them having to do too much to the vineyard. The vineyard was planted again in the mid 90’s, planted to a number of different clones of Syrah and that’s what Scott’s going to talk more about.
WTS: Thank you Larry. Larry has a tasting room in Los Olivos.
Chris Hammell is the Vineyard Manager for Bien Nacido Vineyards. Bien Nacido is located in the Santa Maria Valley in Santa Barbara County. This vineyard is distinctive. Once you have tasted a Pinot Noir from grapes made from Bien Nacido, you don’t forget it, and forever more you will be able to pick out a Pinot made from these grapes. But…during this episode we will be talking about Syrah from this renowned vineyard.
Chris Hammel
Bien Nacido is a little magical. When you drive out there, you find little to let you know that, that is where you are. If you happen to get the secret directions to one of the bi-annual BBQ’s at Au Bon Climat, you will drive out through part of the vineyard. Au Bon Climat & Qupe have their shared winery on the vineyard.
Bien Nacido is owned by the Millers, who have been growing grapes here since the 70’s. They primarily grow Pinot Noir, Chardonnay, Pinot Blanc and Syrah. But its history goes back much further. It was part of a Spanish land grant back in 1837, given to Tomas Olivera. He sold it in 1855 to Don Juan Pacifico Ontiveros, who was his son in law. Ontiveros raised horses, cattle, sheep, grew grains AND grapes for wine. The vineyard is 900 acres of the over 3000 acres of Ranch, and as Wendy mentions below “It is considered the most “vineyard designated” vineyard in the world”.
Chris spoke on two wines made from Bien Nacido Grapes. The first is a 2012 Bien Nacido Syrah made by their winemaker Trey Fletcher, who joined them to start the wine making side of the business in 2011. Before that, Bien Nacido was a vineyard that did not make wine, but sold their amazing fruit to some of the most distinguished wineries and winemakers in California, including; Jim Clendenen of Au Bon Climat, Adam Tolmach, Gary Farrell, Paul Lato, Sine Qua Non and Bob Lindquist of Qupe.
Episode 3 Part 1: Chris Hammel,
Vineyard Manager Bien Nacido Vineyards speaking on the Bien Nacido 2012 Syrah
Qupe 2011 Bien Nacido Hillside Syrah
Bob Lindquist has been making Syrah from Bien Nacido for 30 years. We heard him speak at last years Seminar – Zaca Mesa University. Here is the video from the segment with Bob and Jim Clendenen. http://wp.me/p2UhpO-2cQ which includes the story of how Jim got Bob fired and hired over the Kinks. Bob Lindquist is a Syrah legend in Santa Barbara.
Chris had the 2011 Qupe Bien Nacido Hillside Syrah. This was Bob’s 30th consecutive bottling of Syrah and the coolest vintage he had ever seen.
Episode 3 Part 2: Chris Hammel
Vineyard Manager Bien Nacido Vineyards speaking on Bob Lindquist and the Qupe 2011 Bien Nacido Hillside Syrah
Be sure to try to get to the next seminar! The Santa Barbara Vintners will have one during the Celebration of Harvest Festival, which happens October 7-10. Here’s a link to more information. http://www.celebrationofharvest.com/
The Transcript (with a little more than the video)
Wendy Thies Sell (WTS): We are now going to move to the north. The northernmost AVA in Santa Barbara County is the Santa Maria Valley home to the renowned Bien Nacido Vineyards, first planted more than 40 years ago. In 1993 and 94 Bien Nacido planted the “Z” Block which is where all Bien Nacido’s Syrah is sourced as well as Qupe’s Hillside Vineyards, Paul Lato’s Syrahs, Sine Qua Non sourced fruit there and other big names. And we are happy to have with us today acclaimed vineyard manager, Chris Hammell of Bien Nacido, where he custom farms more than 600 acres for dozens of wineries. It is considered the most “vineyard designated” vineyard in the world, meaning, Chris masterfully juggles a huge customer base (Pete Stolpman: For the next 5 minutes Chris Hammell will juggle) He has the muscles to do it, right.
Today we taste two wines made from fruit grown at Bien Nacido. We will start with the 2012 Bien Nacido Syrah made by the Estates winemaker Trey Fletcher. Chris works hand in hand with Trey. I don’t know if they actually “hold hands”. Chris, tell us about the grape growing and the winemaking philosophy at Bien Nacido.
Chris Hammell: Well first of all, I would like to say that it’s really nice to be up here, with you guys and with these panelist. Santa Maria is kind of a unique spot, a little on the cooler side. I applaud what these guys are doing in Ballard Canyon and although I have kind of a love hate relationship with the AVA concept and system, I kinda don’t want it there unless it’s pure and like my AVA, I say mine because they don’t let me off the farm very often, the Santa Maria Valley, you can see these strange straight lines that are like arbitrarily drawn by county divisions going up and down hills that really leave one somewhat disillusioned if you’re a purist. I’ve been a tremendous fan of the Ballard Canyon area, the people and the wines and quite particularly the Syrah coming off of there. That’s AVA done right. And I’m a huge fan of White Hawk. Also of the region where Chad is, where he and his family have Melville right down here off of the 246. So pretty sweet for me to be up here. I love these wines and I love Syrah and to see them in a line up like this is a big honor. Back in the late 2000’s Nicolas Miller part of the family who I work for, that owns Bien Nacido, he decided he wanted, for whatever reason, to do an estate project. He recruited this guy named Trey Fletcher, an up and coming younger wine maker, full of talent and vision and we converted an old dairy barn, in the middle of the vineyard to be the winery. He gets free run to do what he wants with Pinot Noirs, Chardonnay and Syrah. So this is his 2012. I don’t know how techie we should get and as Wendy said I’m the vineyard manager so I’m just basically farming these two wines and they are kind enough to let me present them. Unlike, Michael who kind of does for his project he kind of sees both sides. But I’m around enough to know, and I pay attention enough to know, kind of what these guys are up to. Trey’s philosophy would be since he doesn’t have to really pay for the grapes, he drops them to like a ton per acre. That just stays between us, okay? (to Michael filming in the back) You’re a good editor right? He drops them really low, because we think, especially in climates like Bien Nacido for example, which is sometimes, in some years, especially in 2011, pushing the limits as far as getting the variety of Syrah to a ripeness, to potential alcohol ripeness and phenolic ripeness. And so we typically see yields that are very low, either from nature or from us going in there and basically lowering the crop down to make sure that we can achieve the ripeness that in most years that the winemakers are looking for. So he’s the guy that will shoot for maybe 13%, which as Pete was mentioning, that kind of coincides with this trend that I’m seeing of a little more elegance a little more what people would call arbitrarily balance. Basically a shift from, how ripe can we go to, stylistically what really turns these winemakers on. Who are some of their fans, that they are trying to emulate throughout the world. In 2012, 13, 14 and pretty much 15, we had the luxury of basically choosing ripeness. So Trey is pretty much a Pinot & Chardonnay guy, pretty much a second shot at doing Syrah, where he is fully in control. You see a wine that is probably about 13.1, probably 30% whole cluster, probably about 30% new oak, and this is something that we’ve seen him in the last few years change to a larger format barrels for whatever reason, but these would all be in the standard burgundy 228 liter, normal barrels that we all see everywhere. This would have been in barrel for about 18 months. Pumpovers, punchdowns both and his big thing in fermentation other than managing it responsibly, has to do with tannin, especially at the end. He is going, I can’t speak to how he does it, but he’s obsessed with tannin management. Whether he gets it right, you guys can be the judge. That’s his big thing. He loves making Syrah, he considers personally, Bien Nacido to be a better Syrah vineyard than Pinot. He thinks the magic is Syrah and Chardonnay for him and for the styles that he likes to do. I’m not supposed to go on record with that either. (Michael LarnerS: that’s why they don’t let him off the ranch very often) Why did I get smaller pours than everybody else? It’s like a conspiracy theory. He’s pulling out all the stops to do what he can. He’s super inspired by Northern Rhone, Cornas which is pretty in vogue these days. His Sommelier buddies like it. I think he’s doing an awesome job and I’ve learned alot from him, both in the vineyard and in the winery. I love the wine. Santa Maria wine is super distinct. Not always so user friendly right off the bat. Especially they don’t show so much fruit, they show herbs and spice and hopefully everything else nice. I don’t know why I have two wines too.
WTS: We are staying with Chris here, but I wanted to mention that Bien Nacido has a tasting room in Los Olivos. Larner has a tasting room in the Los Olivos General Store, I forgot to mention that earlier. Our next wine #4, we are sticking with Chris here, because he also farms the Hillside Syrah at Bien Nacido for Qupe. The next wine is the 2011 Qupe Bien Nacido Vineyard Hillside Syrah. This vintage has special meaning for Qupe’s winemaker Bob Lindquist. 2011 was his 30th vintage and his 30th consecutive bottling of Syrah. He told me 2011 was an extremely cool vintage, one of the coolest on record and probably one of the coolest Bob had seen in 37 years of making wine on the central coast. It was a very small crop 1.3 tons an acre in Z block where this Syrah comes from. Harvest was late. Bob remembers taking his son trick or treating Halloween night and then picking this Syrah the next morning November 1st. And Chris was out there picking this Syrah that you are about to taste. (Chris: All by myself) Single handedly. Chris tell us what is it like to work with Bob and you probably, after all these years know exactly what he wants, right?
Chris Hammell: Yeah, more and more. First of all if I start talking so much and then Larry Schaffer starts mad doggin’ me, just give me some kind of sign, cause I can’t really see him. You guys know what I’m talking about. Bob is a true pioneer it’s interesting, Syrah is still kind of finding it’s place and is still kind of young in a sense. With Pinot and Chardonnay we had all these people, an amazing kind of group of winemakers, more or less the same age coming from the same philosophy and it was amazing. We didn’t have that as much with Syrah. You had Bob Lindquist and probably a couple others. You see on this panel, myself excluded, a second wave of pioneers. All of us look up to Bob a lot. I’m not a name dropping guy, but I went to France and we got, for some reason, invited to go see Jean-Louis Chave, who’s like the most famous Syrah guy in the whole world, by everyone’s admission pretty much. He’s a really nice guy and we’re in the cellar throwin’ it up with Jean-Louis Chave the 22nd. Honestly, he’s like the 22nd Jean-Louis. And he says, he speaks perfect English almost without any accent, “Hi Chris, thanks for coming. How’s Bob Lindquist? I love Bob Lindquist.” And then half the conversation was about Bob and not Chave and the amazing legacy that they’ve produced. He’s a legend and this is the second time, interestingly enough that I’ve been able to talk about his wines in front of a group. I spoke with him on the way down and he’s the most gracious wonderful person that one could meet. Many of you probably know him and if you don’t, seek him out today and get a chance to spend time around a real legend, who makes fantastic long lived wonderful wines. He’s never really changed his approach. It’s an honor for me. What he was telling Dayna and I on the way down was, reminding us of this strange vintage that was 2011, which despite the extremely low yields, Is Larry doing…is he..okay,(WTS: He’s good). We had to pick on November 1st because of the rain. I think it was like 22 and a half brix, and he’s kind of a low 23’s guy. There can be differences, so you taste some notes that are leaner and this and that. Interestingly enough, what Bob does and he was fine that I shared this with you, that’s kind of unusual, is he’ll take let’s say 10% right off the bat of the juice before it’s started to ferment and he’ll put it in brand new Francois Frere heavy toast barrels and make it like a rose, but that’s after cold soak so it has some extraction already. And then he’ll take all or a portion of that at first racking which is about a year later, and blend that back into the wine. It’s like a style thing, which I think is pretty cool. He’s done it all along and still does. Also, this wine, even in a lean year like that, for whatever reason, he has about 35% full cluster, of that 90% that he did ferment on the skin. And then the whole Cuvee ended up being, because of the short crop and probably he had a lot of new barrels, who knows, about 65% new Francois Frere heavy toast. Bien Nacido’s, probably all these wines frankly, it seems most years to be able to withstand, that’s a bad word, it makes it seem like using oak is not good, but everybody talks like that for some reason. But, it can integrate and it can be pleasant. As Pete was saying, these wines can be extraordinarily interesting with age. Because we’re friends with Bob and his winery is on the vineyard where we live, we’ve been able to try countless numbers of old Qupe Syrahs and whites, frankly and they can be just extraordinary. It’s fascinating, but the best years of this wine are probably in the future. Thank you guys.
Syrah Panel Santa Barbara Vintners April 2016 Episode 2 – Michael Larner
The second episode of the Syrah Seminar from Santa Barbara features Michael Larner of Larner Vineyards and Winery. Michael has always been very gracious with his time when we are in Santa Barbara and you can see several video interviews we did with him in the vineyard and his office on subject such as the Language of the Vines , Heat spikes during harvest , his Malvasia Bianca , the Ballard Canyon AVA , the history of his vineyard and of course Syrah
Michael’s background is in geology so it will be no surprise that the discussion with him during the seminar focused on soil. His labels illustrate his love for the soil with his mono varietal wines featuring a soil column indicating the type of soil that these vines grow in within the vineyard and his blends featuring a fee scale, which is used to separate soil particles. In this conversation he also dives in a little on climate and how it makes Ballard Canyon “Syrah Territory”
Michael Larner speaking on Syrah.
Here is the video with the transcript below. You can look forward to more of Michael speaking on his labels and soil, as well as our latest interview with him following “The Fête” at Larner during this last Vintners Spring Weekend.
Be sure to watch the video or read the transcript below and try to get to the next seminar! They will have one during the Celebration of Harvest Festival, which happens October 7-10. Here’s a link to more information. http://www.celebrationofharvest.com/
Syrah Panel Santa Barbara Vintners Spring Weekend 2016
Episode 2: Michael Larner of Larner Vineyards & Winery
The Transcript (with a little more info than the video)
Wendy Thies Sell (WTS): Our next wine is also from Ballard Canyon. Michael Larner’s parents Stephen and Christine Larner founded the estate back in 1997. Most of their 35 acre vineyard is planted to Syrah. Michael and his sister Monica manage the property. Michael, a geologist, earned his masters degree in viticulture and enology from UC Davis. Michael tell us about the 2011 Larner Vineyards estate Syrah the #2 wine.
Michael Larner: Thank you, thank you for the introduction and thank you all for coming. It’s an honor to be up here for me because, in 1999 when our vineyard was planted we were Larner Vineyard, which basically meant, we sold fruit. And up until 2009 we sold 100% of our fruit, to folks like Scott, Mark, Larry, Chad…I think you two (Chris and Peter) are the only one’s who haven’t bought fruit from me.
Chris Hammel: I steal your clients to use on my slide presentation. (laughter)
Michael Larner: So it’s an honor because for us the brand really originated from winemakers who were talented and seeking out varieties like Syrah, Grenache, Mourvedre that we have on the estate. And Wendy’s right, of our 34 acres 23 are planted to Syrah. So we knew, and heavily invested in Syrah for our Estate. Were 2 miles south of Stolpman and the climate is not that much different, but what does change is some of the geology. Pete has a little bit more limestone substrate, I have more chalk. So it’s the same sort of material, but just in a different physical state. Chalk is fractured and allows root penetration, allows sort of water get a little sort of perched situations. So it kind of creates a similar element which all of us have the same base material, but the nature that it’s in changes the dynamic, because what’s interesting for me is I have very sandy soils on top of that chalk and that forces the vines to be stressed out almost year round. So we essentially have to be very proactive in our farming. Luckily being a vineyard first we spent a lot of time dialing in the vineyard, making sure that the fruit was optimal, doing per acre agreements, getting clients up to speed to the best fruit possible. Then it was a natural step for us to branch out. So the first year I made wine was 2009. I had the good fortune to work for Guigal in France and Tenuta in Italy and something that was locked into my mind is allow the wines to evolve on their own, age them longer, release them later, so they are enjoyable to drink right off the bat. So actually my current release, which you are trying today, is 2011, and that’s by design, because I want that wine to be well integrated and velvety and soft. I also chose 2011 because when you get to California and the wine critics, basically everybody panned 2011. If you get rain north of Paso Robles everybody thinks California got hosed with water. But we didn’t get anything. Yes, it might have been a slightly cooler vintage, but that doesn’t mean anything when it comes to Syrah, it just changes the expression of the varietal and the wine. So I wanted to kind of showcase a vintage that I thought may not have been well received by the critics, to me it was well received because it shows a really nice elegance and balance.
WTS: It does. Michael, why do you think Ballard Canyon is so perfectly suited for Syrah?
Michael Larner: I jokingly call it the Goldilocks syndrome. Which, it’s not too cool and not too hot. When you try some of the wines from Sta. Rita you’ll find there are certain Syrah characteristics that are accentuated and almost define the wine. You usually see more pepper, pepper spices that kind of thing and then if you try a wine that’s more in Happy Canyon; Syrah grows in every AVA; you will find more fruit forward. But when you are in Ballard, you have all that. You have pepper, you have fruit, you have balance, you have good acidity. So to me it’s almost like the perfect place to grow Syrah. And one of the things that makes us, Pete and I, aware of that is that we don’t have to work really hard to make a good Syrah, it sort of does it for us and then we’re sort of there corralling it into making the styles that we want to identify with our brand. If we were in other regions we might have to do something to help get it right, if it’s too cool or pick early so we get away from the overly fruity tones or alcohol, but in Ballard Canyon it’s very much, we call it “Syrah Territory” it’s very comfortable in that domain.
Syrah Panel Santa Barbara Vintners April 2016 Episode 1 – Wendy Thies Sell and Peter Stolpman
The Wine Seminar in Santa Barbara during their Vintners Weekend is always a highlight of the weekend for wine geeks. It is an hour and a half where you are able listen to Vintners, Growers, and Winemakers from the Santa Barbara Region.
Wendy Thies Sell
This year the Wine Seminar was on Santa Barbara Syrah and was moderated by Wendy Thies Sell. Wendy is a household name in Santa Barbara. The Wisconsin native moved to Santa Barbara in 1995 to anchor the morning and noon newscasts at the CBS affiliate KCOY, moving on to co-anchor the NBC affiliates KSBY evening news casts until 2008. She is a well-known food and wine columnist covering much of the Central Coast. She brought a wealth of information as moderator of this seminar.
Wendy started the day with a little history on Syrah in Santa Barbara County. She provides some fascinating facts and you can read the full transcript at the end of the blog as well as watch the video of this segment of the seminar. Wendy sites Bob Lindquist as the first to make Syrah in Santa Barbara in 1982 and said he bought grapes from Gary Eberle at Estrella River in Paso Robles. She also talked about Zaca Mesa’s famous “Black Bear Block”. Later Peter Stolpman referenced this block saying that cuttings of the Estrella River clone from the Black Bear Block created the Original planting of Syrah in Ballard Canyon on the Stolpman Vineyard. So…I thought maybe we should look into this Estrella River clone and the Black Bear Block at Zaca Mesa.
The Estrella River Clone
Gary Eberle planted Syrah on the Central Coast back in 1977 at what was then called Estrella River Winery and is now Meridian Vineyards. These were suitcase cuttings that Gary brought in from Chapoutier in Hermitage, and they became known as the Estrella River Clone. Sadly those original Syrah vines in Paso have since been pulled out.
The Estrella River clone of Syrah (from Hermitage) is classified a Sirene clone. It produces tiny yields and wonderful fruit. Nurseries, after WWII refined Syrah clones to produce greater yields, these are the numbered clones. The Sirene clones are the older pure breed of Syrah.
The Estrella River clone is known to have berry and jammy fruit characteristics.
The Black Bear Block Syrah
Zaca Mesa Tasting Room & Winery
The Black Bear Block at Zaca Mesa is planted from cuttings provided by Gary Eberle, back in 1979.
The name comes from the fact that there are lots of Black Bears around this part of the Zaca Mesa Vineyard. This is a 3 ½ acre block and the cuttings here came early on from Gary Eberle, (he got them in 1977 and Zaca Mesa got cuttings in ’79). As Stolpman got his cuttings directly from this block, they are 2nd generation and they remained clean of the virus’ and funk that can often come with later generations cuttings.
Concrete Fermenters
After Peter gave us a bit of background on Ballard Canyon and their dedication to Syrah (they are the ONLY AVA dedicated to Syrah with over 60% of the vines in this AVA being Syrah), he spoke about this wine. They work to finesse this wine, which is dry farmed, and made from free run juice, natively fermented in concrete. For the past few years they have been backing off of new French oak, as well as additives and filtration. Concrete fermenters are becoming more and more widely used and I thought this was a good time to do a little more research on their use.
To start with, concrete fermenters are not made of wood, so you don’t have that added woody flavor or the additional tannins from the oak.
Concrete fermenters are also good for keeping the fermenting wine at a stable temperature. Of course fermentation releases heat, so a vessel that keeps the wine from raising or lowering its temperature quickly is helpful. This is gentler on the wine.
Proponents of Concrete also site mouth feel as one of the major benefits. The wines mouthfeel is cleaner and fresher without the addition of oak.
Many of the new concrete fermenters that you see are concrete eggs (like this one at Bridlewood).
Bridlewood Concrete Egg
These are egg shaped and much smaller than the fermenters that Stolpman is using. These smaller fermenters are curved and closed and “incubate” the wine. People speak to the egg shape as being a “Natural vortex”. The eggs are shaped so that as the gasses from fermentation are released they are forced to the narrow opening at the top, this keeps the wine moving, while you might not see it. The lees don’t settle, they stay floating. Or…you can flip your egg making the small base perfect for collecting sediment.The fermenters at Stolpman are larger, square and have an open top for punch downs.
The concrete, because it is porous allows for gradual oxidation. This is similar to the oxidation that you get in oak barrels, but you don’t get the oakiness. Winemakers looking to feature the wines terroir or location prefer this. If you are highlighting the grape, you don’t want additives muddying that and oak, while a vessel, imparts flavor and tannins to the wine. Of course you can use stainless steel, but…then there is less oxidation and the stainless can add a different sensation on your palate and potentially raise the acid in a wine. It should be noted that you can get a slight hint of minerality from the concrete.
When you get back to Terroir, many French Vintners and Saxum’s Justin Smith are using their own soils to create the concrete for their fermenters. So if you are adding minerality to the wine through the concrete, it is still the minerality that is native to the soils of the vineyard. Does this really impart flavor? Maybe, maybe not, but regardless it sounds cool doesn’t it?
The Stolpman Concrete Fermenters were designed by their winemaker Sashi Moorman and were inspired by concrete tanks he and Rajat Parr saw in Bodega Noemia in Patagonia.
So just a bit of back ground, the geeky wine stuff that this seminar made me want to know more about. Be sure to watch the video or read the transcript below and try to get to the next seminar! They will have one during the Celebration of Harvest Festival, which happens October 7-10. Here’s a link to more information. http://www.celebrationofharvest.com/
Syrah Panel Santa Barbara Vintners Spring Weekend 2016
Episode 1: Introduction by moderator Wendy Thies Sell followed by Peter Stolpman of Stolpman Vineyards.
And now…Here is Episode 1 of the Syrah Seminar, with the introduction by Wendy Thies Sell followed by Peter Stolpman of Stolpman Vineyards in Ballard Canyon.
Below is the transcript for this section of the seminar. Episode 2 will feature Michael Larner of Larner Vineyards, where we get a bit more into the soil.
The Transcript (with a little more info than the video)
Wendy Thies Sell (WTS): Good morning everyone. Isn’t this a great way to start the day? My name is Wendy Thies Sell and I am happy to be the moderator today with these wonderful, talented wine makers up here sharing their wines with you. I think the beautiful thing about Santa Barbara County’s wine region is not only the diversity of climate, geology, geography, terroir, allowing for so many different grape varieties to thrive here, in this region, dozens of different grape varieties. But, also that chance taking maverick wine growers in the early days were brave enough to experiment with many different wine grape varieties. And the other cool thing is that those same wine pioneers are still at it today in Santa Barbara County.
One of those varieties that thrives here dates back more than 35 years in Santa Barbara County. Bob Lindquist was the first to make Syrah in Santa Barbara County in 1982 for his Qupe wine cellars from grapes he bought from Gary Eberle at Estrella River in Paso Robles. Zaca Mesa made their own Syrah in 1983 from their own vineyard in Foxen Canyon. Their earliest Syrah vines were grafted over onto Petite Sirah planted in 1978. This is part of the famous “Black Bear Block”. Then in 1986 Bien Nacido Vineyards in the Santa Maria Valley grafted the first 7 acres of X block Reisling over to Syrah. The first syrah crop there was in 1987, making it the first vineyard in California to grow what is considered cool climate Syrah. We are here this morning to celebrate what Santa Barbara County Syrah is today. It is grown in every Santa Barbara County AVA now totaling 1900 acres. Syrah plantings that is. And Syrah is produced in a range of styles as you will soon experience.
Let me introduce our panel. Seven people passionate about Santa Barbara County Syrah.
Over here to your right we have Peter Stolpman, Managing Partner of Stolpman Vineyards, Michael Larner, owner winemaker at Larner Vineyards and Winery, Chris Hammel vineyard manager at Bien Nacidio Vineyards, Larry Schaffer owner/ winermaker at tercero wines, Scott Sampler proprietor Winemaker of Central Coast Group Project, Mark Horvath owner winemaker of Crawford Family Wines and Chad Melville owner winegrower at SAMsARA and Melville Vineyards.
Today we will taste 8 Syrahs; 2 from Ballard Canyon, 2 from the Santa Maria Valley, 2 from Los Alamos and 2 from the Sta. Rita Hills, all current releases. And we begin in the heart of the Santa Ynez Valley, just a few miles from here in Ballard Canyon. One of Santa Barbara’s newest AVA’s it is a North South oriented Canyon providing a mixed climate on the edge of a cooler AVA;Sta. Rita Hills and a warmer AVA Happy Canyon. 60% of the vines planted in Ballard Canyon are Syrah. Tom Stolpman founded Stolpman Vineyards in Ballard Canyon 2 decades ago and planted 153 acres to grapes. Their blocks of Syrah were planted in 1982 and 1984 and today wine #1 is Stolpman’s 2013 Original Syrah. Pete please tell us about this wine.
Peter Stolpman: Good morning everyone, thank you for coming out at 10 am to drink Syrah. When I was pouring this wine, I was reminded when I worked in the Barosa Valley back in 2006. we got one Sunday off and we went down to Adelaide for Brunch. We sat down at a nice place the guy I was with the winemaker ordered a bottle of Shiraz. You know great, if I wasn’t drinking enough Shiraz already, now we are drinking it at brunch. And quickly I found out why he did that. A couple tables over was one of his competitors. And they started talking over the table in between. Oh you know, what are you up to? And they had a bottle of bubbles on their table. Ah mate just havin’ a bottle of Bolle (bolle champagne) what are you up to? Ah Mate champagnes for girls, we’re drinkin’ Shiraz. So we’re drinking Shiraz and here we are. My dad actually sent me down to Australia to learn what not to do with Syrah. 2006 was really the high water mark for that really jammy high octane Shiraz profile. 2007 was a very difficult vintage. Then the economic crisis hit and Shiraz internationally really got hit, but today there is a whole new world-wide Syrah market and it’s very exciting. There has really been a sea change in the perception of Syrah and we are kind of having the chance to be reborn. Which brings us here, to Ballard Canyon. I was lucky enough to take over the vineyard in 2009 and in 2010 Michael Larner finally said “hey guys we have to get an AVA. And really put those initial steps together, got us all together driving for the AVA. We got our publication from the TTB in 2013. I will never forget, we were sitting at my place on the vineyard and everybody agreed that Syrah is Ballard Canyon’s #1 varietal and it should be our message. So today I think it’s really powerful that Ballard Canyon is the only AVA in America dedicated to Syrah. I’m not saying there are not great Syrahs made from every other AVA in Santa Barbara and Sonoma and Paso, but the majority of planted acreage in Ballard Canyon is Syrah, and it’s great to have everybody in agreement that it’s the perfect match. And when I talk about the Originals, it shows through with this Syrah in particular. The Originals planting as Wendy mentioned, was planted back in 1992 and 94. Half of it is that Estrella River clone from Zaca Mesa Black Bear Block we took the cutting and planted them on our vineyard. And that’s actually a very important vineyard, I feel in Santa Barbara County. If you get the chance to try an old Black Bear Zaca Mesa Syrah, they’re beautiful. I like them young too, but they really need to be a decade old to show their magic. That vineyard because it’s 1978, something like that you said (WTS: Yes Petite Sirah planted in 1978, grafted over to Syrah) So, and it’s 2nd generation of Estrella River, which is very important, because Estrella River has been passed around California, and sometimes if you get cuttings it will be riddled with virus because with every vineyard that it has planted and propagated and replanted, it has picked up a lot junk along the way. So I love that Black Bear material, I think it’s really clean and beautiful. And then the other material in this wine, is the Durell Vineyard from Sonoma. And unfortunately, and this sort of ties back in with the Syrah Market, there’s no more Syrah on Durell. They just couldn’t resist the temptation to add more and more Pinot Noir. Which is kind of telling in this kind of economic climate where there is so much money to be made in Pinot Noir. Pinot Noir is so popular right now. That’s an interesting little side note. So Estrella River and Durell, and we call this “the Originals” because from everything we know it’s the original the oldest Syrah in Ballard Canyon. And from this block where Manfred Krankl and Adam Tolmach were buying fruit, everybody bought the land around us and planted more and more Syrah. And right now I think there are 17 vineyards in Ballard Canyon and 8 grower producers. Each of the 8 grower producers can use the Ballard Canyon bottle, only for Syrah. So we are really trying to bring that message that Syrah is our focus. So the words Ballard Canyon are etched into the shoulder of the bottle. And all of us in Ballard Canyon can use it if we’re the farmer and only for Syrah. And the style of the wine, we dry farm, we don’t irrigate from set all the way through harvest. We are really trying to achieve natural concentration by with holding irrigation, no dilution, and that way we can pick appropriately we want this to run right at 14% alcohol, we don’t really care for it to exceed that, but also we don’t want it far below. Below 14% we find that they can be a little austere and far above we kind of lose the nuance and freshness that we want out of Syrah. Again, we are not trying to make Shiraz. Fermented in concrete. Big thick concrete fermenters, all native fermentation and these days we only use free run juice. So we are only using the wine will come at the bottom of the tank without pressing. There’s no pressed wine. What we do with the concrete, very minimal punch downs a more gentle extraction and then only free run juice, so we are really trying to manage our tannin. Our wines back in the 90’s and 2000’s were really big and mean and we are really trying to hit a finer balance. Again that ties into the freshness, the nuance and we really want these wines approachable a couple years out rather than a decade out. But the 13’s still a little bit quiet. It’s unfiltered and will take a year or two more to really come out of it’s shell. But today we are all showing current vintage so some of them might be a bit young. Thank you all.
WTS: How many different Syrah’s do you produce?
Peter Stolpman: 5 We have a, give or take, we have some new plantings that are really exciting. We’ve got, I’ve transitioned more to head pruned really high density vines that can only be worked over by hand, by our full time crew. But I think we have 90 acres today of Syrah. And from which we make our main line, our estate grown, The Originals which would be the old vine, 1 hilltop spot and Angeli’s selection named after my mom and her family and then Ruben’s block for the great Ruben Solorazano, our vineyard manager.
WTS: And Stolpman has a tasting room in Los Olivos and also one on the weekends in the Lompoc Wine Ghetto. Thank you Pete.
Bien Nacido is owned by the Millers, who have been growing grapes here since the 70’s. They primarily grow Pinot Noir, Chardonnay, Pinot Blanc and Syrah. But its history goes back much further. It was part of a Spanish land grant back in 1837, given to Tomas Olivera. He sold it in 1855 to Don Juan Pacifico Ontiveros, who was his son in law. Ontiveros raised horses, cattle, sheep, grew grains AND grapes for wine. The vineyard is 900 acres of the over 3000 acres of Ranch, and as Wendy mentions below “It is considered the most “vineyard designated” vineyard in the world”.
