Eric Mohseni Archives | Crushed Grape Chronicles

Zaca Mesa University – Part 4 Eric Mohseni

Jun 10, 2015

Welcome to part 4 of our coverage of the Santa Barbara Vintners Wine Seminar from the Vintners Spring Weekend 2015. The theme of the seminar was “Zaca Mesa University” based on a wonderful article in Edible Santa Barbara from Spring of 2013 about all of the winemakers who have come through Zaca Mesa Winery. This panel featured Ken Brown of Ken Brown Wines, Jim Clendenen of Au Bon Climat, Bob Lindquist of Qupe and Eric Mohseni the current winemaker at Zaca Mesa. The Seminar was moderated by Sommelier Christopher Sawyer.

Part 4 features Eric Mohseni. Eric has a degree in food science from California State University. He spent a bit of time as a wine buyer before stepping into the vineyard during harvest in 1997 at Edna Valley Vineyards in SLO Wine Country. After a little time in New Zealand at Esk Valley Estate he returned to California and joined the Zaca Mesa team as the enologist. He became Zaca Mesa’s winemaker in 2008.

For more conversations with winemakers and wineries visit Crushed Grape Chronicles – From Dirt to Glass

Zaca Mesa University Jim Clendenen & Bob Lindquist

Jun 3, 2015

Welcome to part 3 of our coverage of the Santa Barbara Vintners Wine Seminar from the Vintners Spring Weekend 2015. The theme of the seminar was “Zaca Mesa University” based on a wonderful article in Edible Santa Barbara from Spring of 2013 about all of the winemakers who have come through Zaca Mesa Winery. This panel featured Ken Brown of Ken Brown Wines, Jim Clendenen of Au Bon Climat, Bob Lindquist of Qupe and Eric Mohseni the current winemaker at Zaca Mesa. The Seminar was moderated by Sommelier Christopher Sawyer. Part 3 features Jim Clendenen & Bob Lindquist.

Jim Clendenen of Au Bon Climat

Jim is the Winemaker at Au Bon Climat, the Santa Barbara winery he founded with his friend Adam Tolmach back in 1982. Both he and Adam, came through Zaca Mesa. Jim tells us how he saved the world from another mediocre lawyer, by instead going into wine. He is quintessentially Californian with shoulder length grey hair and typically sporting a Hawaiian shirt. His wines however show the restraint and balance of the Old World wines of Burgundy.

Bob Lindquist of Qupe

Bob Lindquist is the Winemaker at Qupe. Qupe pronouced “kyoo-pay” is the Chumash word for “poppy”. The Chumash Indians are the indigenous people of the Central Coast. A man who bleeds “Dodger” blue, he is a baseball lover who became a wine enthusiast while attending UC Irvine. He is known for his love of Rhones as well as Chardonnay. He and Jim share a winery they built in 1989 on the famous Bien Nacido Vineyards in the Santa Maria Valley.

Jim & Bob’s time at Zaca Mesa University

In this segment the comedy shines through as Jim tells us how he came to Zaca Mesa in 1978 to run the bottling line. He had more experience than any other applicants with a total of 6 hrs on the Brander bottling line bottling Fred Branders 1976 Gewurztraminer. He talks about their 1^st Chard that won top honors in both Orange County and LA County with it’s accidental residual sugar and how they learned to stop that sweetness (and stop winning both top honors). We hear about the differences he found in winemaking techniques in Australia, California and France and the pluses and minuses of getting a salaried job at harvest.

Bob & Jim are friends from way back and Bob tells the very funny story of how Jim helped him get fired and hired thanks to a Kinks concert. He goes on to tell his story at Zaca Mesa after Jim left and how he opened his own winery Qupe in 1982 with the help of both Ken Brown and Marshall Reams. He also talks about making Syrah first from grapes from Gary Eberle in Paso and discovering that cool climate Syrah was the direction to go. He also brought a beautiful 10 year old Syrah from Bien Nacido Vineyard that we were able to taste.

There is more to come. Our next segment will feature Eric Mohseni the current wine maker at Zaca Mesa which will be released on June 10^th.

For more conversations with winemakers and wineries visit Crushed Grape Chronicles – From Dirt to Glass

Zaca Mesa University, With Christopher Sawyer

May 20, 2015

The Santa Barbara Vintners Spring Weekend featured a Wine Seminar called “Zaca Mesa University”. Zaca Mesa Winery has a long history of turning out amazing winemakers and this seminar brought 4 of them together. Morgen McLaughlin, Executive Director of the Santa Barbara Vintners introduced the seminar and then introduced our Moderator. Christopher Sawyer is and internationally known sommelier, who is notorious for his pairings of wine with movies as well as wine with pop culture music. Having attended UC Davis, Christopher followed the early winemakers in Santa Barbara. He took some time to give us the history of the Santa Barbara Wine region before introducing us to the panel for the day which included: Ken Brown of Ken Brown Wines, Jim Clendenen of Au Bon Climat, Bob Lindquist of Qupe and Eric Mohseni, the current winemaker at Zaca Mesa.

See more on From Dirt to Glass

“Zaca Mesa University” Santa Barbara Wine Seminar Spring 2015 – The Highlight Reel

May 13, 2015

During the Santa Barbara Vintners Spring Weekend this April, the Wine Seminar topic was “Zaca Mesa University”. Inspired by a Spring 2013 article in Edible Santa Barbara Magazine, this seminar featured winemakers who have played a part in the history of Zaca Mesa and indeed the entire Santa Barbara region.

Zaca Mesa has turned out a plethora of amazing wine makers and Sommelier Christopher Sawyer led us through a discussion with 4 of the best. Ken Brown of Ken Brown Wines was the first paid winemaker at Zaca Mesa. Ken went on to found Byron. While at Zaca Mesa he hired both Jim Clendenen (Au Bon Climat) and Bob Lindquist (Qupe). We enjoyed the stories of how each had come to Zaca Mesa; Ken coming in after helping to choose the equipment for the winery, Jim escaping a future in law to become the premiere bottling line employee in the valley and Bob getting fired from his wine shop job for going to a Kinks concert and being hired the same day by the wine shop owners father, who happened to be the owner at Zaca Mesa. Eric Mohseni, the current winemaker at Zaca Mesa shares how being part of this legacy has influenced him.

This is the highlight reel. We will start releasing the full seminar in segments for you to enjoy on May 20th on our From Dirt To Glass Video Page. This will include the tasting with wine from each of these amazing winemakers.

Zaca Mesa at 40

May 17, 2013

Zaca Mesa WIndmill foggy morning

This weekend Zaca Mesa Winery will celebrate it’s 40^th birthday. This winery has quite a bit of history. The property was purchased by a group of friends in 1972 and the vineyard was planted in 1973 and they have been sustainably growing grapes in Santa Barbara ever since. The winery itself was built in 1978 and expanded in 1981. By the early 90’s they had determined that Rhone Varieties grew best on the property. They were the first Central Coast winery to appear in Wine Spectator’s Top 10 back in 1995. They are down to the last of their original owners and have been family owned for about 25 years.

Their first winemaker was Ken Brown who has since gone on to start the very successful Byron in Santa Maria. The rest of the list of previous winemakers continues to look like a who’s who of Santa Barbara & Paso winemakers including: Jim Clendenen of Au Bon Climat, Bob Lindquist of Qupe, Daniel Gehrs of Daniel Gehrs Wines, Clay Brock of Wild Horse, Chuck Carlson of Curtis and Benjamin Silver of Silver Wines.

Their current winemaker is Eric Mohseni. He started his career in wine retail then worked at Edna Valley Vineyards in 1997. It was there that he got hooked on winemaking. He started at Zaca Mesa in 2001 as the enologist worked up to Assistant Winemaker, then Associate Winemaker and finally took the reins in July of 2008.

All the wines here are estate bottled and grown. They don’t buy or sell grapes. They have about 750 acres of which 244 are planted with grapes. 20 acres are newly planted with Syrah. They sit about 30 miles from the Pacific Ocean in the Northern portion of the Santa Ynez AVA. Soils here are mostly Chamise loam over gravelly beds of silk and clay so the soil is well drained. Many of their vineyards are up on a high mesa at 1500 feet. This gives them lower high and higher low temperatures. The more consistent temps allow for slow consistent ripening. The height also causes higher UV radiation, which makes the grapes smaller, and thicker-skinned giving them increased color and phenolic compounds, which can provide more flavor to the wine.

Zaca Mesa glass

As to “sustainable” there is a “Code of Sustainable Winegrowing” developed by the California Wine Institute and the California Association of Winegrape Growers. It spells out “practices that are sensitive to the environment, responsive to the needs and interests of society-at-large, and economically feasible to implement and maintain.” Zaca Mesa is sustainable using organic products, conserving energy and working efficiently to reduce waste. They farm only one-third of the acreage leaving open space for wildlife and preserving ground water.

Zaca Mesa was the third stop in a little trilogy we were doing in Santa Barbara, the day before we had tasted at both Au Bon Climat and Qupe. We rolled in early on a Friday morning and watched the coastal fog roll through the valley coming in from the North. The property is beautiful with huge trees greeting you as you walk from the parking area to the tasting room.

It was the beginning of a busy weekend for them as they had their wine club pickup party happening the next day. We rolled up and were the first guests in the tasting room.

Now onto the tasting!

2010 Estate Viognier. This wine received 91 Points and was the Editor’s Choice in Wine Enthusiast Magazine in the Feb 2013 issue. The nose is very Viognier but on the palate it is dryer than expected and has lots of lemon lime. It has the body of a Viognier but is crisper and brighter on the palate with a bit of minerality. This wine starts out in stainless steel and then transfers to new oak after about 3 months. $16
Z Blanc. This wine was not on the tasting menu but we managed a taste. It is a blend of Grenache, Roussanne and a little Viognier. The grapes for this were hand harvested, fermented and barrel aged for 10 months. This had minerality and a little oak and would go great with shellfish. This has great layer of flavor.
2009 Estate Roussanne: Michael does not normally like Roussanne. There is some flavor in there that he usually finds off-putting. This Roussanne has great weight and viscosity in your mouth. It is aged sur lee so it is mellower. Michael didn’t mind this Roussanne. Wine Enthusiast liked it and gave it 93 point in the February 2013 issue. $25.
2009 Estate Grenache Blanc: A little brighter than the Z Blanc Blend with a bit more mineral, but less depth then the blend (obviously). $25
2010 Estate Mourvedre: This was smoky with a beautiful nose. First I got smoke then blueberry. It was cool on the palate and had a long finish. I could have kept my nose in this glass all day. $35.
2008 Estate Z Cuvee: This GSM Blend is mostly Grenache (68%) with 18% Mourvedre and 14% Syrah. Lots of blackberry with big fruit on the nose. This will cellar for another 7 years. $20.
2008 Estate Z-Three: Another GSM with 51% Syrah, 37% Mourvedre and 12% Grenache. This was a really wonderful blend (my favorite here) Loads of blackberry with a little blueberry from the Mourvedre and then a touch of raspberry from the Grenache. This again will cellar for 5 or so more years. Wine Enthusiast gave this 89 points in their February issue. $42.
2009 Estate Syrah: I got blackberry, smoke, salted meat and a little bit of dried herbs. Bigger tannins that lightly coat your palate and the roof of your mouth but not your teeth. Warm on the back of the palate without being hot. Yeah, this would be perfect with rack of lamp in rosemary and garlic. This is great now and can cellar for up to 10 years, if you can keep from drinking it before then. $25.

After our tasting we wandered up on the hill to where they have a small picnic area overlooking the winery and vineyards. I could have strolled the grounds all day and maybe gotten Michael to play me a game of chess on the oversized chess board outside the tasting room, but….we had to press on to our next tasting! (Coming up next…Talley!)

Eric Mohseni

Zaca Mesa University – Part 4 Eric Mohseni