For Santa Barbara

For Santa Barbara’s Wine Country, the Future is Now

by Tim Grubb for westcoastwine.net

In the season-less world of Southern California we can count on a few hallmarks to announce the return of Spring – the Dodgers take the field in Chavez Ravine, the swallows wing into Capistrano, and up in Santa Barbara’s wine country the area’s finest wines always make their way to the renowned Wine Cask restaurant to show off their potential. Every Spring, Doug Margerum – who owns the Wine Cask and Margerum Wine Company – scours the barrel rooms of Santa Barbara County to find the year’s most exciting wines and brings them together for the annual Santa Barbara Wine Futures Tasting.

The event started about 15 years ago with a single offering of Chardonnay made for the Wine Cask by Au Bon Climat’s master winemaker Jim Clendenen and has grown to offer more than 100 wines from dozens of producers. At this year’s event, the wines offered were strong evidence that Santa Barbara is one of the world’s sweet spots for Syrah and Pinot Noir.

Doug Margerum pouring his flagship Syrah and his “M5” – a “cerebral” blend of 5 Rhone varietals

Redefining California Through Pinot and Syrah

California introduced itself to the wine world through Cabernet and Chardonnay from Northern California. However, the Cabernet spotlight has shifted to places like Bordeaux (once again), Australia, and South America while tasty Chardonnay is being pumped out of almost every wine producing region on the planet. With greater frequency, wine enthusiasts look to California for the distinctive Pinot and Syrahs that Santa Barbara is known for. These wines are slowly redefining what might be considered the flagship wine from the Golden State, and they come out in droves for the Futures Tasting.

Decades of experimenting has shown that the fickle Pinot Noir grape will only show us its best on a few precious tracts of land – lucky for Santa Barbara vintners, one of those sweet spots is a 100 square-acre stretch of land between Lompoc and the west side of Buellton. This area is the Santa Rita Hills AVA and it turned out more than 20 Pinots for the Futures Tasting this year. Kris Curran, winemaker for Pinot-only Sea Smoke Cellars, believes that Pinot from the Santa Rita Hills is truly unique and expresses itself with a dark hue and darker berry notes not found in Pinot anywhere else on the planet.

According to wine industry multi-tasker Doug Margerum, Santa Barbara’s other beauty - Syrah - is quickly becoming “the quintessential California wine because it accommodates California’s diverse cuisines, excels in several of California’s wine-growing climates, and it suits California's wine drinkers’ demand for wines that will drink young (as in now). Doug has staked the reputation of his Margerum Wine Company on Syrah and his commitment to this quintessential California grape can be tasted in his flagship “Alondra de los Prados Vineyard” Syrah as well as the 30+ Syrahs selected for the Futures Tasting.

The Lafond Vineyard, which produced outstanding Syrahs for Kenneth-Crawford and Cordon.

A Fresh Pool of Talented Winemakers Continues to Raise the Quality Bar

Santa Barbara’s pool of winemaking talent has always included veterans like Bob Lindquist of Qupe and Jim Clendenen of Au Bon Climat who continue to make benchmark Syrah and Pinot year after year. In the past few vintages, these seasoned pros have been joined by the next generation of extremely talented winemakers who affirm there will be no shortage of winemaking skill in Santa Barbara any time in the near future. One of the highlights of the Futures Tasting is that it brings together all of these next generation winemakers and provides a platform to showcase their latest efforts. The winemakers below are just a few examples of the folks who are driving up the quality delivered at the Futures Tasting.

On the Rhone front, Syrah purist Joey Tensley combines his old-world approach to winemaking with fruit from several outstanding vineyards to create Syrahs that deliver a parade of complex flavors under his own Tensley label and for Carina Cellars. Joey doesn’t like to use new oak, he doesn’t like to fine or filter, and he doesn’t try to steer his wines far from where they started in the vineyard. Joey’s production of single vineyards Syrahs and his “OGT” blend (that will one day be made with a little more help from Joey’s son Oliver Gunnar Tensley) are gems worth seeking out for any fan of Syrah and were all showcased at this year’s Futures Tasting.

While Joey’s reputation for making Syrah that can compete with the world’s best is being solidified, Joey doesn’t plan on letting the price for his wines skyrocket anytime soon – Joey doesn’t believe that new world Syrahs from young vineyards have had the opportunity to show they have the same “pedigree” as their Rhone valley cousins that have proved they age gracefully for decades.

Kris Curran, the winemaker for Sea Smoke and reigning Queen of Santa Barbara Pinot, continues to deliver gorgeous wines in her first few vintages at Sea Smoke. These Pinots come from the Sea Smoke vineyard perched on a bluff above Santa Rosa road – a road Kris has driven countless times as it winds through the special place that that is now the heart of the Santa Rita Hills AVA. Kris told me that when she first made that drive years ago growing up in the San Ynez valley, she looked up at the bare hillsides rising above the north side of Santa Rosa road and just knew they could produce a world-class Pinot. What Kris didn’t know is that a few short years later she would be the one making world-class wine from that site.

With a commitment to making truly great Pinot, Sea Smoke owner Bob Davids planted over 100 acres of Pinot on those hillsides that Kris was so confident in and hired Kris on as winemaker well before the first harvest. Kris’ dedication to the Santa Rita Hills area and Bob’s commitment to excellence can be tasted in their “Botella”, “Southing”, and in the first release of their flagship Pinot -“Ten”.

Kris Curran doing some quality control shortly before the Futures Tasting in late April

In addition to her stunning Pinots from Sea Smoke, Kris makes her addition to the seemingly endless supply of fantastic Rhone wines offered at this year’s Futures Tasting through her Curran label wines. With her vibrant and floral Curran Grenache Blanc, Kris seems to capture summer in a wine glass and her bold Syrah from the tiny “Reeves” vineyard in the heart of the San Ynez valley shows that Kris’ ability to make great wine extends far beyond Pinot.

Winemaker Jason Drew and his brother Mark of Drew Family Cellars, who offered four wines at this years’ Futures Tasting, showed their ability to craft world-class wines from all over Santa Barbara County – Pinot from vineyards hugging Santa Barbara’s precious coastline, Syrah from vineyards sitting smack in the heart of the Santa Ynez Valley AVA, and a unique Cabernet Franc from the sun-baked slopes of Happy Canyon at the far east end of the San Ynez valley.

The Drew Brothers making magic in their Buellton winery

With Jason’s Drew’s global perspective on Syrah and drive to capture Santa Barbara’s terroir, Syrah continues to play a heavy role in Drew’s line-up, which includes distinct single-vineyard Syrahs such as the massive and midnight-dark “Old Westy” Syrah from the older portions of the Alisos Vineyard, as well as dual-vineyard blends that receive well-deserved attention.

For their duel-vineyard Syrahs, such as the “Rodney’s (35%) and Larner (65%)” offered at this years’ event, Jason and Mark try to find two vineyards that generally complement each other and then fine-tune that synergy through adjusting the blend ratio for each vintage. If you are looking to sample the full spectrum of Santa Barbara’s terroir, the Drew wines offered in the Futures Tasting are a great place to start.

The Drew brothers and their cellar-mates Kenneth Gummere and Mark “Crawford” Horvath of Kenneth-Crawford are also strong evidence that great winemaking may be contagious. Kenneth-Crawford shares space in Buellton with the Drews and are also young winemakers who have shown an ability to craft impressive Syrah from a variety of sites in Santa Barbara. Their debut Evans Ranch Syrah and mainstay Lafond Vineyard Syrah offered at this year’s Futures Tasting were outstanding examples of Syrah from cooler sites in the County (and watch out for their Purisima Mountain Syrah coming on-line next year).

Along with Greg Brewer, Steve Clifton, David Corey, Jim Knight, Ethan Linquist, Etienne Terlinden and a host of others who poured at the Futures Tasting, this gang of dedicated winemakers confirm Santa Barbara’s wine future will be bright.

Mark and Kenneth ("Joey") of Kenneth-Crawford pouring their impressive single vineyard Syrahs from some of the cooler growing sites in the County

"Smart" Vineyard Sites are Paying Dividends for Wines Throughout Santa Barbara County

Most of the wines offered in the Futures Tasting are single vineyard wines - and for good reason. In the past few years, the winemakers who showcase their wines at the Futures Tasting have been able to take advantage of smarter, more sophisticated vineyards. For the younger vineyards planted in the Santa Rills Hills and other isolated pockets, viticulturists have been able to take use the latest in clones and rootstock selections and fine-tune those options to their site. Viticulturists have also created more distinct lines about where different varietals will be grown in the County.

Spring in the heart of the Santa Rita Hills AVA (a.k.a. Pinot land) – Sea Smoke’s hillside vineyards above and the Fiddlestix vineyard in the foreground

Pinot Noir vineyards like Peter Cargasacchi’s that produced stellar wines for Babcock and Hitching Post in this year’s Futures Tasting are being planted closer and closer to the chilly edge of the Pacific (watch out for future offerings from his Jalama Road vineyard - just a stone's throw to the water). Steve Beckman, the proud owner of the Purisma Mountain Vineyard and a stable full of intense syrahs, has shown that Ballard Canyon in the central part of the valley is paradise for Syrah with a touch of marine influence, but enough heat to get a fully ripe clusters every year. Steve’s Purisima Mountain Vineyard, which is less than 20 miles from the Pinot vineyards in the Santa Rita Hills, was the foundation for almost a dozen outstanding Syrah/Rhone Blends offered in this year's Futures Tasting.

Perhaps no other place in the world are great Pinot and Syrah grown so close together.

In addition to being planted smarter, these well-placed vineyards are being meticulously farmed at insanely low yields (well south of 2 tons/acre) to make wines that are far more concentrated than in years past. Ethan Lindquist of Ethan Wines told me that the grapes for his Purisima Mountain Vineyard Syrah that came in looking so perfect in 2002 that there was nothing for him to do at the sorting table – not one leaf, not one bad cluster, and I guess no excuses if the wine doesn’t turn out right (As many of you know, despite the pressure Ethan turned out a fantastic Syrah).

A Roadmap for Pinot and Syrah Lovers

While not everyone can make it to the Futures Tasting to celebrate the coming of Spring, it can be used as a road map to guide your hunt for some of most exciting wines produced anywhere in the last few vintages. The synergy between the talented winemakers and exciting vineyards showcased at the event produces wine that every Pinot and Syrah lover should look for throughout the year. If you can’t make it to the event, at least take a look at the vintners who showed up – you just might find your next favorite wine before it is all snatched up.

Cheers - Tim