FALL 2009


PRE-ARRIVAL OFFER.
PURCHASE NOW FOR DISCOUNTED PRICING. OFFER ENDS NOVEMBER 30TH.
WINES TO BE SHIPPED NOVEMBER 9TH & DECEMBER 14TH.

I remember so clearly a moment 28 years ago when a fellow winemaker expressed his ecstatic enthusiasm for the start of harvest. The new harvest was a chance to start fresh and if he was artful or lucky he might make the best wine of his career. His comment really struck a chord, and to this day I get excited about every harvest. Part of the thrill is the urgency involved in making quick sound decisions. In my view, in order to make the best possible wine, a winemaker has a window of two or three days to get the fruit picked from a particular vineyard. Too soon and the wine is insipid, too late and one forfeits the nuance and perfume the vineyard has to offer.

This harvest started off at a ferocious pace. After the coolest summer I can remember in Ojai, I expected ripening to be delayed. But instead a mild heat-spell that began at the end of the last week of August propelled all the grapes we buy in Ojai as well as the sauvignon blanc and pinot noir purchased in northern Santa Barbara County to ripen quickly. By the end of the first week of September we had brought in 60% of our grapes for the year, about 2 weeks ahead of our usual schedule.

Imagine my bewilderment when I was back up in the vineyards checking out the chardonnay, which always ripens later, to see another winemaker's pinot noir grapes still hanging on the vine three weeks after I had harvested mine! I was so curious that I had to pick a few berries and taste this super ripe fruit. Regrettably these pinot grapes were flat tasting, since there was no natural acidity left. The grapes were mellow and sweet, tasted like raisins and plums-but they lacked freshness or spiciness.

The best time to pick a vineyard remains a quandary in rain-free Southern California. No compelling environmental worries, like impending winter storms force the hand of the winemaker. It is much more subtle-what aroma, flavor, and texture-profile does one prefer? A few years ago, the most popular style for chardonnay was a wine of super ripeness, extreme alcohol, over-the-top oakiness, and flabby acidity. Maximum impact was the goal, finesse and balance were eschewed. While the market for these clunky wines is still thriving, consumer interest in chardonnays with zip and minerality, wine that makes your mouth water for another sip, is growing apace. I see a similar future for red wine in this country, following the evolution we have seen with chardonnay.

Adam Tolmach

2008 SAUVIGNON BLANC
Santa Barbara County

2008 was one of those terrific years in which I could really drive myself crazy because no extreme hot spell forced me to pick the grapes. For each vineyard, I had a week or two to go over every detail before deciding the perfect moment for harvest--and that is the striking difference between the 2008 and 2009 vintages.

And for McGinley another extraordinary weather event marked the vintage. For the first time since the vineyard began producing grapes in 1988, a spring frost wiped out the crop in all but one tiny section. Our usual production of six to seven hundred cases shrank to 110. The yield in that weak growing area produced a tiny 1.5 tons to the acre. The wine we made is both delicate and powerful. Aromatically, it is an interesting combination of lemon peel and pine. The flavors are juicy and fresh, and based on its fine structure this wine will be going strong 10 years from now.

2007 CHARDONNAY CLOS PEPE
Santa Rita Hills

Another stunning chardonnay from Clos Pepe! We loved our 2006 version of this wine, but it still needs five years before it will be drinking at its best. This 2007 wine, by contrast, is already delicious today. The aroma is filled with lemon and toast, and there is an alluring earthiness to it as well. The flavors are intense and the wine finishes with a real gripping minerality that draws you in. While clearly holding back all it can show at this point, this wine possesses a beguiling easiness that charms. I think this wine is lovely in a Burgundian kind of way.



TWO CONTRASTING PINOTS

The next two wines are an excellent illustration of issues that concern us here at The Ojai Vineyard. We think of it as pretty arcane stuff, but the question of the alcohol content of new world wines is a lightening rod for controversy. A couple of retailers and restaurateurs are actually refusing to carry wines higher than 14% because they think anything above that is inherently unbalanced, and therefore useless as an accompaniment with food. As you've read, we obsess over capturing grapes from a vineyard at the ideal moment to make the best possible wine, hence the quandary. Here are two pinot noirs that show how nebulous and unclear that ideal can be when faced with the uncertainties of nature. In 2007 at Bien Nacido we were able to pick exactly when we wanted and are thrilled by the results-atypical for California, but in my mind difficult for the thoughtful taster to dismiss.

Despite what it says on the label, our laboratory tells us it is 13.6% alcohol. The actual number does not concern me too much, but I generally find that pinots lower than the mid-14s are gentler and express their personalities in a more accurate way. With the second wine, Clos Pepe, we felt we missed our ideal moment by a couple of days. Here in Southern California, we can go from heavy fog to extremely dry conditions in a matter of hours and in two days the potential alcohol of grapes can skyrocket. Regardless of our best intentions Mother Nature gave us a wine of 15.3% alcohol. Is that bad? You decide. Harvesting two days later has given us a wine that still possesses the aromas and flavors of that vineyard site, only in a plusher kind of way. This wine might not fit the ideal I have in my head, but it is delicious and generous and enjoyable to drink--plenty of people will prefer it over the more subtle Bien Nacido. I guess what I am trying to say is that I'm not an absolutist, an extremist. I like what natural processes bring, and am reluctant to synthetically modify what nature has given.

2007 PINOT NOIR BIEN NACIDO
Santa Maria Valley

I drink a fair amount of red Burgundy, and maybe it is my coarse palate, but I often taste wines that are so delicate and nuanced that I wonder if there is really anything there. The question arises: are these the emperor's new clothes? In the back of my mind when talking about subtlety lies the question of whether a wine is actually over-cropped and insipid.

This 2007 Bien Nacido pinot noir does have a certain delicacy, but in contrast to some too delicate Burgundies, it displays an enormous personality-this wine is fully clothed. The aroma just knocks me out; flowers, sappy tart pie cherries, loamy earth-so much character! The flavor profile is terrific, full of savory and briny notes, cranberry fruit and suave fine tannins. It may be a little shocking for those who have been nursed only on huge sweet California pinots, but for me it expresses the power one can get out of carefully farmed, perfectly ripe grapes picked at just the right moment.

2006 PINOT NOIR CLOS PEPE
Santa Rita Hills

This pinot is the polar opposite of the Bien Nacido 2007--so don't despair if you think I have abandoned my customers who enjoy a little generosity in their wines. The intersection of nature and human intervention always makes for surprises. For whatever reason (let's not get into it), the fruit came in very ripe by our standards, although, as usual, we were the first to pick out of this vineyard. This pinot presents a beautiful picture of what is amazing about Santa Rita Hills: ultra-ripeness and fresh natural acidity all mixed up with a dazzling aroma of ripe plums.

Not to make too many assumptions, but I feel certain this wine will be very popular-it's so easy and delicious! As an added bonus, after the bottle has been open for 24 hours it sheds some of its baby fat and reveals a serious, fine structure that should allow it to age gracefully for quite a number of years.

2005 SYRAH WHITE HAWK
Santa Barbara County

White Hawk vineyard is a series of rolling hills of sand about 15 miles from the ocean. This ancient sea bed is so devoid of nutrients that the vines struggle to produce a crop. Every July, when things heat up the vines almost give up the ghost, but somehow they struggle through the summer and produce a meager crop of intensely flavored fruit. Being in a moderate climate, the wine usually has a bit of warm climate fruitiness and cool climate peppery-ness.

This 2005 possesses a powerful aroma of exotic spices and ripe black olives that melds into more saline scents of seaweed and earth. White Hawk is always so wild! While full of fruit, it's not overtly fruity. The flavors are more complex than that-it's both spicy and earthy. This wine drinks well now, but has the stuffing for ten more good years.

2006 SYRAH ROLL RANCH
Ojai, California

A bit young to drink now--though I did serve it recently at a dinner party and caused quite a controversy when I said I preferred it to our 2003 Thompson syrah, which I'd also served. Yes, the Thompson is more resolved and ready to drink, and it is richer and more concentrated, but I liked the way the Roll was livelier and worked with the roast chicken we were having that night. As always, it humbled me to realize we all have different palates, and when it comes to things of taste there is no right or wrong. It's not much of a consolation, but being in this business for 27 years I have the confidence to predict that my friends will really enjoy this wine when it has been properly cellared for another seven years.

2005 SYRAH VERNA
Santa Barbara County

A little more obscure than some of our other vineyard designated syrahs, the fruit for this wine came from Melville's Los Alamos, California estate. In 2005, the wine was made from two sites, one contributing acidity and intensity, the other richness and flamboyance. The combination made for a spectacular wine of great balance. Of the three syrahs offered in this newsletter, this one is certainly the crowd pleaser. It will be perfect with that holiday standing rib roast. Yum!

2008 VIOGNIER ICE WINE
Roll Ranch, Ojai - California

In 2008, we were able to pick very ripe grapes that also had excellent acidity. The result was one of our best viognier desert wines to date. Hugely sweet with a note of orange zest, this wine remains fresh and engaging. Liquor-like richness makes it the natural accompaniment for fruit-based deserts, but I like it best with pumpkin pie.

2004 SYRAH WHITE HAWK MAGNUM
Santa Barbara County. 1.5l

This is the note written when the wine was released in the Spring of 2007:

Aromatically and texturally this wine, by no design of my own, comes closest to that "international style" that I love to take pot shots at. This wine truly is a monolithic monster that is spicy and mineral-y in aroma as well as dense and mouth-coating. It's a style that many people love to drink young, and, although it is drinkable now, I think that's ultimately unfair to this wine. I wouldn't even think of opening it for at least five years because I have found that, with time, many of our wines similar to this one shed their baby fat and become balanced, compelling and interesting wines. This one has all the elements to mature gracefully for years.

2008 CHARDONNAY
Santa Barbara County

I particularly like chardonnay from some of the outlying districts of Burgundy. Sure, rich oak-y Puligny Montrachet is showy and impressive, but sometimes delicate Chablis or even Macon from a great producer makes a better match with food. That's what we had in mind when we crafted this wine. From close planted younger vines, it's a lighter bodied, crisp and juicy chardonnay that just sings with food. This wine is alive, fresh and approachable today. It's friendly enough to have as a cocktail, yet sufficiently refreshing to have with your next plate of raw oysters!

OJAI WHITE & OJAI RED
Non Vintage, California

Don't let yourself be distracted by the affordable price. These two wines are terrific, always full of charater and easy to enjoy. They are made with the barrels that did not make the selection for the single vineyard bottlings and they received the same care and dedication as any of our more recognized wines. The result is a winery blend that seems to follow it's own mind and achieve quiet elegance.