**Day TWO! - Friday**We started the day with a a nice breakfast at the Bear and the Star. The acorn and almond flour pancakes were unique and delicious. The house-made sausage was very good too. The coffee, not-so-much.
We had a 1pm appointment at Harrison-Clarke for a vineyard tour and tasting, but had a couple of hours to spare. Why not squeeze in a visit to Berserker board member and winemaker, Larry Schaffer at Tercero? I contacted Larry and he said to meet him at his tasting room in forty minutes. Since Larry’s tasting room is right next to Dragonette, I ALSO squeezed in a very quick Dragonette tasting! Double-bonus!
I’ve always found Dragonette to have very consistent quality, across all the varieties they make. This was no exception, with a great Sauv Blanc (Grassini Vineyard), nice Grenache (John Sebastiano Vineyard), Seven (Syrah with some Grenache and touch of Viognier, or let’s call it SGV), and the big, juicy MJM (another ‘SGV’). I did this tasting in about ten minutes flat so no notes folks! But here’s a pic of Dragonette’s tasting room!
Then Larry arrived next door and it was Tercero-time!
Tercero
Last year, my wife and I visited Los Olivos but Larry wasn’t in at the time because it was the Spring Vinters Weekend and there were lots of events. I was glad to get to meet him this time around. Larry is a hospitable, knowledgeable guy who loves to talk wine. He can keep it conversational and fun while educating and sharing technical info and stuff we wine geeks love. One of the things I like about Larry is his willingness to zig when others zag. For example, I have a fascination with grapes that are usually blending grapes being highlighted as 100% varietal wines. I was really looking forward to trying his interesting grape varietal wines!
Larry poured. I drank. Anna walked around Los Olivos because she was already wined-out from the day before, and knew we had another tasting coming up. Fortunately, I always spit when I taste so I can usually do a lot of tasting without it affecting me much. Some wines stood out more to me than others, but here are my impressions of what Larry poured…
2013 Viognier - Less rich than the typical viogniers I have had from Cali (think Alban). There was some light tropical fruit on the nose. My impression was that this was a good summer refresher. It sounds weird to say, but where you may normally consider a cool-serviving-temp Grenache Blanc this could be a great alternative, with more character. If you’re looking for a less sweet, lighter style viognier, give this one a try.
2016 Mourvedre Rose - This wine speaks to what I love about Larry. Not only is he a master at letting these varietals speak, he is not afraid of doing it slightly unconventionally. This is a mix of stainless steel with some oak, and as such the freshness of the fruit is there but with enough structure to remind one of Bandol. Stomping and pressing them (not using run-off) and including stems again add to the complexity. I love Roses with some strength and flexibility, meaning this was enjoyable on it’s own in the tasting room, but I would enjoy seeing which foods this paired well with.
2014 Tercero Outlier - I have come to the determination I must not be a Gewurztraminer guy. I have tried multiple German versions with the classic lychee nose. Tried a Casa Dumetz Gewurz that didn’t seem like a typical Gewurz at all. Larry’s is much more in the beautifully floral, lychee aromatics lane, with just a hint of sweetness. If you like Gewurz, my guess is you’d really love Larry’s. Very pretty wine.
2014 Tercero Marsanne - As Larry and I were talking about white wines, Rhone varietals, I also mentioned I enjoyed fuller whites and the character of whites with more age, more skin contact or lots of lees stirring. Anything from Gahier Jura Chards to Rousanne and white Rioja — give me beeswax! Well, that inspired Larry to share his 100% Marsanne, a vastly under-appreciated grape (this is part of why I love Larry, he is willing to highlight these amazing grapes). This had white stone fruits on the nose, along with plenty of that rich texture I love in a structured white. Lower acid, but I picked up a bottle and had it the next night before dinner. It was fantastic slightly warm (60 degrees or so). That’s how you get all that nutty, white stone fruit aroma and flavor. This is not meant to be a very cold, crisp white that cuts like a laser. There’s enough of those saturating the market already. Tons of character in this wine. I shared a bit with the private chef we had at Sat’s big dinner and he loved it too, though maybe he just loved having the wine shared with him.
2016 Tercero Aberration - I beleive the one Larry tasted me on was 100% Cab Franc. (Again, apologies for being somewhat vague in these but this trip didn’t allow me to spend the time taking notes that I would have likeed to, so instead I have only impressions and recollections to share). I love Cabernet Franc dearly, with Paradigm’s being my favorite. Larry’s version was done with less skin contact (if I recall correctly), done in stainless and meant to be a lighter bodied white drank slightly chilled. I love this idea as it fills a need for a red wine you can pop and enjoy when the weather is a bit warmer. Larry’s 2015 Aberration is also worth checking out, as it suited this style very well with a big dollop of Cinsault (so quaffable!) along with Grenache and Mourvedre.
2011 Tercero Grenache Larner Vineyard - Larner grows some of my favorite Grenache grapes in the area. What Larry does with it is to tease out the red fruit aspects while maintaining some good food-friendly acidity in the finish. This is not a super sweet Grenache and has a touch of pepper on the end. The Larner-fruit signature to me is in having that little bit of additional backbone on the finish. What Larry does consistently well, is make these wines approachable enough that you simply cannot resist drinking them. What’s funny about Larry is, he is a very smart guy, he doesn’t over-intellectualize his wines. They are well made, but not intimidating, or overly complicated. Even when they have layers, they present themselves to you in an inviting way, rather than feeling closed and impenetrable. Maybe I am crazy, but that’s the feeling I get both from Larry and as I drink his wines.
2012 Tercero White Hawk Syrah - Larry definitely has an idea of what he wants to do and commits fully, in this case that’s to a Rhonish Syrah. Meaty, savory, good acidity, this is not a syrupy blueberry pie. I don’t know if Larry has any viognier or petite syrah in this one, but I am sure he can chime in here. I would guess yes on the viognier but no on the P.S. since syrah/p.s. blend is the next wine “I describe, The Climb”. Wish I had had more time to camp out and dig into discussing this one with Larry but Anna had returned from her walk and was waiting for me to finish the tasting!
2011 Tercero The Climb - As Larry says, this is his ‘Relentless’. And boy, is it. Big, powerful, juicy black fruits with a touch of the mineral/sanguine tang I associate with iron (another person called it tomato skins / green pepper metallic taste). Whatever it is, it adds a dimension to this wine that makes you want a big hunk of brisket with it. Not sure what the alcohol is on this, but somehow Larry can make big wines that aren’t bumpy or hot.
2011 Tercero Petite Sirah
I usually don’t go in for P.S. but Larry has made an eminently drinkable one that doesn’t overwhelm the palate. Now the REALLY interesting thing to me about this wine was how it showed across the entire weekend. In the tasting room Larry said this could be laid down for a few years and I joked it probably would not last that long with me. Well, turns out we opened it THAT night as we have a couple big Petite Sirah fans in our group. It was powerful layers of dark fruit, blueberry, blackberry, some licorice and softer tannins than I expected from a PnP Petite Sirah — but that wasn’t what surprised me. You see, Saturday we had a 2014 Myriad Beckstoffer Georges III Cabernet Sauvignon and a 2011 Roccolo Grassi Amarone (at a whopping 16.5% alcohol plus whatever the leeway ‘overage’ is on that)… but because we only finished half a botlle of each, we decided to to a side-by-side competition on Sunday. For fun, I put the Myriad against the Amarone and Larry’s Petite Sirah (opened Friday). For perspective, that’s a $150 bottle, a $100 bottle and a $50 bottle (rough prices for each). Well, 3/4 of us preferred the Tercero Petite Sirah to those other two. While all three wines were still big, the Tercero was simply more drinkable and balanced. It was a fun experiment, with different varietals but similarly big wines. Clearly Larry makes great wine at a great value.
Here’s a pic from Sunday night, aka “The Evidence’
By the way, I hear Larry is doing a 30% off Flash Sale at Tercero this weekend. If any of those sounded good you may want to grab them during the sale.
Okay, so back to Friday afternoon!
After Tercero we headed into Ballard Canyon for our appointment at Harrison-Clarke. I love Ballard Canyon. It does Rhone varietals so well, especially my favorite, Syrah. Because I was enjoying being present with Anna, I did not take notes. here are more general impressions from our visit to Harrison-Clarke.
Harrison-Clarke
Roger is from South Africa, and a true man of the land. He clearly LOVES his vines and the land. When he speaks about them you sense his humility and respect for the relationship between the land, the plants, and ourselves. He truly nurtures his vines from a place of listening to them as they show him what they need. As he said, he is always learning more about what the vines want, and the specifics of each row, each gully, divot and rise in his blocks. This relationship with the land is part of what I find amazing about farmers/viticulturalists. There is a deep UNDERSTANDING of the vines that has to occur to produce the best fruit the vines are capable of producing. In so many ways, to hear Roger describe it, it sounds like the raising of a child. They need love, attention, nurturance, have to be check, limited, encouraged, provided for, supported, challenged, and so on. All of that takes great awareness and responsiveness, if not proactiveness on the part of the grape grower. Roger has that in spades (no pun intended). Also, they farm organically, they just have not done all the requirements for certification.
Roger, by the way, is a wonderful person and character. He is very direct, with a sly sense of humor, and brooks no b.s. (which I love). It’s very South African, in my experience (my Mom is from South Africa, growing up in Stellenbosch and actually picking grapes there as a kid). He is warm and genuine in that way Clint Eastwood can be warm and genuine whilst being gruff at the same time. Very good natured stuff and made for a fun back-and-forth.
At one point, Anna was enjoying our conversation with Roger so much that she wanted to do a video of Roger talking. I mentioned how, in my research for the trip, I’d found very few videos of him. In fact, only one video where he was tasting the grape seeds and talking about ripeness and tannin. He seemed to know the video I was talking about, and said he preferred not being on video. We, of course, respected his wishes. This is who he is, he is about growing grapes, and stays out of the promotional side of the business. He prefers being between the vines and to be honest, I am very grateful that’s where his focus is because he produces stunning wine grapes.
Harrison-Clarke’s Beautifully Managed Vines (These vine pics were taken May 26th)
We took a little extra time on the tour, as we were such eager pupils that Roger decided to show us some of the surface limestone at the highest elevation vineyard behind the winemaking facility. It was amazing to see that pale colored ground right at the surface and imagine its effect on the grapes (and wine!).
Here we are during our fun, informative tour!
Interestingly, they are experimenting with a small amount of Viognier vines. I asked if that was to add a percentage or two to the Syrah and blends and he said yes. Thus far, the viognier vines haven’t borne fruit, if I recall correctly. Hopefully, they will soon, and it will add another arrow to the quiver for Hilarie to work with. Which brings us to the tasting portion of our Harrison-Clarke visit. Once we finished our informative, enjoyable walk through the vineyards with Roger, we entered the winemaking facility.
One of the things I love about Santa Barbara, Santa Ynez and the entire area is that it is a winemaking region that feels like it is just transitioning from being a teenager into a young adult. It is finding it’s identity, has figured out what it’s good at and is seriously growing in confidence but is not yet at that level of scale that Napa is at. This is a wonderful time of accomplishment and great potential for this region. Harrison Clarke is the type of producer I love: fairly small (you could call them boutique, size wise) but very high quality wines. They really deserve to be much better known, in my opinion and Hilarie’s winemaking is a big reason they deserve more attention!
While at Harrison Clarke we tried:
2014 Harrison-Clarke Grenache - What immediately struck me about this wine was its finesse. That’s not a word I use often with California Grenache. Hilarie has, what I feel, is more of a French style and plate. Everything is in harmony, and there is even a hint of elegance to her wines. This was not a juicy fruit bomb, nor a thin acidic needs food’ grenache/ It was perfectly in between. Loved it. Still do. I can’t speak to specific aromas and flavors at this point as I didn’t take notes, but I am sure CT will provide in that area.
2014 Eve E Marie GSM Blend - Actually a “GM” with mostly grenache an bit of mourvedre, but no syrah. Loved the layers in this one. Dark red fruits (if that makes any sense) with some nice spiciness. The theme I began to notice was that there are no hard edges on Hilarie’s wines. Very elegant. You just don’t feel any “bump” in the process. Her wines drink as smoothly as a wine with lower alc (13% ish) yet it is in that 14%-14.5% range. Not sure how she does it, but I love it.
2014 Estate Syrah - I am a big fan of Ballard Canyon Syrahs. The first one I tried was Rusack’s. From there I graduated to Stolpman, then Jaffurs, Larner and others. I can say that what separates Harrison-Clarke Syrah from others from this area is that it has the most refined tannins and sense of elegance of any Ballard Syrahs I have personally tried. The purity of black and blue fruit, touch of smoke and spice that characterize the area (now an AVA) are definitely present, but the result is noticeably more refined.
2012 Cuvee Charlotte - Simply drank more layered and plush, ‘deep dark’ fruit, than the syrah. I get the impression this may even be the most select syrah grapes. This was Anna’s favorite because it managed to have blueberry and blackberry, a savory element and cocoa. Anything balanced with some chocolate notes is a win for Anna!
2013 Cuvee Charlotte - Similar, but bigger and darker than the 2012. Also felt the alc on this one a bit more than on the 2012.
We liked every single wine at Harrison-Clarke. Left with some bottles to enjoy. I’ll report back with notes as we drink them!
Once we finished at Harrison-Clarke, we began our trek to the Santa Barbara house to meet the big group. We stopped at a great little old-school saloon restaurant with old west meets The Hobbit vibe. The Cold Spring Tavern is hidden in the winding canyons off the 154 between Santa Ynez and Santa Barbara. It’s like stepping back in time. They have wild game and a great atmosphere.
We had the wild game chili (venison, rabbit, bison) and Anna had roast venison loin with grilled vegetables. Both were great. Then we were off to the party house.
Friday night was about greeting old friends and family, meeting new friends as we all settled in to our beautiful chateau. We started the weekend with Larry’s Petite Syrah, as I mentioned earlier. And it was roundly loved by all.
But, it needed to be an early night because the next day was our big wine tasting day! I’ll post about that next time!
I don’t normally have as many wines open as I did that day - but was glad that I did for your visit. It’s nice to give folks like you a real sense of the variety of wines that I produce - it’s often difficult to get that point across in just 4 or 5 wines.