Good morning, all!
Enz is a sore spot for me, but for clarity I will try to address it in the most straightforward way possible.
The Cienega Valley and San Benito County writ large were largely underrepresented vis-a-vis quality ten years ago and farming vineyards was becoming not economical. As I am a sucker for old vines and rocky soils, I, along with local compatriots like Ryan Stirm, Nicole Walsh and Christian Pillsbury, set about reshaping the narrative in the County. Now nearly a decade into relationships there, there have been some resounding successes and some, um, learning experiences. In some of those relationships, I have learned a lot about why the area has remained underserved for so long. Others have shown me a beautiful way the county’s vineyards and wineries could grow hand in hand with the explosive population growth in Hollister.
I had known about Enz for five or ten years before I visited. It was legendary for its potential but had passed through many projects. At the time, the entire vineyard was leased by Ken Volk, famously one of the nicest people ever to make wine. Ken’s last vintage there was 2014. He had invested heavily in the health of the vineyard.
In 2015, I went out there with Tegan Passalacqua and discussed leasing the vineyard. The asking price was over $2000/acre for a largely unknown site without functioning irrigation plus tractor payments. It seemed a lot to take on, so the vineyard in 2015 was leased by Al DeRose – who knows the ground well but was sideswiped by an extreme drought. Not a lot of fruit came off the vineyard in 2015. Tegan and I both bought Mataro in 2015.
In 2016, Ryan Stirm leased the vineyard with backing from WINC. That relationship ended poorly, but the farming was really great. We continued to buy fruit in 2016.
In 2017 I entered into a handshake relationship with the Enz family wherein I would sell the fruit on a modest commission, manage the harvest, etc, while the family would handle the farming. We converted the vineyard to organic methods. I thought the vineyard was critical to the success of San Benito wine growing as a whole and set out to put it in the hands of the producers I thought would make the best wines and lead to the greatest visibility for the vineyard, many of whom are ‘board darlings’, some of whom were up and comers I knew had talent. For three years we were tremendously successful. We were commanding the highest prices in San Benito County and the vineyard was becoming recognized and sought after across the country. We were sold out every year and my phone would blow up every spring with more people trying to get into the vineyard. I had hoped to get to the point where I felt comfortable leasing the vineyard long term but I was never in the situation where I had the headspace to take on the time and risk.
2020 was a difficult harvest everywhere, with everyone trying to figure out risk and value in real time. All was going well at Enz until we got back some troubling smoke taint numbers on the Mourvédre block. I couldn’t in good faith ask people to pick what I felt was a damaged product at full price, the Enz family, having never had smoke taint in their vineyard before, seemed unwilling to believe their grapes were damaged and inflexible. I let everyone know what I understood the deal to be (although Russell Enz claims I misunderstood) and nearly no one decided to take that deal. Given that most producers were working out of northern California, which was on fire, and some had wineries that actually burned down, I wasn’t going to pressure anyone. I also decided against picking Mourvèdre. By the time the Enz family was willing to explore other options, the grapes were overripe and no wineries wanted to pick them at any price. It’s a sad story in a vintage full of sad stories. There were myriad vineyards who lost their whole crop, rather than just the 7.5 acres of Mourvédre, but the Enz family didn’t see it that way.
I was made the scapegoat and was led on into April of 2021 as they explored their options. By the time the family was honest with me about which direction they wanted to grow, the broker they had signed up with had sold the best parts of the vineyard to other producers and those who had made the reputation of the vineyard were largely shut out. Some, like Sandlands, Birichino, Florez and Jolie-Laide, have made their way back into the vineyard. Others found the experience off-putting enough that they have focused elsewhere. I understand completely those who choose to continue working with the fruit. The mourvédre, especially, is irreplaceable. I have plenty of other places to work with and ideas to develop and chose not to continue the relationship under the new terms.
I have a friend who reached out last year to inquire about leasing the vineyard. The asking price had doubled in my four years there.
Best,
Ian