Will 2016 be the vintage of the decade?
2016 marks the fifth vintage that I have worked alongside my partner and friend, Lane Tanner. One of the things we love about making wine is that every vintage is different. While some tasks in the winery may seem mundane, the uniqueness of every harvest ensures that the work never gets old. Even Lane, who has been making Pinot Noir for upwards of three decades in this valley, relishes each year’s harvest as though it were her first.
Every now and then a vintage comes along that winemakers describe as having “perfect numbers.” What that means is that the fruit has a perfect balance between acidity and sugar. We measure this in three ways: titratable acidity, pH, and degrees brix. As fruit nears maturity in the vineyard, Lane and I sample the fruit every few days and measure these three things, from which we glean sugar levels (brix), and acidity (pH and TA). We use that information, along with the flavor we taste in the grapes, to make one of the most important decisions we will make all year: when to call the pick. And, muy importante: we won’t call the pick, no matter what the sugar or acid, until the fruit reaches an appropriate complexity of flavor.
Perfect numbers are usually a result of cold nights and warm (not hot) days during the ripening of the fruit. As fruit matures, it’s sugar goes up and its acid goes down. Cold nights keeps the acidity from decreasing too quickly, as does a lack of extreme heat during the day. 2016 seems to have produced the perfect combination of weather patterns in the Santa Maria Valley, yielding fruit that has reached flavor maturity much earlier than normal. What that means is that we are able to pick with lower sugars- and higher acidity – than any harvest I have seen before.
So what does that mean for the final product? The 2016 wines will have impeccable balance, lower alcohol, and a striking acidity. They will also age phenomenally well. Paint by numbers might not be what most people call “real art.” But perfect numbers for Pinot will most certainly be.
Looking to taste our wines? Stop by the Pico at the Los Alamos General Store at 458 Bell Street in Los Alamos, CA. Lumen flights are always available at our new wine bar.
-Will Henry
Thoughts on El Niño and General Lack of Z’s
“I don’t pay the mortgage that I do for rainy weather,” my Irish friend said to me a few days ago. “The drought sits just fine with me.”
And it’s true: the last few winters in Santa Barbara have been the nicest summers I have ever experienced. And with the only worry I currently have being whether or not I can water my lawn, I guess it’s not so bad. People frequently ask me if it is negatively impacting the vineyards, and my answer is generally “no.” Vines in general don’t consume a lot of water relative to other crops. They are drought tolerant, and survive quite well on minimal drip irrigation. Furthermore the vineyards in the Santa Maria Valley draw water from a very healthy network of aquifers, none of which are depleted like many of those in the rest of the state.
Yet this year, I am starting to change my mind. The problem with our succession of warm winters is not so much the lack of rain, but the lack of cold weather. Vines like chilly winters. They go into dormancy in the late fall and like to get a good, solid winter’s sleep. If the temperatures are too high mid-winter, they have a restless sleep, and wake up feeling like we would after less than eight hours. It’s like falling asleep with the lights on.
During the last few springs, bud break has been increasingly early in the season. Vines have been lured out of dormancy far too early due to spiking temps during January and February. This causes the vines to wake up groggy and have a bad day (year). And when it happens for a few days (years) in a row, they get tired and cranky, just like I would. (And since I currently have an infant sharing my bed-space, I can totally relate.) The other potential harm comes in the form of spring frost, to which the young buds are particularly susceptible.
Bud break has come very early again this year, and what it portends for the fruit, we will have to wait and see. Last year it came very early as well, and some people were harvesting Chardonnay in August. That, my friends, is unheard of. We started picking Pinot Noir the first week in August, a record for us. A little dose of cold weather and rain would be a welcome guest at this point.
If this weather pattern persists, we in California will have to start seeking ever-cooler vineyard sites. Thankfully we at Lumen are in one of the coolest zones already – and I don’t just mean our attitudes.
BREAKING NEWS: Lumen tastings are now available at The Los Alamos General Store and Pico restaurant, located at 458 Bell Street in the sleepy town of Los Alamos, CA. Drop in and pay us a visit!
Cheers!
– Will Henry
The Spanish and French have argued for centuries over which side of the border Grenache originates from. In Spain it is known as Garnacha, and is the most widely planted varietal in the country. In France it is Grenache, and is a major blending component of wines from the Southern Rhone, most famously in Chateauneuf-du-Pape. In Italy it is known as Cannonau, and is planted mostly in Sardinia. For whatever reason, we in the new world have sided with France on this one, and call it by its French name, Grenache (Gren-osh). (Although history tends to suggest it did, in fact, originate in Spain). So be it. Grenache is the fifth most commonly planted wine grape world-wide, and for good reason: it produces phenomenal wines with a wide variation of styles and flavor profiles, no matter how you pronounce it.
In California, the varietal has a rich history. Many of the state’s original plantings in the Central Valley were Grenache (but alas, not planted in the right zone and not all that tasty), and today it still occupies over 7,000 acres of vineyard in the Golden State. Where the varietal really seems to shine is the Central Coast. Here the fog-influenced climate – with cool mornings giving way to hot, wind-blown afternoons – provides a perfect zone for producing world-class Grenache wines. And that, my dear friends, is why LUMEN makes it.
We prefer our Grenache as a 100% varietal expression. While in many places it is blended with Syrah or Mourvedre to give it more body and darker color, our experience has taught us that it shines best by itself. Maybe like John Lennon without the Beatles, or Michael Jackson without the Jackson 5, we find that the solo artist makes the purest music. Our first year making Grenache we tried test-blending it with Pinot Noir, and the strange thing was that the Pinot dominated it. So we left it alone. The LUMEN Grenache can now sing its own aria.
The 2014 Lumen Grenache comes from two vineyards in our region: Martian Vineyard in Los Alamos, and Camp 4 in Los Olivos. We make it exactly like we do our Pinot Noir, and the end result is a wine much like Pinot in body, but with a vastly different flavor profile. Our Grenache is fruit-driven, with raspberry and chocolate flavors on the palate, accented by cinnamon and white pepper. We think we are joining the forefront of a new movement that will put Grenache on the map as Santa Barbara’s next best offering to the world of wine.
Grab a hold of our new Grenache offering while it is still in stock, and don’t worry about how to pronounce it! And while you’re at it, grab a few others to boot. Our Newsletter members get a killer deal – 20% off! Just use this code at checkout:
Cheers!
– Will Henry
[vc_row show_full_width=”1″ padding_setting=”1″ desktop_padding=”no-padding”][vc_column][vc_column_text]Lumen’s 2013 Pinots receive sweet accolades! Click here to read the article in The Pinot File.[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row]
The Controversy over Wine Scores
For many decades now, wine critics have been reviewing wines, and wine consumers have been following their guidance. This fact is hardly surprising given the sheer number of wines on our supermarket shelves, and the high prices we encounter when walking down the aisles. None of us likes to make a $30 mistake, and there seem to be an ever-growing number of opportunities to do so. Hence wine consumers often rely on the so-called experts to recommend good bottles to take home and quaff.
For decades there was an indisputable king of wine reviewing, Robert Parker, who dominated the winescape for decades with his 100-point rating system – a system which has now been adopted by most other wine publications. A high-scoring wine usually earns 90 points or above. The criticisms of this method of scoring are numerous, however, especially from within the industry.
“If you were designing a bridge,” asks Peter Neptune, Master Sommelier, “would you trust the engineering to a college-level science student, or would you insist on having an actual engineer?” Neptune makes a valid point: the most influential wine critics do not hold any degrees in their field. Of course, buying an inferior bottle of wine isn’t as serious as a bridge collapsing, but we get the point. Who are these people that we are trusting to fill our wine glasses each night?
Placing complete faith in one person’s palate has consequences. All of us have different opinions when it comes to wine. Some of us prefer balance over strength. Some of us love big, jammy reds; some of us like crisp, fresh whites; and some of us prefer finesse and harmony over all else. Robert Parker’s palate tends towards the former. Some say he has a smoker’s palate; he likes big, heavy, intense red wines that feel like they are socking you in the teeth. Many of us, however, would rather not stain our pearly whites purple every night (myself included).
The first time that Lane and I had to submit our wines for evaluation came just a few months ago, and I must admit I was nervous. Our wines are not fit for Bob’s palate. They are fresh, lively wines, and not big fruit bombs. Luckily, its seems that the tides are finally turning – critics seem to be valuing a style of winemaking that many of us thought was history. This was something I always admired about my partner, Lane Tanner: her winemaking has always been honest and dedicated to making wines of impeccable balance, no matter what Bob may think.
Needless to say, we didn’t send our wines to Mr. Parker – but instead The Wine Enthusiast – and I am pleased to report that our scores were good: for the 2013 vintage, our Chardonnay earned 92 points, our Pinot Noir 91 points, and our Grenache 92 points. While we don’t necessarily need assurance that we are making good wine, a little pat on the back doesn’t hurt at all. Now our fans can all trust that the Lumen bridge is safe to cross.
– Will Henry
Thoughts on the Most Exalted of Drinks
In the wide world of alcoholic beverages, wine gets a lot of attention. While craft beers, ciders, and spirits take more of the spotlight, wine nonetheless seems to hold onto an infallible center position. To many consumers it is the holy grail of what can be swirled, sniffed and tasted. No matter how peaty a single-malt whiskey, or hoppy the finest barrel-aged ale, wine seems to remain in a class by itself. Which begs the question: is all this hype about a beverage justified?
This past harvest, to satisfy my curiosity, I brewed a small batch of hard cider in my garage, made from fresh Gizdich Ranch apples and a dose of freshly pressed organic ginger. Alongside it I fermented a half-barrel of Grenache rosé wine, sourced from Martian Vineyards in Los Alamos. I wanted to see if apples, with help, could rival a fairly simple (single vineyard and single varietal) representation of wine. The verdict became glaringly obvious after a few months, as both beverages sat in their respective barrels. The wine was disappearing much faster than the cider.
The rapidly-sinking level of the rosé was not due to a higher evaporation rate; it was simply because I was thieving the wine with far more frequency. It’s not that the cider was bad – it was actually quite good. But the rosé was far more appealing to my palate, and a better companion to my cheese plates and home-cooked meals. I had an obvious preference for the wine, which held far more depth and complexity than its apple-based cousin.
I came to the same conclusion that many generations of drinkers had before me: that wine grapes provide, without question, the most complex fermented beverage on the planet. There is a reason why wine is the most exalted of liquids: there exists no greater expression of what sun, soil and weather can produce. Wine may just be a beverage, but it is in a class by itself. Proof can be found by swirling a healthy dose of Lumen in your glass!
– Will Henry
Wine Enthusiast Magazine, February 2015
Why Getting Old Isn’t That Bad
There aren’t many things in life that get better with age. Cars lose thousands in value once they drive off the lot. Houses get termites. And food? It eventually gets moldy. Wine, in this regard, is almost in a class by itself.
The history behind wine and its aging potential is rooted in the distant past, when we humans were constantly trying to invent new ways to preserve our food. Think about cheese, or smoked salmon, or muesli – these are foods that were designed to last without refrigeration. After all in the Dark Ages, refrigerators were damn hard to find.
Wine was considered for many centuries to be the safest form of drink. In the days before modern water supplies and chlorination, water sources were often more than a little suspect. It wasn’t just a matter of taste, either – drink a bad glass and you die. Wine by nature was wisest choice of beverage, as it was cleansed by fermentation (and drinking and driving on a horse wasn’t considered dangerous). The fact that some wines stuck around longer was an added bonus.
At some point people began to figure out that some wines actually tasted better with some bottle age. Certain wines tasted a whole lot better after 20 years or more, but not all of them. Wine lovers started to understand that certain varietals, vineyards and winemakers produced age worthy bottles, while others did not. Fast forward to the modern age and we are still trying to figure out what makes one wine age better than another, especially in California, where we don’t have the history like that in Europe. What is the secret? Tannin structure? Acidity? Maturity of the winemaker?
I have had the luxury in my life of tasting a large amount of older Californian wines. The best older wines I have tasted include Napa cabs (no duh), but other standouts have been old California Pinot Noir, as well as the occasional shocker like a 1974 Grand Cru Chenin Blanc. A surprising number of Napa cabs that have huge reputations (and price tags) have not aged well at all. Same goes for Zinfandel. To a wine collector this presents a huge challenge. The wine critics don’t seem to know what constitutes a well-aging wine, so do we have to make our choices by trial-and-error?
One thing that I have noticed is that many of the wines made prior to the mid 1980’s seem to have held up better than their younger cousins. So that begs a question, did winemaking or viticultural practices change between now and then? The answer is yes, some winemakers have altered their winemaking styles to suit the palates of wine critics, who have tended in the past to prefer big, juicy red wines. The drift towards this style has caused many wines to be made in a “drink-me-now” style, where they show lush, plump fruit flavors upon release, causing wine critics to oh and ah and write glowing reviews. The problem with this is that they (and the public) are being duped; most of these wines, like a fresh glass of milk, will only get worse with age.
Over the past few months I have poured Lumen at a number of tasting events, alongside some old Lane Tanner wines. My favorite was pouring our 2013 Pinot Noir alongside a 1995 Lane Tanner Sierra Madre Vineyard – same winemaker, same vineyard, same style – to get a preview of what the Lumen Pinot Noir will taste like in 19 years. Every single one of Lane’s older wines are remarkable. They age as well as any Burgundy, and if you put one in a blind tasting, that is what most wine experts would think it is.
And what is Lane’s secret? Well, without giving away too much, I would have to say that Lane’s wines age well because she makes them in an honest way. They are not “futzed with”; they are made in the same exact style she made them 20 years ago. She has also figured out what vineyards produce the best fruit – and she has told me that Sierra Madre Vineyard is her all-time favorite. The fruit is brought in at an earlier stage of ripeness than most other winemakers, and we end up with a wine that is fresh and lively in its youth, although tightly wound. The wine then develops over the years, and is gorgeous through every stage of that development.
One fun trick I like to perform is to open a bottle of Lumen and drink a glass, then recork it and sample a little over the next few days. I have found that the wines (especially the Pinot) get better and better each day I try them, up to about five days. This can be a good test for age ability in most wines, and I can tell you that most wines won’t pass this test.
As we head into yet another holiday season, let’s not focus on ourselves getting older, but rather celebrating the fact that Lumen will taste even better next year when we open the same vintage.
– Will Henry
Blanc Follows on the Heels of Noir
The sheer number of wine grape varietals must be overwhelming for most wine drinkers to contemplate. Even an experienced winemaker can be stumped when you ask them about Italian varietals, which in some regions can number in the hundreds of obscure clones that are only known regionally. And let’s not even start talking about Hungary or Croatia. Consumers are more used to choosing between a few flavors of soft drink, not the multitude of options available in the wine section of their grocery store. So with that in mind, here we go again.
Lumen brought in its very first load of Grenache Blanc this morning (pictured above in the vineyard before it was picked). Grenache Blanc is a close relative of Grenache (or Grenache Noir as it is known in France), and like its cousin, originated in Spain but found more fame across the Pyrennees in France. Here in California, it seems to have found a suitable home on the Central Coast, most notably in Santa Barbara and San Luis Obispo Counties. The varietal produces a rich, full-bodied white wine with crisp acidity and bright fruit flavors.
Lane and I fell in love with Grenache Noir last year with the 2013 harvest. This was the first time that Lane had ever worked with Grenache, and its subtlety and mysterious qualities intrigued her. Lane loves a challenge, and Grenache has provided her with one. Grenache Blanc seemed like an obvious next step. It’s a great Chardonnay alternative, just like Grenache Noir is a great Pinot alternative.
The first good Californian Grenache Blanc that I ever tasted was in the early 1990’s, when my father and I visited Tablas Creek in Paso Robles. Tablas had made a small amount of 100% GB as an experiment, and we thought it was the best wine of the tasting. Later on I had the pleasure of swirling Kris Curran’s Grenache Blanc and realized what potential the varietal has here in Santa Barbara County. I was hooked.
Grenache Blanc is a slight genetic variation on its red counterpart, much like Pinot Blanc and Pinot Gris are variations on their famous cousin Pinot Noir. Lane and I sourced our grapes from the same vineyard that Curran produced many of her famous vintages: Camp Four in Los Olivos. The vineyard site has perfect conditions for growing this grape, with warm days and cool nights, allowing us to pick with lower sugars than is normally characteristic of this varietal, along with bright acidity.
We know that wine can sometimes be confusing, because there is so much to learn and so much to choose from. It’s not always black-and-white. Just trust that Lumen will provide your senses with a pleasurable experience. We will most likely release our new white in the spring of 2015, so don’t miss out!
– Will Henry
