Santa Barbara Winemakers. July Edition.
Featured video.
Biodynamics. You have never heard about it, or you have a vague idea of what is involved, or you want to do it but don't know where to begin. Whatever you think you think you know, you will be brought up to speed with this video interview. Steve Beckmen provides us with the most interesting look into biodynamic vineyard management you will only find at SBWinemakers. This is to be the video of the month, it comes in at 24 minutes long, weighs in at 50 megs and for those of you with dial-up go grab or order yourself some of Beckmen's Purisima Mountain grenache or syrah sit back and enjoy the full flavor of Steve's work. With so little concise information about biodynamic farming on-line, this is as good as it gets. Steve explains the equipment, the herbs, the literature and then shows what the soil looks like after five years of biodynamic preparation.
Just click on the label and learn about biodynamics.
As usual QuickTime is the format for watching the videos, make sure it is loaded on your computer, you don't know what you are missing.
For all our other video interviews head on over to the Screening Room.
July 1
Cabernet franc. I got the story from a confidential source this week. You may recall back in March I had heard about the problem cab francs are having. Since then as much as 17 acres have been pulled from the Happy Canyon region. It appears that this is isolated only to cab franc and nothing else. The vines had been grafts from uncertified vines and had been producing some great wine too but unfortunately these vines had no resistance and had to go. It's always sad to see the demise of a grape so few know about, so few understand and so few get to taste.
The hapless cab franc is one that gets little recognition as a stand-alone, so here's a suggestion if you have yet to try any. We are getting down to about 150 acres of this varietal planted in Santa Barbara County, Foxen source from their own Tinaquaic but also from within the county, Benjamin Silver gets his from Stolpman and Thompson Vineyards, and Ryan Carr has probably the juiciest cab franc around, pick up a bottle of each and compare. You may want to give Kalyra and Buttonwood a call too, because Mike Brown has found something more unique in cab franc that has to be explored and enjoyed.
July 1
Tasting notes for Arabesque, the long awaited release from Bridlewood. The last Arabesque was in 2001, my favourite was from 2000. The '04 is now in their tasting room.
July 13
Congratulations to Eli Parker. 2006 Andre Tchelistcheff Winemaker of the Year. Read more
