BEHIND THE BOTTLE

BEHIND THE BOTTLE CIENEGA Wine Country Discover the up and coming wine trail just a short drive from the coast

STORY AND PHOTOGRAPHY BY MARK C. ANDERSON

The property that now comprises Eden Rift (pictured here) and its neighbor DeRose is the same place a French immigrant planted here way back in 1851.

“It’s cooler than you think up here,” she says.

Amy Vogt, Eden Rift Vineyards’ chief of marketing, is talking about the climate conditions that make San Benito County great for growing wine grapes. But she could be talking about a number of other factors.

There’s the family feel of the various wineries, both literal and figurative.

There’s the sheer amount of vinicultural history, which predates Napa Valley’s.

There are the special soils and other geological elements— thanks in large part to the San Andreas Fault that pushes limestone, granite and other character-creating substances to the surface—that make terroir nerds blush.

There are rock-star winemakers woven into its past and present.

There’s an ongoing shift to organic grapes widening, just as demand is spiking.

But, yes, the weather is cool too. Chilly air from the Pacific rolls down the Cienega Valley and meets elevations that enjoy naturally lower temperatures themselves. That eases heat on grapes that bask in warm days, allowing them to ripen longer, balance acidity and develop deeper complex flavor. Humidity is low, which limits mildew and makes organic efforts easier.

Over here people expect harsh Hollister-like heat, but instead it’s steadily mild, resulting in powerhouse pinots, chardonnays and other less common varietals such as cabernet pfeffer.

Growers like to point out their appellation is only 25 miles from Monterey Bay, and that the average temperature is lower than the more celebrated Santa Lucia Highlands on the edge of the Salinas Valley.

“The Cienega Valley location is really unique,” Vogt says.

But despite its high coolness quotient—and value price points to boot—the valley’s relatively low profile abides, making it one of the best under-the-radar wine discoveries in the West.

RAISING THE BAR

Eden Rift reveals itself to be simultaneously old and new, making it a tidy representative of the area’s rich back story and compelling potential.

The history should come first, and it certainly hits visitors early when they arrive at the 500-acre property and lay eyes on the Dickinson House, built in 1906 by Frank Lloyd Wright acolyte Walter Burley Griffin.

The grape heritage stretches further back from there. The property that now comprises Eden Rift and its neighbor DeRose is the same place a French immigrant planted here way back in 1851, when Charles Dickens was in his prime and no vines had yet been sown in Napa or Sonoma.

Between then and now came a lot more history, but also a lot of flux and low-quality bulk wine. The welcome news for wine lovers is that fresh ownership in 2016 brought a healthy obsession for restoring small-batch pinots and chardonnays that can flourish in the loamy, limestone soils on south-facing terraces.

New owner Christian Pillsbury is a lifelong wine enthusiast turned brand ambassador who was mentored by pioneering wine importer Martine Saunier and made good coin too while promoting Coravin wine technology.

He takes sizable pride in his Burgundianstyle site that can produce exponentially more grapes, but instead limits production so winemaker Cory Waller can be selective.

“There’s a traditional feeling in American business that you should maximize everything all the time,” Pillsbury says. “If you look at intentionality, authenticity, quality and stewardship, these are not attributes that respond to that feeling. If we were into production or efficiency, we should be in another business.”

On my visit, a sommelier colleague Mike Duffy and I tried a whirlwind of memorable wines as part of an epic ATV tour that rambled into every corner of the vineyard. The chardonnays stood out for their surprising synergy of richness and acidity, the pinots for their focused fruit, the old-vine zinfandel for its lively pepper-blueberry flavors.

But more than anything the land did the talking.

“I like the terroir-forward approach,” Duffy says. “You can tell it’s not manmade.”

Winemaker Waller is happy to hear that.

“We’re not trying to bring something out of the vineyards that aren’t there,” he says. “If we need more concentration or structure, we can do that through farming, more naturally. I don’t like to add anything, or even filter if I don’t have to.”

Waller feels the area’s familial connections as much as anyone. He grew up in Hollister, attended school with his neighboring winemaker Alphonse DeRose and—after wine work took him from New Zealand to

Oregon—served as assistant winemaker a few miles down the road at Calera, where the winemaker is…his brother Mike.

Their fans expect brotherly competition but encounter little.

“Don’t get me wrong, we do talk s***, but I will say, ‘That wine was rad, good job,’” Cory says. “We’re kind of each other’s biggest fans.”

PINOT PRO

If Bill Murray’s character from Lost in Translation were a wine, it would be Calera.

In one of the quirkier plot twists to be found on serpentine Cienega Road: While still a low-key legend in its backyard, Calera is a hit in Japan. (To be fair, Calera’s also a sommelier cult favorite.)

The main reason: Calera Winery founder and original winemaker Josh Jensen. After a popular Japanese comic strip compared his pinot to that of his early mentors’ at Domaine de la Romanée-Conti, he would do sold-out speaking tours across Japan, describing the merits of his Californian take on Burgundy’s best.

“I never wanted to just sell our wines in Hollister and San Benito County or Monterey County. Right from day one I started selling in 10 other states,” Jensen told EMB in 2015. “I thought it shouldn’t just be people in California who get to drink Calera; it should be people all across the country and in wine markets in different parts of the world.”

Away from the spotlight, Jensen lived on a corner of the vineyard with several cats, tending vines on the Mt. Harlan spot that enjoys its very own AVA designation.

That life changed in 2017, when he sold the vineyard and brand to storied Napa-based wine house Duckhorn—but not without leaving it in very capable winemaking hands.

Winemaker Mike Waller believes his main charge is expressing place, carrying on what he learned working with Jensen for a decade and a half, after studying wine at UC Davis and coming over from Chalone Vineyard.

“My main duty is to do it true to the way we’ve always done it,” says Mike, who is into his 15th vintage with the property. “It’s about expression of site. I’m not changing anything. I feel I have an obligation.”

On a sunny day, our group sat at picnic tables on the edge of a yawning canyon testing out a brut rosé and four pinot noirs. The rosé was lean and light, but it was the pinots that soared. A 2018 made with Muns Vineyard fruit, and three single vineyard Mt. Harlan pinots all enjoyed their own ripe

Eden Rift owner Christian Pillsbury and winemaker Cory Waller, previous page. Calera winemaker Mike Waller and Calera’s underground caves, on this page.

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It’s the first commercial winery in California. Thanks to some Prohibition “banditry.”

fruit-driven identities, but they also somehow shared a smoky, mineral-rich and lightly spicy character that lingered on the palate and the imagination.

So the quality hasn’t changed any more than the view.

FAMILY STYLE

Alphonse DeRose is barely into his 40s, but he’s served as winemaker at DeRose Vineyards for 22 years. So it goes when you rep the 10th generation in the family making wine.

DeRose was all-in on #grapelife long before he left to study enology at Fresno State. He was sold in elementary school.

“It was cool to learn how to drive a 40,000-pound Caterpillar tractor when I was 10,” he says. “I’ve always loved being outside, so for me this was the perfect place.”

It’s also a great place for a wide range of grapes.

The DeRose extended family—including his self-taught winemaking (and gloriously mustachioed) pops, various uncles, grandma and a family friend—knew as much when they acquired the former Almaden Vineyards property in the 1980s. It came with a history that borders on the unbelievable.

A quick sample: It’s the first commercial winery in California. Thanks to some Prohibition “banditry,” to use Alphonse’s vernacular, it remains the oldest continually operating winery in the country.

Guinness World Records once flagged it as “the world’s largest covered wine cellar.”

On our visit Alphonse and his brother Tony manned the unassuming tasting room/ working winery space and its soaring ceilings, massive barrels, cosmopolitan retail bottle rack and kitschy T-shirt selection (“I’ve been vacZIN-ated at DeRose”).

The super-old-vine zinfandels are a rarity nationwide and a vineyard hallmark, covering around 40% of its acreage. But most memorable for many visitors are varietals they’ve never encountered: peppery cabernet pfeffer, a product of early Cienega Valley planting and tweaking, and my favorite, a wine called négrette.

The midnight inky red, also known as Pinot St. George, throws a floral show for the nose, lays silky tannins and big plum on the tongue, and offers a thoroughly fun way to fall in love with the unknown.

“I enjoy making different stuff, to introduce people to something they haven’t had before,” DeRose says, “and it’s nice to preserve grapes that might’ve been lost, like saving a little piece of history and keeping it alive.”

The industrial but airy indoor setting provides a dynamic venue to taste through their expansive catalog. Even better for a sunny afternoon are DeRose’s sizable new garden patios, which await across the street, next to vines and encircled by barrel stave fences and bocce ball courts.

Expanded outdoor options present a welcome upside to the COVID crisis. But Alphonse DeRose and both Waller brothers each allude to another positive change that took hold amid lockdown.

It’s more subtle than seating, but ultimately more central to the AVA’s soul.

“There’s a lot of good energy out here,” Eden Rift’s Cory Waller says. “There wasn’t that camaraderie 15 years ago. Now everyone gets along and is supportive of each other.”

DEEP ROOTS

A crazy bit of Hollister history happened in France 121 years ago. At the world-class 1900 Paris Exhibition, where judges tasted 10,000 wines over 12 weeks, a Hollister local named William Palmtag earned a silver medal.

He grew grapes at the property that today includes Eden Rift and DeRose; Eden Rift even has a pinot named after him. Palmtag originally bought the land from Theophile Vaché, a French immigrant who planted the state’s first commercial grapes while squatting there on Mexican Land Grant ground—but that was just the beginning of the action Palmtag brought to the area.

He ran a cigar and spirits business, held leadership positions at Bank of Hollister, brokered steamship trips and lumber sales, and served terms as Hollister’s trustee (i.e., mayor) and treasurer of the county ag society.

My favorite stanza in his story was how he used the property as a getaway destination

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A good selection of wines made with San Benito County grapes is available at The 18th Barrel Tasting Room in San Juan Bautista.

that hosted dancing (in the fermenting room) and added a bath house and pool to go with the vineyard, orchards and cattle/sheep ranch.

Legend holds local farmers and the “dry” contingent in the community were not into that. They wanted to keep things quiet and sober.

So they dug up the road and cut trees to block it.

Local reporter and photographer Robert Eliason of nonprofit news bureau BenitoLink plugged EMB into that history as part of his work documenting area heritage, with a focus on wine.

While no one is blocking roads these days, limited lodging and relative remoteness will continue to keep Cienega Wine Country under the radar.

DeRose puts it well. “You’re not accidentally stumbling upon us or finding us next to the highway like Paso Robles,” he says, “and that’s kept us underdeveloped.”

Something resembling destination status could change that. Eliason envisions a tidy Cienega Wine Country tour that visits nearby Eden Rift, DeRose and Calera.

Meanwhile talk of Taste of San Benito showcases, hosted in the Bay Area, grows louder. A more organized vintners and growers alliance couldn’t hurt either.

“There’s an underlying desire for these folks to do something to reflect their closeness as a winemaking community,” Eliason says.

One reason insiders believe it’s ready for a closer look: Pros in the know are already all over it. (For more on the vineyards of San Benito County see the online version of this story.)

“We’re getting more attention, though from the consumer perspective not so much,” Mike Waller says. “It’s from the wine geeks buying grapes and making wines.

“Because we’ve been out of the limelight for all these years, they realize it’s untapped territory.”

Which, for discerning Monterey Bay wine lovers, is a beautiful place to be.

Mark C. Anderson is a roving writer, explorer and photographer based in Monterey County. Follow and/or reach him on Twitter and Instagram @MontereyMCA.

Calera Wine Co. • 11300 Cienega Road, Hollister • (831) 637-9170 • calerawine.com DeRose Vineyards • 9970 Cienega Road, Hollister • (831) 636-9143 • derosewine.com Eden Rift Vineyards • 10034 Cienega Road, Hollister • (831) 636-1991 • edenrift.com

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