Elegant Farmers

more recently Lindquist, with his wife Louisa, have planted a property in edna Valley and named it Sawyer-Lindquist Vineyard. The first vintage was in 2008 and it is biodynamic certified. They are growing Pinot Noir, marsanne, Syrah, Grenache, Tempranillo, and Albariño. Lindquist is very happy with the first few harvests thus far, “The vineyard is yielding some of the best grapes for a few our most important wines, and the vines are still young, there is an optimism for even higher quality grapes as the vines mature.” maybe as much as he champions wines no article about Bob Lindquist can go without mentioning his love for the Los Angeles dodgers, whether he is pouring his wine in LA, London or at the rival city of San francisco…he is always donning the royal blue cap.

There are not many winemakers in Santa Barbara who actually grew up here…. Justin Willett is one of the few. Willet is in his mid-30’s, his winery Tyler (Willet’s middle name) was only founded in 2005 and the wines he’s making are some of the most talked about and sought after in the US right now. Willet got into wine via the restaurant route, he was pouring wine at restaurants in LA, then eventually moved back to Santa Barbara where he was managing clubs at night and cleaning barrels during the day at Arcadian Winery in Santa maria. It was in his second harvest that Tyler was born. Willett is very focused about what he wants, for example, while making Tyler at a custom crush facility he didn’t use the communal press and pumps, rather he rented the machinery from a friend. This probably says a lot about the winemaker, mostly that he doesn’t want any surprises and rather be in total control of his final product. The wines Willet’s makes are about as focused as he is, Tyler is his Chardonnay and Pinot Noir program, but Willett is involved with a myriad of other projects, mostly with sommeliers as partners, there is Lieu dit, which is about Loire variety wines, and Vallin which is concentrated on the wines from Northern Rhône. The rafters of his winery are adorned and decorated with empty bottles of some of the most recognized wines of france. “We drank most of those last harvest,” he says looking up at them, “how can I expect the crew to understand what I’m about if they do not know the end goal.” Willett graduated from UCSB with a BA in history of Art and Architecture degree, this appreciation for creativity is definitely evident through his winemaking. With a particular interest in the anti-industrial movement of arts and crafts, Willets wines themselves could be considered a homage to the age old craft of unobtrusive winemaking.

Sashi moorman is behind the label of some of the most interesting and cutting edge wines coming out of Santa Barbara. he got his start in 1996 working at ojai Vineyards, for the famous Adam Tomach. five years later in 2001, he moved to Santa Barbara County to head up the winemaking for a new project, Stolpman Vineyards, for whom he is still making wine. his label, Piedrasassi, is an ode to the joy of making wine “At Piedrasassi we have a strong appetite for adventure and embracing the element of chance” he explains. While at Sandhi and more recently, domaine de la Côte moorman is trying to express the character and terroir of the Santa Rita hills AVA with Burgundian varietals. his wine style is very much european as moorman champions the restrained flavor, low alcohol, high acidity, type of wine. for example, a soon to be released red wine from Piedrasassi is coming in at 10.5% alcohol, something completely unheard of with most wines made west of the Atlantic. he doesn’t stop at wine however, fitted in the back of Piedrasassi, in what used to be the barrel room, is a custom made brick wood-burning oven, for his newest project - New Vineland Bread. Because for moorman, the wine circle is not complete if food is not involved, so why not grow your own heritage wheat to make your own bread with yeast from your wine barrels? despite heading up a lot of these projects moorman does not believe it’s all about him “most of my good fortune comes from having such a great business and life partner in my wife, melissa, and our ubertalented employees and colleagues who we work with every day.”

Two of my guests for our rehearsal dinner showed up an hour and half late due to some undisclosed extra curricular activities. I was clueless to crime, however, my sister pulled the two offending gentlemen aside and carefully explained that they were bad wedding guests and that this behavior better be gone by the “big day” or else. The guys were thoroughly admonished and even went so far in saying on the wedding video how sorry they were, and that they would make it up to me. This is how I got my wine cellar. A gift I never thought I’d receive, and an appliance I love more than I thought possible. We originally asked for the smaller model, but after a couple months traded it in for the 24” model for more storing power. It creates the perfect environment for your wine…and so much better than the fridge. Available in many different sizes with several varieties of clear, fluted glass or solid door finishes.

crista Fooks