September 3, 1998
NewsLaetitia Winery, off of US 101, between Santa Maria and San Luis Obispo, has been sold to Barnwood Vineyards and Winery which is located near Cuyama in the Santa Barbara County back country.
Barnwood is owned by Bilo Zarif and his partner Selim Zilkha. Bilo told me that the focus of their new property on the coast will be on the noble burgundian varietals, pinot noir and chardonnay-cool climate varietals-which will be complimentary to the warm climate Bordeaux, Rhone and Spanish varietals grown in their vineyard near Cuyama in the high desert.
You might recall that Laetitia used to be the famed Maison Deutz, a premier sparkling wine producer on California's central coast, specializing in methode champenoise sparkling wines. (Methode champenoise means the sparkling wine is made by the traditional method of Champagne in France.)
Maison Deutz was part of the Nestle-owned wine group in the United States called Wine World Estates and when Nestle got out of the wine business, and the major brands like Beringer, Meridian, Chateau Souverain and other associated labels became Beringer Wine Estates, Maison Deutz fell through the cracks and into the hands of J. C. Tardivat, one of the original partners in the old Maison Deutz who planted the vineyards on the coast near Arroyo Grande back in 1980.
Unfortunately, Maison Deutz's fine reputation, earned as one of California's top sparkling wine producers, was thrown out the windonw, so to speak, when the decision was made to curtail production of sparkling wine and produce "still" wines, essentially making the winery just like every other winery in California. There are thousands of wine labels in California, but you can count the top producers of California sparkling wine on the fingers of both hands and Maison Deutz was one of them.
All that said, the new wines from Barnwood I've tasted, especially their cabernet sauvignon, are very impressive, and available at user-friendly prices. The pinot noir vineyard at Barnwood's new Laetitia property near Arroyo Grande produces some of the most distinctive and distinguished pinot noir in California. Look for very good things to come forth from Barnwood's ventures-both the one in Cuyama, and the new one on the coast!
Santa Barbara politics-still crazy after all these years-Part Two
This fall there will be two competing ballot initiatives on oak tree preservation in the county, the ACORN Initiative and the Farmers Initiative, known by its opponents as the "KJ Initiative" (after Kendall Jackson winery).
Both measures aim to strike a balence between saving the gallant oak trees of the county and destroying them, all for the cause of great pinot noir and syrah.
In last month's column I asked John Evarts, who owns Los Olivos-based Cachuma Press, the main difference between the ACORN initiative, and the KJ Initiative also known as the Board of Supervisors initiative.
He told me the ACORN initiative offers meaningful and flexible oak protection and regeneration options where none now exists, while the KJ Initiative offers virtually no protection because it lacks any real mechanism for monitoring and enforcement and, in fact, it will water down oak preservation standards that now exist in the local coastal plan, and several community plans including Montecito, Goleta and Orcutt.
I also asked Adam Firestone his take on the main difference between the two initiatives.
Adam e-mailed me that he thinks the major difference between the two initiatives "is the difference between preservation (ACORN) and conservation (farmer's initiative)."
He added that "focussing on the viability of the [oak] population is at the heart of the farmer's initiative, not merely the emotional protection of a few ancients [ancient trees] who are doomed without a replanting regimen," which he told me is at the heart of the farmer's initiative.
Great Beginnings
Welcome to the world Liam Shea Dooley, born August 14 and weighing in at eight pounds eight ounces and 21 inches long. The parents are Steve and Paula Dooley. Steve is the winemaker-proprietor at Stephen Ross, a producer of great pinot noirs and chardonnays from Santa Barbara and San Luis Obispo counties.
Harvest Festival
The Santa Barbara County Harvest Festival is set for Saturday, October 10. Tickets are $60. For reservations or for more information, call the Vintners' Association at (805) 688-0881.
Bob Senn writes The Independent's monthly wine column, "Grapevine," lives in the Los Alamos Valley and owns the Los Olivos Wine & Spirits Emporium.
