Located in the northern Los Alamos Valley, Premiere Vineyard is at the intersection of 101 North and Palmer Road. "Coteau Palmer" or "Palmer Hillside" is my own fanciful description of this block, tucked back in a canyon, on a steep sandy hill.

Planted to Swiss Clone 2A and Dijon Clone 115, the vines are now over 20 years old. The block faces southwest, and enjoys fantastic exposure all day while being sheltered by the surrounding hills. Yields barely reach 2 tons per acre, and the clusters and berries are very small.

Characteristics of the vintage: 

The 2014 vintage wines showed the serious drought was in effect with a high ratio of skins to juice. These wines have a silky feel and an enormous, dense mid palate that will carry them for many years ahead.  Whole cluster fermentation adds multi dimensional aromatics and extra tannin to frame the big ball of fruit. The 2014 seems to be filled with energy & holding on tight ready to develop & unwind.

Vineyard: 100% Premiere Vineyard Los Alamos   

Alcohol: 13.2%

 Schaefer On Wine: "Lighter in color than most, it shows strawberry and cinnamon on the nose. Both red and black berry fruit on the palate, the wine is boisterous and generous with hints of characteristic earthiness. Well structured, it has the gravitas to age for many more years. It shows a certain finesse that follows through to the finish." Dennis Schaefer SB News Press 06/14/18

The 2013 vintage from Premier Vineyard in Los Alamos shows off both the elegant, feminine side of Pinot Noir, along with the ripe structure with good acidity from the steep hillside vineyard. Beautifully balanced, it was fermented 100% whole cluster.  A blend of Swiss clone 2A and Dijon 115.  

WINE ENTHUSIAST : 90 pts (September 2018)

231 cases produced. 14% alcohol.

To say the entire 2011 year, vintage & resulting wines were a "challenge" would possibly be the understatement of the year.

In December 2011, after harvest, our second child arrived and she was perfect & balanced.  I was dreading having to one day explain to her why there wasn't a commemorative birth year namesake wine, as there was for her big brother.  

Lucky for me, and for her, the 2011 wines finally sorted themselves out with a little extended barrel age, and eventually became phenomenal!

There wasn't much tonnage to start with in 2011.  I very carefully selected the best of the best.

59% Sierra Madre Vineyard Pommard clone 

41% Premier Vineyard Dijon clone 115 

Aged in both 228L & 320L 100% new French Oak barrels for 30 months. 

A very exotic spice, silky fruit driven vintage with impeccable fruit to acid balance.

13.5% Alcohol by volume. 

92 cases produced.

Wine Enthusiast 93pts 

Saviezza - (An old Italian word for “wisdom” or “knowledge”) "As I like to say, the more you drink, the smarter you think you are." - Benjamin

The 2010 is the 10th vintage from the old Tepusquet Vineyard at Cambria Estates in the Santa Maria Bench. It is the last Saviezza, and probably the most popular wine I sell. The old Cabernet roots were planted in 1971 by Louis Lucas. They were grafted in the early nineties to Sangiovese, and I started working with them in 2000. The old roots de-vigorated the Sangiovese & the yield was less than 2 tons per acre.

Harvest: 10/22/10 The Sangiovese clone 3 was picked after six days of rain! The vintage was a cooler later one, producing very small berries and small clusters. I performed a saigne to bleed off some juice in the fermenter before the cold soak and fermentation began.The 2010 wines are big and bold with dark fruits, smooth and lots of spice, great structure with some integrated tannins. 

Ripe black plums, blackberry fruit, cola, anise, cinnamon spice with a hint of sweetness from oak. Ripe dark fruit flavors and intense warm spices fill the mid palate,. The tannin is fantastically integrated with the fruit, forming a bigger structured wine than normal. This ball of fruit & spice carries into the finish. 

Although this vintage has the exact same percentages & same fruit sources as the preceding 2008, and 2009 it is a different wine.  It’s more like the 2008 than the 2009. Aging took place in Seguin Moreau French oak 500L puncheons for the first time. The extra time in barrel and tank, the 2010 has successfully married together the three grape varieties seamlessly to become its own personality.

Enjoy the 2010 with an Osso Bucco, or with a spaghetti bolognese. 

Enjoy now through 2026.

**Please serve at 58°-62°F (20 minutes in the refrigerator before drinking.)

Starting a harvest with a baby due at any second is something you'll never forget. After racking the Viognier to barrel for fermentation, I ran off to take my wife to the hospital not knowing what to expect!  Joshua arrived in typical winemaker fashion at the beginning of harvest, on September 18, 2009!  

Wanting to commemorate this historic event, I bottled a "barrel select" from his vintage. I carefully selected the best five barrels of Pinot Noir and wrote his name on the head of the barrel in chalk.  

Three barrels of Julia's Vineyard Pommard clone, and two barrels of Sierra Madre Vineyard Clone 777 & 2A were blended together to form this special three clone Santa Maria Valley Cuvee. 

I look forward to having Joshua re-write the wine notes for his birth year wine as we drink the wine together some day in the future.  

Bottled unfined & unfiltered.

122 cases produced

Please serve at 58°F-64°F