Travel…
I’ve been wanting to share what got me into wine, which has become a major part of my life. My journey into wine began in my late teens, living in Plymouth, England. Back then it was only buttery, oaky Chardonnay I liked, and red wine didn’t seem to suit my palate at all.
In 1999, at the age of 25, I travelled to Belgium with friends and was introduced to Belgian beer, my favourite being Duvel. I spent most of my time there riding my motorcycle around the Spa Francorchamps race track. I had no track experience, so it’s a wonder I came back alive! While there we visited Luxembourg to take advantage of low taxation, and I came away with a bottle of Glenrothes single malt whiskey and a bottle of what I thought was a fancy white wine (I was just going by price). White wine was still my preference back then, but clearly, I knew next to nothing about wine. Looking back, what I think I brought back was a bottle of Vin Jaune, or “Yellow Wine”. Either way, when I opened it to share with my parents we all thought it was gross. I wonder what I would think of that wine now…
By the time 2002 came along, I had developed a taste for soft red wines, but despite purchasing a Pocket Wine Guide written by Oz Clarke (latest version available on Amazon), my knowledge was still very limited. Even so, my parents and I were planning a motorcycle trip to Spain and France, and I was tasked with setting out the route and finding places to stay. Our main emphases would be scenery, quiet country roads, and historical places, which of course meant we would be in wine country. It was this trip that really got the wine ball rolling for me.
We put our bikes on the ferry from Plymouth to Santander, Spain, and returned to Plymouth a couple weeks later, from Roscoff in northern France. Along the way, we stayed in Haro, Spain, which is capital of the Rioja Alta region, Saint Emilion, France, home of some of Bordeaux’s most prestigious wines, and Fontevraud l’Abbaye, in the Loire Valley. The wines we experienced on that trip opened my eyes to just how good wine could be, so on following vacations I would deliberately seek out known wine regions to stay in or pass through.
By 2014, when I moved to California wine country, my parents and I had travelled Spain and France a further three times, trying local wines wherever we went. I still didn’t know all that much about the wines we were drinking, and I remember my last visit to Saint Emilion in 2010, trying wines in stores that I thought were medicinal and unpleasant. Looking back, they were probably just young and tannic (just to Jamie’s taste – she probably would have loved them!). Click here to see a map of the places I stayed in Spain and France.
The Other Side of the World…
Availability of better Californian wine in England was pretty poor in 2013, so when in May of that year I came over to stay with Jamie, that was my first opportunity to try the good stuff. She had grown up in wine country but had never been wine tasting. Yeah, I couldn’t believe it either. While looking at satellite imagery of the area near Jamie’s parents’ place, I came across Sculpterra Winery and Sculpture Garden. Wine and art in one place? Definitely had to go there!
Of course, Downtown Paso was where we went first, coming home with a some Malbec from Clayhouse, and a delicious 2010 Cabernet Sauvignon from Pianetta Winery.
After a few days exploring Yosemite, the Sequoias, and Death Valley, during which I proposed to Jamie, we headed to Sculpterra Winery and Sculpture Garden, on the east side of Paso Robles. Many photos were taken, and many wines were enjoyed. This was our kind of place, and we went there again that month before I had to head back to England.
Unable to stay away from Jamie, I came back to visit in February of 2014. During that trip, we went back to Sculpterra twice for more of that wine and art. There was a late harvest Primitivo wine that particularly caught my attention. After jumping through some pretty expensive bureaucratic hoops, I moved over to Paso Robles in October 2014, and Jamie and I married around six weeks later.
Employment…
In 2015 I was on the hunt for employment. A long history in retail and a love of wine meant that a tasting room job would be ideal, and Sculpterra was right at the top of my list. I had no tasting room experience though, so I wasn’t sure how successful I would be securing work there. On a visit to the tasting room, Jamie and I enquired about job opportunities and were directed to speak to Kyle, the then tasting room manager. After a little informal chat, I was invited back to speak to Paul Frankel, the winemaker. This I thought, would be an interview and resumé review.
Jamie and I turned up, and were both invited on a tour of the vineyard with Paul, and given the history of Sculpterra. No interview in the traditional sense, so I figured that would come later. When we got back to the tasting room and were introduced to Tom, the wine club manager. He inquired if I was starting the next day. Still no interview… I was sent off with a visitors guide and some wine club information and told to come in and work a couple Sundays, essentially shadowing other people to learn the ropes.
My third day at Sculpterra was on Black Friday 2015, and what an eye-opener that was. I thought I knew all about busy retail environments, but that day was just crazy. Sensory overload led to a vicious headache that had me leaving work at 4 pm. To this day, I much prefer the quieter days when you can calmly talk to people, and they can learn about the wine and concentrate on it fully. Still though, one has to accept that a tasting room is there primarily to sell wine, and loud, crazy days are part and parcel of the business.
Working for a winery has blessed me with numerous opportunities to expand my wine knowledge, and I’ve been very lucky to work alongside some people who really know their stuff. In September 2016 I was able to get involved with the harvest, which was another eye-opener for me. I wanted to see as many stages of the process as possible, in order to learn how it’s all done. I was there on the first morning of harvest, helping to pick the Viognier fruit. My job was sorting the leaves from the fruit, as it was hand-picked and dumped on a sorting table. Stems and leaves contain methoxypyrazine, which can give undesirable vegetal notes to wines.
A further three early morning starts saw me assisting in crushing, destemming, and pressing the grapes, plus punching down during fermentation. The aches and pains I got from those few days of work gave me a huge appreciation for the people who do that kind of work day-in-day-out. In fact, Paul at Sculpterra has a second brand of wine, dedicated to the field workers. The Heroe wines feature Lugardo (a now retired field worker) on the front label and the harvest crew for that year on the back. I was very honored to make it on to the 2016 Heroe label, alongside some awesome, hard-working people. They gave me the name “Barba Guera” or “White Beard”. Here is a video from Sculpterra of the 2016 harvest.
It was also in September 2016 when I discovered the difference a decent wine glass makes. Jamie and I bought some Schott Zwiesel crystal glasses and compared the same wine in them with the Bordeaux-glass shape plastic glasses we had been using before. Teenagers and an enamel sink in the house made plastic seem the sensible choice. This led us to explore different glass types with various wines. Believe me, the glass you use has a huge impact on your experience of wine. Oh, there’s an idea for a future post…
My research into glasses brought me to the fantastic Wine Folly website and accompanying Youtube Channel. I truly believe this to be one of the best resources for learning the world of wine. Their “How to taste wine (like a badass)” video is superb, and a must for beginners especially. I also bought the Wine Folly book, written by the host, Madeline Puckette.
For the 2017 harvest, other commitments meant I couldn’t dedicate as much time to harvest work, but I still wanted to do my part. My stepdaughter, Savannah, also wanted to work the harvest. Paul and I collected bins full of fruit from the pickers on the first day, while Savannah picked the leaves out on the sorting table. With around 20 people working, we brought in about 10 tons of fruit by the time Savannah and I left. I could barely move the next day.
Savannah worked considerably more hours that harvest than I did, to the point of complete exhaustion. She also finds the work rewarding though, and is determined to work the 2018 harvest too. It makes me very proud whenever I see the both of us on the back of the 2017 bottles.
In October of 2017 I, together with 3 other staff members from Sculpterra, were sent on a six week “World of Wine” course in Templeton, run by Advanced Sommelier Ali Carscaden. We were taught proper tasting method, and each week we concentrated on a different international wine region, tasting upwards of 10 wines.
My Own Vineyard…
Come the end of that year, I decided I wanted to have a go at making my own wine. I could buy grapes or juice for the purpose, but I find getting hands-on experience to be the best way for me to learn. My in-laws have a few acres of land not too far from Sculpterra, and I was given permission to use a small patch of it to plant my own vines. After much research and planning, I ordered 52 vines from Novavine, based in Sonoma. Paul Frankel (Sculpterra’s winemaker) graciously offered to come and inspect the plot and gave Jamie and me advice on where to begin. We’ve learned a few valuable lessons along the way, and I’m sure we’ll continue to do so.
Duran and Brown Vineyards finally came to be on April 23rd, 2018, when we finished planting all 52 dormant vines. The varietals we planted are Mourvedre, Carignane, Tempranillo, and Nero D’Avola. Only one of the vines didn’t make it, thanks to an incomplete graft. We’ve been visiting the vineyard once a week, to record progress and control weeds. Watch this space for updates on the vineyard.
In an effort to improve and refine my tasting and descriptive skills, I began writing little wine reviews on Facebook in May 2018. They were well received by friends, and it was suggested by Dale of Sculpterra and Jade Moon Wines, that I should make more of it. I extend my gratitude to my friends who have encouraged me to start sharing my reviews.
So here we are in June 2018, at the start of something that hopefully both improves my wine appreciation abilities, and allows me to share my experiences in wine tasting. If you have any recommendations for wines I should try, please get in touch. Cheers! See my first review here.
Darren
