Inspiring Winemaking at Stolpman Vineyards
Last month we took a phenomenal staff trip to Santa Barbara wine country with our Hollywood and Culver City sales teams. The day was packed with amazing visits to vineyards and wineries. One such visit was to Stolpman Estate.
The first time I encountered Stolpman was back in 2008 when I was working for Randall Grahm at Bonny Doon Vineyard. As the infamous “Rhône Ranger,” Randall sought out excellence in Rhône varietals throughout California, so it's no surprise that he ended up buying fruit from Stolpman who pioneered Syrah and other Rhône varieties in what was to later become the Ballard Canyon AVA. Stolpman’s Vineyard is planted across a series of undulating hills on the Western side of Ballard Canyon, just a few miles south of Los Olivos.
Stolpman estate is a patchwork of dozens of individual blocks covering just about every aspect and exposure you could imagine. The underlying geology of the vineyard is chalky, marine sedimentary rock with lots of sand and degraded shale on the top. Stolpman’s estate is farmed by the legendary Ruben Solorzano (who lives on the vineyard), and is organic, biodynamic, and largely dry-farmed. The vineyard is also mostly planted on its own roots. The team and I were blown away by the level of experimentation at Stolpman. Despite three decades of working this land, the team here have done anything but rest on their laurels. The vineyard is a maze of different row orientations, vine-training systems, and heritage pre-clonal selections from some of the most important sites in the Northern Rhône.
Ruben Solorzano, Stolpman’s Ace Vineyard Manager
We were treated to an extensive vineyard tour, some on foot, some in the back of pickup trucks, all with Ruben at hand to explain everything in beautiful detail and answer our unending questions. One highlight was scrambling our way through a steep, densely planted hillside block, that has been entirely established from one “Mother Vine.” This is not a process of taking cuttings from one vine and propagating them as I've seen before. What the team has been doing here for many years is bending down one of the vine’s shoots, burying it in the ground, and then a new vine grows up from the burrier shoot. Each year the Mother Vine spreads a little further across the hillside. I’ve never seen (nor heard of) anything like it. Other blocks on the estate are equally fascinating, such as the ones used for the new “Great Places” range of wines. These are planted to a ridiculous high density of vines up to 6,000 vines per acre, all trained to single stakes or "sur échalas," as it’s known in Côte Rôtie and Hermitage. Vine material for each specific block was brought from legendary parcels in the Rhône. One from Renee Rostaing’s famed parcel on the Côte Blonde, one from Auguste Clape’s Reynard site in Cornas, a one planted to Serine from "Les Grandes Place" a tiny, steeply terraced lieu dit in Côte Rôte. One of my favorite blocks is a steep, head-trained, own rooted, block of Mourvèdre grown from masal cuttings from the legendary, 1895 planted vines at Enz Vineyard in Cienega Valley. These are all truly some of the most remarkable blocks I've seen anywhere in the world.
What is perhaps even more exciting is that Stolpman hasn't just applied this extreme, high-density, own-rooted, single stake, planting system on a handful of vanity blocks. They truly believe in the quality of fruit when grown this way and have converted significant portions of the vineyard over to this type of planting, requiring a hugely knowledgeable, dedicated team to farm the vineyard as mechanisation is mostly impossible. Pete Stolpman spoke with passion and a great deal of emotion when he explained the vision his father had when establishing the property. Stolpman employs their entire crew year around. Many workers are now the second generation to tend the vines here and have grown up here on the estate. Many workers are given decision making power about how blocks are farmed, pruned etc, allowing the team to be personally engaged in growing super high quality fruit. One year at a post-harvest party Pete noticed how many of the crew were drinking exclusively beer and tequila, not wine. This in time started the La Cuadrilla wine project, a wine where all the proceeds from sales goes back to the crew as a profit sharing benefit. Blocks destined for La Cuadrilla are assigned to certain workers so they can be truly connected to the end result of their meticulous work amongst the vines.
Winemaker Kyle Knapp, who also joined us on the tour, was extremely down to earth and intimately engaged with the vineyard in every way. Our trio of hosts, second-generation Owner Pete (Stolpman), Viticulturist Ruben, and Winemaker Kyle gave us such a great insight into what makes this place so special.
When we sat down under a huge, ancient oak tree to taste the wines, everything in the lineup delivered time and time again what this spectacular site promised. Beyond continuing to push the envelope with Rhône varieties, the estate is also home to Sangiovese, Trousseau, and Savagnin. Everywhere you look at Stolpman something exciting is happening, waiting to be discovered! The broad range of wines from the classically styled Syrahs to the more “hip” Trousseau Vin Gris and Uni White Blend reflect the mindset at Stolpman where you don't let yourself get complacent, you don't let the winemaking get stale and formulaic. The ethos here pays homage the classics and tradition, but is never restrained by convention or limited by a lack of imagination. Many of the wines being grown and made here are pound for pound some of the best values in all of California.
Whether you're a longtime fan of Stolpman like myself, or the wines are totally new to you, please check them out. I'm utterly convinced they're doing a lot of things right here and the proof is in the pudding.
2023 Stolpman Estate "Uni" Ballard Canyon White Blend $24.95 An unusual but beautifully composed blend of Chardonnay and Roussanne. Originally made for a famed Sushi restaurant group, this wine has now evolved to become a crowd favorite in the portfolio. A complex, textural wine with quince paste, salted lemon, marcona almond. A piercing saline mineral steak runs throughout.
2023 Stolpman "Estate" Ballard Canyon Vin Gris of Gamay - Trousseau $24.95 A super cool wine that is made with estate grown Gamay Noir and deliberately hand-selected pale clusters from the Trousseau blocks. Every year a certain percentage of the Trousseau grapes never darken beyond a pale raspberry color. These clusters are picked and fermented whole-cluster in a semi-carbonic fashion before being pressed off. The wine sits somewhere in between a rosé and a chillable red. Very delicious, and very versatile with food.
2023 Stolpman "La Cuadrilla" Santa Barbara County Red Blend $21.95 As I mentioned above, La Cuadrilla is a wine that gives ownership to the crew that work the vineyard. Much of what goes into this wine is the exact same fruit that goes into the other more expensive wines. All profits from this wine is paid back to the team as a bonus, above and beyond their wages, at the annual harvest party. This is a wine that shows the pride of the people that grow it and it always over delivers. A fantastic BBQ wine or hearty weekday drinker that is deeply satisfying and delicious.
2023 Stolpman Santa Barbara County Grenache $19.95 (Elsewhere $36) 93VN A beautiful, elegant, bright, lifted style of Grenache with juicy, fresh red fruit, subtle Asian spice, hints new leather. So quaffable and delicious. Really good with a slight chill. Amazing value on our Insider's Advantage program!
2023 Stolpman "Estate" Ballard Canyon Syrah $29.95 94VN 92-94RP The workhorse of Stolpman Vineyards. If you're only going to try one of their wines, this should be it. A masterful blend of Syrah from across many blocks of the estate. Fermented in concrete, aged in large format neutral oak. A truly world-class expression of the variety with that magical balance of fruit and savory, earth and spice. Stunning, I think the 2023 is the best edition of this wine I've ever tasted.
2019 Stolpman "Originals" Ballard Canyon Syrah $29.95 (Elsewhere $48) A special selection of fruit that comes from the two original plantings of Syrah at the estate. From own-rooted vines planted in 1991-92. An amped up version of the regular estate Syrah, more meaty, more spice, a little more structured. Very serious wine that will cellar for 10-15 years easily.
2023 Combe "Stolpman Vineyard" Ballard Canyon Trousseau $29.95 Made from a bunch by bunch, hand-selection of the darkest ripest clusters of Trousseau grown on the estate. This grape, notorious for uneven ripening and lack of color is fittingly known as “Bastardo” in other parts of the world. 30% fermented whole cluster, all native, and aged in 500L neutral oak. An elegant wine with beautiful aromatics and leafy red fruits and limestone minerals.
2022 Stolpman "Great Places - Jessica Lauren Stolpman" Ballard Canyon Syrah $129.95 97DC 97JS 97RP 97VN From one hillside parcel of ultra-high density planted Serine (pre-clonal Syrah) from Domaine Clusel-Roch's “Les Grandes Places” lieu-dit in Côte-Rôtie. Vines are trained to a single stake with very limited clusters per vine. All farming is entirely by hand. Fermented 100% whole-cluster, aged in neutral large format oak. An absolutely singular, breathtaking wine that is the pinnacle of what the estate can do (it better be since it's named after Pete’s wife Jessica)! This is a truly ambitious wine that shoots for the stars and absolutely pulls it off. Quadruple 97-point reviews that might even prove conservative a few years down the line. Spectacular stuff!