lompoc

A Pinot Trio

by whit on August 25, 2010

You lovely readers just met the cool Proof Wine Collective dudes Philip and Josh the other day. Well, when those super nice human beings were recently in LA, they brought me a gift.

Er- 3 gifts.

3 bottles of some rare Santa Ynez pinot- 1979, 1980 and 1981 Sanford & Benedict pinot noir. I know. They’re nice. What possessed them to give it to little old me? I’m only coming up with “I’m lucky.”  But, the real question is how in the hell they actually acquired these bottles. Josh said…

We got them from an old cellar of Michael Benedict. Who I am told didn’t want to have anything to do with the wine. Either he thought the wine was dead or the memories of the partnership with Richard was too painful/sad to keep in his life. They are some of the last vintages of S&B wines ever made.

I did a bit of digging and poking around to learn a bit more about these two Sanford and Benedict guys and why they only produced 5 vintages together. They planted their namesake vineyard 39 years ago…apparently the first pinot noir vineyard in the region- between Lompoc and Buellton (source.) According to the book North American Pinot Noir by John Winthrop Haeger, the pair made their first wines with “portable electric power and gas lamps, in an old rustic barn uphill from the vineyard” and that the “first fermentors, made of wood, were said to have been built in a friend’s hot tub factory.” (!)

Sad to say, but their partnership dissolved for whatever reason in 1980. Therefore, I have the last remains of what was the work of these two men together.  Sanford went on to make wines under his own label and Benedict sold fruit from the vineyard to other winemakers. The vineyard was eventually sold to a British couple in 1988, but they continued to give Sanford some amount of access to the fruit for his wines.

So- when should I drink this stuff ? Do I drink them all together and compare vintages? Do I save my birth year ’81 for  the big 3-0 bday next year? I don’t know! But I do know I am excited to see what lies within those bottles. Will it be any good? Will the ghosts of friendship past float up and out in a cloud of  tears and heartbreak? Or, maybe instead a sense of possibility and magic and the beginning of things? I’ll have to find out.

PS- how cool is wine?

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Day Trippin’: Part 1

by whit on July 23, 2009



I had the pleasure of joining a few friends for a trip up the Coast to Santa Barbara. Well, Los Olivos and Lompoc, to be exact. After a Mexican feast at La Super Rica, we headed up the San Marcos Pass with tortilla-filled bellies to the beautiful Saarloos & Sons tasting room in Los Olivos.

tasting time!

Saarloos & Sons is a family business in every sense of the word. As we walked through the front door, we were warmly greeted by Keith Saarloos and his mother, Linda. The tasting room – er, house  (built in 1886), was surprisingly very modern, a bit opulent and a lot of funky. I felt as if I had stumbled into some  kind of interior design boutique.  A boutique with wine.  A boutique of boutique wines. OK- let’s move on.

the "bar"

the line-up

We saddled up to the bar and began the tasting with their Daughters Chardonnay. We progressed to their well-known Purper Hart Syrah, then 194FIVE Union, Ring Effie Unk , 0 &nd 2 and lastly the exceptional Extended Family Pinot (there were only 9 bottles left after we made off with one). As we swirled and sniffed and slurped and swallowed, Keith shared his vision of each wine and his philosophies on wine making. Each wine has a story, every name a significance and each grape a purpose. You can taste the love in these wines. And the skill. If you want to taste them, you’ll have to head to Los Olivos. Or Silver Lake Wine in Los Angeles (they exclusively carry the Purper Hart and Daughters).

Just as we were nearing the finish line, the house began to fill up with visitors. Keith’s father Larry popped in from the vineyard and minutes later, Larry’s brother Harvey stopped by.  When they say it is family-run, they ain’t lyin’.  And I almost forgot to mention Drew, whom I now otherwise refer to as the soda fairy. I could tell by the childlike glee in Keith’s face upon Drew’s arrival that something in those boxes he was carrying was magical. In those two boxes, were bottles of Drew’s Pop Culture sodas in the following flavors: Ginger Pear, Ginger Tamarind  and Blackberry Hibiscus. We cracked open several bottles and Linda brought us a tray of ice and glasses to cap off an already fantastic tasting. On a hot day, these were perfect and a lovely little palate cleanser.

magic juice

Drew in the background. The glorious Ginger Pear in the fore.

And by hot, I mean HOT. Larry called in to the vineyard for a weather report. The automated voice stated it was a sweltering 104.5. With that, we bid the family Saarloos adieu (or rather, goede middag) and headed to a cooler and breezier destination- Lompoc, aka “the Poke”, for some more vino at Dragonette Cellars. Stay tuned…

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