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Food & Beverage Industry

Santa Barbara on the rise

Wines & Vines, August, 2001 by Jennifer Rofe

Lafond Winery

I spoke with David Lafond, general manager, and Bruce McGuire, winemaker, at the small Lafond Winery up the road from Sanford in the Santa Ynez Valley. Designed by Pierre Lafond and contracted by his son David, the winery is open and accessible--large windows keep harvest in clear view of visitors, and beautiful mahogany and glass doors separate the tasting room from the production room.

In 1962, Pierre Lafond started Santa Barbara Winery, the county's first "Repeal" winery. Then, "in 1970, Pierre was looking for plantable lands," David explains. By 1972, Pierre and viticulturalist Bill Collins established Lafond Winery, with the initial vineyards north of the Santa Ynez River. In 1981, Bruce McGuire became winemaker, and with the 1996 vintage, the Lafond facility started producing wines.

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Lafond has vineyards north and south of the Santa Ynez River, with older vineyards to the north and new vineyards to the south. (Unfortunately, in 1997, 6 acres of old vineyard were lost to the river, which was once channeled. Government agencies no longer allow channeling.) The 100 planted acres--including the new onsite vineyard, which has produced two crops--grow mostly Pinot noir and Syrah, along with Zinfandel, Riesling, Chardonnay and Sauvignon blanc.

Currently, Lafond uses grapes from its vineyards, the Santa Rita hills area and other sources, but the winery is focusing on its newer vineyards, although they will not mature for five to 10 years. Down the road, Lafond hopes to establish a reputation for Pinot noir, Syrah and Chardonnay from the Santa Rita hills. Lafond would also like to establish a Santa Rita Hills appellation, which, Bruce says, will be "very important to the identity of the area." Once an appellation is instituted, Lafond will focus on producing Santa Rita Hills wines.

In the meantime, Lafond is taking added steps to improve wine quality. "Our philosophy in the field is to carefully observe all the vines many times during the growing season and achieve best canopy management, hand select fruit and develop the best product possible for (Bruce)," David says. "The top end of the industry is constantly increasing quality; the bar keeps getting raised higher," Bruce says. "If we don't do the most we can with the grapes, we're not going to improve quality in the winery." Fortunately, the climate that both men praise and SBC's locale do not make growing quality grapes too difficult. "If I had to pick a place to grow grapes, it'd be here or the Anderson Valley in Mendocino," Bruce adds.

Total production between the Lafond and Santa Barbara wineries is 35,000 to 40,000 cases, and Lafond produces the red wines for both wineries (Santa Barbara became a white wine producing facility in the 1980s). Products include vineyard designated Pinot noir, Chardonnay and Syrah, which Lafond is very aggressively pursuing. Prices range between $12 and $35. Production facilities include 8.5-ton jacketed open top Santa Rosa Stainless Steel tanks by Modern Stainless design, 7-ton Promac open top tanks, 12-ton jacketed open top Santa Rosa Stainless Steel tanks and a 2,600 liter Euro-press. Barrels come from Coopers De Mercury, Sirug and Dargau & Jaegle, corks are from Cork Supply USA and Caliber provides glass.

While Lafond uses a sales director to oversee nationwide distribution and international markets (Belgium, Germany and Japan), tourism and tasting room traffic is important to the winery's business. Although the tasting room just opened in April, Lafond is receiving a healthy number of visitors, thanks in part to local wineries such as Sanford that direct visitors to Lafond. Still, with the Santa Barbara Winery in the city, and a Lafond deli, bakery and clothing store on Santa Barbara's most popular street, attracting visitors and promoting the winery should not be difficult. And now with Lafond in the Santa Ynez Valley, both Lafond and the Santa Barbara Winery are gaining a presence there. "There are a lot of possibilities here," David says. "It's about promoting the area and educating people."

Byron Vineyards & Winery

Byron "Ken" Brown is founder, winemaker and vice president of Byron Vineyards and Winery in the Santa Maria Valley. Ken generously gave me a comprehensive tour of his vineyards and winery, and a comprehensive tasting of his impressive lineup. I tried, among others, the rich, spicy 1999 Santa Maria Valley Pinot gris, $20; the complex and rich 1998 Neilson Vineyard Chardonnay, $34; the 1998 Nielson Historic Vines Chardonnay, which is rich, silky and exotic, $75; the 1998 Sierra Madre Pinot noir, which is rich mid-palate, $45; and Io, a Syrah/Grenache/Mourvedre blend first released in 1996, $60.

"I was offered a job at Zaca Mesa to be the winemaker, to design and build the winery, and I thought why not work in somebody else's winery for three years, make my mistakes and then I'll go do my own winery?" relates Ken, who studied enology in Fresno State's graduate program, where he headed up the research program in the school vineyard and winery. In 1977, Ken began his career with Zaca Mesa, and in 1984 he started Byron with his wife Deborah and several partners. On January 25, 1990, Ken sold Byron to Robert Mondavi, intending to showcase SBC's potential. "What I needed were the resources to redevelop the vineyards and build the winery, and what they needed was somebody with passion and commitment," Ken says.

Food & Beverage Industry

Santa Barbara on the rise

Wines & Vines, August, 2001 by Jennifer Rofe

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