A Love Letter to Los Olivos by Sonja Magdevski
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A Love Letter to Los Olivos by Sonja Magdevski PHOTOGRAPHY BY FRAN COLLIN The view from the top of the vineyard at Buttonwood Winery and Farm. 40 | EDIBLE SANTA BARBARA SPRING 2018 Karen Steinwachs, of Buttonwood Winery and Farm, walks through the vineyard. t is not peach season when I visit with Karen Steinwachs of Buttonwood Winery and Farm. I It is early Santa Barbara winter, the kind of day where the light is so beautiful it makes you cry. The grapevines are dormant, still holding onto the last of their autumnal foliage on this January day. Surprisingly, this is my first visit to tour the vineyards. For years now I have been hearing from devoted fans,“…but have you had their peaches?” No, I answer, only the wines. This inevitably leads them to gush even more. “Yes, of course, but you must taste those peaches.” As Steinwachs and I walk through the vineyards uphill along the pond toward the plateau above, a stunning 360-degree view of the entire Santa Ynez Valley comes into perspective. “We grow peonies, too,” Steinwachs laughs. Peonies, the coveted darling of flower lovers for their luxurious blossom of petals and intoxicating fragrance, are known for growing primarily in cold-hardy Midwest and Eastern states. Buttonwood is the only farm in the area that cultivates them and likely the only farm that also makes pomegranate molasses from their own pomegranate trees, a nod to the owner’s familial heritage. EdibleSantaBarbara.com SPRING 2018 | 41 With astute guidance, Buttonwood has managed to create dramatic view that surrounds her. In 2002, she and a band of a unique sense of place with organic vegetables, a variety of winemakers were hosting a dinner for sommeliers when the fruiting trees, cut flowers, farm animals and, of course, 43 acres late Seth Kunin, celebrated for making great wine and being of vines in the heart of the new Los Olivos District (LOD) a seminal educator, stood to address the group about their American Viticultural Area (AVA). “Walnut trees were actually geographic orientation. “He was identifying all our surrounding planted before the olive trees that our AVA is named after,” areas then fell silent when he got to the area where he was said Steinwachs, who discovered this during her historical standing. We all thought, ‘Well wait, where are we and what are data search for the new appellation. The LOD is named after we?’” she said. “Then Fred Brander, who was also at the dinner, Rancho Los Olivos, the site of the first significant agricultural got a burr under his saddle and started looking into it. We planting in the area. The federal government approved the wanted to feel special, too.” petition in the early part of 2016. That is the purpose, after all, of an AVA. To create a singular “It was right here,” she said with outstretched arms, “where defined geographic space that shares unique characteristics it all started.” From our hilltop she points in the direction of within its borders. AVAs are required to be scientifically Happy Canyon to the east and the clear line along the Santa supported and have historical significance. The goal is to Ynez River below that leads west toward the Sta. Rita Hills. assist grape growers and wine producers in identifying their Steinwachs is a petite woman now further dwarfed by the distinction from other growing areas, which in turn should Buttonwood is in the heart of the new Los Olivos District (LOD) American Viticultural Area (AVA). 42 | EDIBLE SANTA BARBARA SPRING 2018 Rancho Arroyo Perido Rancho Faith Foxen-Canyon Mirabella Los Olivos Fox Family Brander Baehner deLanda Cent’ Anni Bridlewood Fournier Joughin Vandale Scott White Maddahi Vincent Calzada Gate Ridge Riata Hampton Ibarra-Young Oaks Family Blackjack Great Stage ROBLAR AVE Ranch Oaks Canyon Ingeborg Roblar Santa Maria Beckmen Mateo Honea Williamson- Estelle Old School EDISON ST Doré La Cuesta Pegasus BASELINE AVE Alamo Pintado Mario- Eleven Oaks Quail Camp 4 Nello Crossing Kingsley Stone Crest SANTA MARIA VALLEY Lucas & Rideau Lewellen A.V.A. Rock 154 101 Hollow D Buttonwood R Farm O Carhartt D A T N N. REFUGIO RD I P Vie Caprice Santa Ynez O M A Dovecote L A Morehouse 246 Brave and Maiden Estate La Presa Gainey Vina de Home Ranch Valley Clover Santa Ynez View Creek Coquelicot Larner Evans Solvang Fangaorne Mesa Verde Sunstone LOS ALAMOS V ALLEY Los Alamos 101 Los SANTA YNEZ Olivos HAPPY CANYON VALLEY BALLARD Lompoc LOS OLIVOS OF STA. RITA HILLS A.V.A. CANYON DISTRICT SANTA BARBARA A.V.A. 246 A.V.A. A.V.A. A.V.A. Buellton Santa Ynez 246 Solvang 154 Lake 1 Cachuma A.V. A. (American Viticultural Area) 1 101 STEVEN BROWN STEVEN translate into enhanced understanding for the wine consumer. Santa Ynez Valley appellation, created in 1983 at a time when This is why most petitions focus on geographic, geologic and Santa Barbara County wine was a nascent industry with only a climatic data shared within a prescribed space, which helps explain handful of growers. The Santa Ynez Valley AVA broadly sweeps why certain grapes are grown within its borders. Just like peaches along the Santa Ynez River following its watershed, marking and peonies, there are preferred places where certain varietals grow its eastern periphery at Happy Canyon while moving westward more easily amidst the anomalies. to encompass the Sta. Rita Hills. The original goal was to be New AVAs have become a response to the ones that preceded inclusive of everyone in the area at the time who was growing them in order to better define themselves. They are also a grapes, in addition to distinguishing themselves from the cooler reflection of the political and economic climate of the time. The climate Santa Maria Valley, established in 1981—the first in current Los Olivos District exists inside the long-established our county. EdibleSantaBarbara.com SPRING 2018 | 43 An expansive view of Brander Vineyard. “Have you seen the Santa Ynez Valley map?” Bill Davidge a few years prior, finding land prices in Santa Ynez too spendy asked me during our phone call. He doesn’t know that I have for his liking, according to Davidge. The families chose to been writing about the origins of our appellations for the last plant the market favorites of that time, Cabernet Sauvignon two years and that I am and Riesling, and they aware of his history as one “I thought it would be nice to carve out also partnered with UC of the original signers. His an area that was more similar in climate Davis on an experimental folks partnered with the vineyard to test myriad Bettencourt family in the late with the goal of creating an AVA that was varietals, including 1960s to plant the first post- cohesive and reflective of this based on Pinot Noir, Sylvaner, Prohibition vineyard in the Chardonnay, Sauvignon Santa Ynez Valley, called Viña scientific parameters.”— Fred Brander Blanc, Gamay and that de Santa Ynez, off Refugio beautiful Gewürztraminer. Road. Yes, I tell him, and I used to buy Gewürztraminer grapes This was unknown territory for premium grape growing. from the original vineyard, the oldest plantings in the area. The It was a young Fred Brander looking for property in the Davidges and Bettencourts, who had a dairy on the property, early 1970s to grow grapes who approached them to not thought growing grapes would be a lucrative option after seeing only buy grapes but to also turn the old dairy into a winery. a PG&E pamphlet at the time endorsing vineyards being For Brander, everything was already in place: The building planted in the Santa Maria Valley. had thick walls for natural insulation and the stainless steel Boyd Bettencourt called on his friend Uriel Nielsen for milking tanks could easily be used for wine. They named it assistance. Nielsen had planted the first vineyard in Santa Maria the Santa Ynez Winery and sold grapes to home winemakers 44 | EDIBLE SANTA BARBARA SPRING 2018 Left: In the field at Brander Vineyard. Right: Winemaker Fabian Bravo checking the wine at Brander. and commercial clients. Brander made their wines in addition About Fred Brander to starting his own brand with Sauvignon Blanc, a varietal he Everyone you speak with will tell you that Fred Brander was and would become lauded for throughout his career. is the driving force behind the creation of the Los Olivos District “When we started the Santa Ynez Valley AVA, it was a way AVA. Steinwachs calls him the Godfather. Winemaker and of marketing our grapes to get the name out there and it helped longtime friend a lot,” Davidge said. They soon opened a tasting room at the Doug Margerum winery and catered to visitors from across the state traveling said Brander hired Highway 101, particularly from Los Angeles and Santa Barbara. all the geologists, The Santa Ynez Valley Viticulture Association, as it was known hydrologists and at the time, hosted parties for tastemakers and toured people other consultants to to different wineries, including celebrity chef Julia Child and confirm scientific Robert Balzer, wine writer for the Los Angeles Times, who data, independently championed California wines. funded the project Davidge still owns part of the original vineyard now called and painstakingly Giff’s and is supportive of the LOD AVA. I ask him if he thinks wrote the petition the area has finally achieved valuable name recognition. “People himself. Margerum, still think of Napa and Sonoma as the only wine regions in who recently acquired farming rights to Honea vineyard within California,” he said.