TAZ Vineyards

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TAZ Vineyards

Fiddlestix Vineyard

Serendipity caused Bob Steinhauer and Fiddlehead Proprietor Kathy Joseph to find each other, just as each was longing for an exceptional bit of dirt to grow Pinot Noir. Fiddlestix Vineyard and a unique vineyard partnership resulted from their musings. Though Fiddlestix is young, it's no surprise that Pinot Noir fruit from the carefully planned blocks is among the most sought after on the Central Coast. Here in the 700 planted hillside acres that comprise the Santa Rita Hills AVA, winegrowing reputations have long been enhanced. From gentle slopes leading down toward the Santa Ynez River, Fiddlestix looks up on the Santa Rosa Hills, witness to a rolling vineyard that helped define Santa Barbara Pinot Noir. Wine critic Hugh Johnson once described neighboring Sanford and Benedict vineyard as "perfect for Pinot Noir." Today, Fiddlestix itself is often noted as a vineyard designate, recognition of its own greatness, still unfolding. In 33 small blocks a variety of rootstocks and clones are planted in soils ranging from rocky clay loams on slopes to more sandy and silt loams in the flats. Vines are planted to assure a minimal crop load. Clones include Pommard and Dijon selections. Years ago flowers flourished here, but today, on VSP trellis generally in north-south facing rows, grapes open to the cooling influences of the Pacific, achieving long hang times resulting in flavorful ripe fruit.

Taz Pinot Noirs will be largely focused here, and a vineyard designate wine will be celebrated most years.

Cat Canyon

Cat Canyon might well be one of the most familiar, unfamiliar vineyards along California's Central Coast. Travelers moving along US Highway 101 near Los Alamos travel alongside beautiful oak savannas and vineyards planted along rolling hillsides. Vineyards such as Cat Canyon, planted to the east of the highway with an elegant gate far away from the highway, are some 600 to 800 feet higher and deeper into canyons than vineyards to the west, changing climatic conditions and altering aspects of sun, wind and soil.

TAZ sources Chardonnay and Pinot Gris from these vineyards, in specially selected blocks. Soils are generally sandy, typical of benchlands in the area. Block 1A-S is planted to Pinot Gris of clone 146 on Freedom rootstock, producing fruit with crisp acidity and rich flavors of lemon, lime and mineral notes. Rows between vineyards are tilled deeply to keep gophers at bay, a sustainable farming practice requiring more effort, but typical of the care taken to use natural solutions to common farming problems. Winemaker Natasha Boffman favors Chardonnay planted in three distinct blocks. Block 5F and 4E and 2F show great promise. Block 2F meanders over 30 acres at the highest elevation in the vineyard, producing wines with great viscosity and depth. "Taz" Steinhauer has pronounced fruit from this block, characterized as showing citrus zest, lemon chiffon, laurel and flinty mineral tones, as the "best in the cellar."

North Canyon

In a secluded canyon less than twenty miles from the Pacific Ocean, beyond the famed Bien Nacido Vineyard along the Santa Maria Bench, down a narrow cut framed by rocky cliffs with the Cuyama River running through it, "Taz" Steinhauer aims to prove a point. Here, in one of the most beautiful places on Earth, where mountain ranges running northwest by southeast differ from most of the Central Coast, temperatures are often five degrees warmer at the far reaches. Some four miles beyond a non-descript metal gate Merlot has been planted in blocks as small as 1.73 acres using clones 3 and 181. And then there's the Syrah. Just ask winemakers in the neighborhood, where producers such as Qupé source from just around the canyon wall.

On hillside blocks stretching toward the sun, Pinot Noir of great character is possible here, where the growing season is mild and extended, often starting early and staying later while fruit matures to a brightness and character immediately recognizable as Santa Barbara. VSP trellis allows vineyard workers to position shoots to gain maximum exposure to the sun. Yields are less than two tons per acre, making every berry precious. Soils in the North Canyon make vines struggle and fight to gain flavor, consisting primarily of clay loam and some shale, though each TAZ block varies.

"Taz" Steinhauer walks Winemaker, Natasha Boffman high along a ridge gazing down on vineyard blocks planted as long ago as 1972. "This is good," he says.