We are gearing up for harvest here at Clos LaChance. Winemaker Stephen Tebb has predicted that we will start on August 26 with Sauvignon Blanc from the Estate Vineyard.
Please click here to visit the first of Stephen's Harvest 2008 Video Blogs. In this edition, Stephen discusses the 2008 growing season...the ice, the fire, the wind...a challenging growing season, nevertheless.
Click on Stephen's picture to see our very first video blog.
Ugh, I feel ill right now. But it was my own fault. We had a chocolate company come in here to do some tasting this afternoon and I probably ate the equivalent of 5 or 6 full truffles, in 25 different little pieces. I generally don’t get too involved with vendors for the Tasting Room’s non-wine products we sell, but when a chocolatier comes to town, color me happy, I’m in for the ride.
One of the really interesting things that we did today was pair up some chocolates for a White Wine and Chocolate Seminar that we are planning (some Saturday this Fall) and will offer to our corporate clients as a stand-alone seminar for off-site meetings. A few of the pairings that stood out:
*Plain Milk Chocolate with the Muscat: The sweetness of the wine was curbed a little by the sweetness in the chocolate, which for me is a good thing. It really brought out the aromatic fruit components of the wine and gave it a very rich, creamy mouthfeel. So good, that we are going to start giving samples of the milk chocolate when we taste the Muscat in the Tasting Room.
*Fall Fleur de Sel Carmel: We paired this one with the Liebeler Chardonnay. OMG, it was incredibly rich and decadent. The caramel enhanced the new French oak in the wine and the toasty vanilla undertones. And the little salty component was a flavor enhancer, bringing out the lush tropical fruits. Banana was a big marker for me on this particular pairing. Delicious.
*Lavender Honey Truffle: This was spot on perfect with our Viognier. The balanced acidity in the Viognier made the lavender in the truffle explode in your mouth. The honeysuckle/honey combo was outstanding as well, and the finish was perfectly smooth.
The chocolate company that came down to present is a local purveyor, Charles Chocolates, based in Emeryville. Obviously the sales people did a good job….I have been raving about this to everyone in the office. Hopefully we will get them down for our “Just Desserts” event on September 20th to showcase some of these amazing chocolate and wine pairings.
Clos LaChance regularly submits its wines to the press for review. Wine Spectator, Robert Parker, Wine Enthusiast, Wine & Spirits, Wine News, Connoisseur’s Guide to CA Wine, to name a few. Plus a number of daily and online publications and blogs…the list is pretty long. We do about 4 or 5 shipments of new releases to 40+ reviewers per year.
Critics have very different tastes. More often then not, we will get very high scores from one publication and mediocre scores from another.For example, our Special Selection Meritage). In Wine Enthusiast it got a 92. In Connoisseur’s Guide, only an 87.
Wine Enthusiast, March 2008): Clos LaChance 2004 Meritage (Central Coast) - Juicy and ripe, this Bordeaux blend is an elegant young wine with earthy flavors of blackberries, cherries, and new smoky oak; Notable for its exceptional balance, it should hold well through 2012. 92 Points
The Connoisseur’s Guide to California Wine (December 2007):There is a real kinship to be found between this blend and the winery’s Estate Cabernet in that both are built along smooth and supple lines, and both are easy-to-access offerings. While one finds plenty of ripe cherries, oak and brushy spice at work here, things get a touch of dry and drift off to chocolate at the finish, and the wine argues for but mid-term keeping. Rating: 87 Points, One puff
But then you go to our Estate Syrah. Connoisseur’s Guide gives it 91, and Wine Spectator scored us at only an 86. An 86 is certainly not a bad score (and the write up is quite nice). But in a lot of retail wine buyer minds (scores are most important when trying to sell wine into retail accounts), anything below a 90 is not saleable, unless you already have a well-established brand.
Connoisseur’s Guide to CA Wine (March 2008): 2005 Clos LaChance Syrah, Central Coast - Intense themes of plums and blackberries are given a big lift in sweetness by the creamy oak that appears through the length of this very deep and well-crafted opus, and, if never a Syrah of extravagant spice, it is still wonderfully juicy and rich. Full on the palate and still impeccably balanced, it shows uncommon polish for the big wine that it is, and its fine-grained finishing tannins are overlain by layers of lingering fruit. Although so mannerly as to tempt early drinking, it has the depth and reserve to grow for five or more years. 91 Points, Two Puffs.
Wine Spectator Review (March 31, 2008): Clos LaChance Syrah Central Coast 2005 ($35): Rustic, yet appealing. Plum and forest floor aromas and firm black cherry, anise, and cracked pepper flavors finish with firm, cedary tannins. Best from 2009 through 2012. 510 cases. 86 Points.
How best to deal with these conflicting scores?
From a marketer’s point of view, I scream and holler about the high scores….but I don’t mention the lower scores (although I do post them on the Reviews section of our web site, as I like our customers to see all opinions in one place). The high scores, we will make shelf talkers (those annoying pieces of paper you will see under a bottle of wine at a retail store—and half the time the shelf talker doesn’t match with the vintage/and or varietal…but that’s another topic), sell sheets (just an 8 ½ X 11 sheet that has a bottle shot, logos and a GIANT quote from the respective high-scoring publication, hand them out to everyone in the field), email newsletters and tasting room displays.
From a wine consumers point of view—find a reviewer that has similar likes and dislikes as you…(do you like pears? James Laube at the Spectator likes them, cause he scores wines that have pear characteristics higher then those that don’t) and then follow their recommendations. There are a ton of wine critics out there—and growing everyday with all the bloggers out there.
A lot of people in the industry have very strong opinions about the 100 point wine scoring system. I don’t mind it, especially when I think of other industries that have much more severe rating systems. I will use the film industry as an example here. One of the most well-known movie rating systems is very simple: “thumbs up” or “thumbs down.” At least the 100-points system has a little something in between the two extremes.
Others are disgruntled about the 100-points scoring system because it can be so black and white. While it is nice to have beautifully written descriptions of a wine’s aromas, palate and finish. And those that have time can read them and research a wine pre-purchase to their hearts content. But more often then not, who the hell has the time for that? I got two kids, a husband, a dog, and a full-time job. Just give me something quick to look at that says the wine is good, per so-and-so, and I will take it.
The closest thing to the “thumbs down” in the wine industry is Connoisseur’s Guide. They have a symbol in their publication…an upside down glass, which means “stay far, far away from this wine.” Thankfully, we have only received that once. But that was over a decade ago when we had a “rental” winery, a different winemaker and purchased Central Coast green-beany Merlot grapes. We hope to never receive one of those again!Although if we do, you will never hear about it, because we won’t tell you.
Is not a bobcat. But it sure looks like one. Check it out:
Apparantly bobcats have tufted ears. Oh well. It made for a fun day in the office., The wildlife lady said that she could certainly see why we thought it was a bobcat.
There is still some smoldering from the Hummingbird Fire this afternoon, but for the most part it is out. Everything here is as it should be...just a little smokey still. We are so thankful to the brave firemen and firewomen who kept the winery safe. We made up some tee-shirts and other apparel on Cafe Press. All the profits from this stuff will go straight to the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection. Click here to check it out.
Also, recently updated the Flickr Page with new photos. Here's my favorite--a helicopter pulling out water from one of the ponds on property.
Thanks to everyone who reached out to us here at the winery, making sure we are okay. Everything is fine...although we are still a little shaken from the experience.
A quick update from the Hummingbird fire from Kathleen this morning:
"The road is still closed, but we were able to go to the winery to check on things this morning. We just saw your dad and Tom. The fire has burnt down to the boarder around the vineyards. A skeleton crew is still on watch hoping it doesn't jump --there's just so many fires and people/structures come first (as they should). Winds are calm, but expected to pick up this afternoon. It looks good, but fingers and toes are still crossed..."
Bill has been there all day, making sure things are okay. Here are some pictures he took...starting yesterday through this afternoon. Looks like things will be okay, and in fact this will be good for the environment.
Yesterday afternoon, there were a series of lightening strikes in the Morgan Hill/San Martin area. There are about 70 fires throughout the area, some are still uncontained. One in particular is very close to the winery, but at this time (8:30 am on Sunday morning) it has not threatened any structures.
Here is an account of how it all started by Kathleen Tebb, winemaker Stephen Tebb's wife and resident of Morgan Hill (they live about 5 miles from the winery). She sent this early evening yesterday, about 7pm.
"An incredible lightning storm triggered the 'Hummingbird Fire' today. Thankfully the winds were in our favor. Stephen and I still feel a strong desire to help out as volunteers even though we retired our firefighting gear in 2003. Here are some pictures taken around 5pm. There was a strong wildlands firefighting crew who ascended the terrain on the west-side of the vineyards and they received prompt back-up/support from a buldozer as well as an ariel team dropping retardant. It's 7:45pm now. The road is closed at Watsonville Rd and Santa Teresa. All we can see is from the driveway of our home -- plumes of black smoke along the ridge. We can also see a helicoptor has joined the efforts dropping water on the flames. We're hoping the winds die down and firefighters can contain this before long as we all know too well the damage that has faced so many families and firefighters in this region already and so early in the 'fire' season."
The first 5 pictures were taken at the winery yesterday afternoon. The last photo was taken at the intersection of Watsonville and Santa Teresa at 9pm.
The roads have been closed since late yesterday afternoon. Tom hiked in last night at about 2am and was able to report that the fire was on the ridge and didn't seem to be heading towards the winery. CordeValle had to evacuate last night (during a wedding).
Right now, the roads to the winery are closed. Bill, CLC's owner, got through and is at the winery right now. There is no immediate threat, but we are holding tight. The Tasting Room will be closed today. The fire departments are watching it burn as no structures are immediately threatened. They are very strapped for staff right now as there are so many fires, and have to focus on the biggest threats to people and structures.
To all our San Martin neighbors, you are in your thoughts. We hope your families and homes are safe. To the brave fire fighters, thank you so much for everything you do. I can't imagine that fighting a fire in 100 degree heat yesterday was very comfortable.
A few links to more news about the Hummingbird Fire:
On Tuesday, we had a company out to redo the blacktop on our parking lot and driveway. When the crew was about to drive away in their truck at the end of the day, we heard a meowing from inside the wheel well. Turns out there was a tiny kitten hiding in there...and she would not come out.
We tried for about an hour to lure it out. Finally, Tom (yes, the same Tom that scared Cheryl with the Coyote) was able to pull it out without hurting her. We all remarked that it was a very unique looking cat, with spots and a rimmed tail. Tom took it home and named it Cheyenne. He has spent the past two days trying to feed her and teach her to use a litter box. She is pretty shy, and had an interesting confrontation with Lola, Tom's Husky.
In talking about the kitten today Tom mentioned it was “so pretty, it almost has the markings of a bobcat." Needless to say, we looked up pictures of bobcat kittens online and it does indeed look exactly like a bobcat.
Check it out. This is pretty close to what little Cheyenne looks like.
We have the Animal Rescue people coming down tomorrow to check her out. I’m not sure Cheyenne will be with us much longer, but stay tuned tomorrow for pictures and a verdict on what species the kitten turns out to be...harmless housecat or ferocious bobcat. If she is a housecat, Tom will take her home and hopefully Lola will have a new friend--if they can get over their differences. If she is a bobcat, the Animal Rescue will take her and raise her. Once she is strong enough to make it on her own, they will release her.
Maybe she can come back to the winery and help bring down the ground squirrel population. That's it, Cheyenne can become a part of our Sustainable Agriculture program!
I think Tom wants to keep Cheyenne if she IS a bobcat.
I sit at a window...which on most days is a lovely experience. My view is the garden entry way , with beautiful flowers and lovely trees and CordeValle's pristine golf course in the near distance. I often have hummingbirds buzzing around as well, which is kind of surreal since hummingbirds are a cornerstone in Clos LaChance's branding.
Anyhow, I was typing away at one thing or another this morning, when this pops up in my window.
I screamed and yelled and jumped out of my chair. There are a ton of coyotes around here and my split second initial thought was that one had gone rabies mad and was trying to get in and eat me alive.
And then it suddenly became clear....
Tom Morrow, our funny-man maintenance supervisor was just getting a laugh. He got me. But that thing certainly looked real.
What is this crazy coyote statue for you ask? We have a large gaggle of wild turkeys that love to plop over our deer fencing into the vineyard. And once they are here, they gorge themselves on grapes.
This turkey "scarecrow" apparently works, so hopefully we will not have as many gobblers here this year eating our crop. And, this ugly coyote is actually part of Clos LaChance's commitment to sustainable agriculture...solving a pest problem without chemicals or other environmentally harmful pest eradication programs. For more about Clos LaChance's commitment to Sustainable Agriculture, please click here.
In order to sell to any account (wine shop or restaurant) outside of CA, we must go through a distributor (it’s the law). Distributors absolutely provide a lot of very important functions that we as a winery could not do on our own—transferring and storing the wine in a temperature controlled environment, selling it into accounts, delivery, collections, even brand development. I am thankful for my distributors, cause they do the dirty work. Dealing with warehouses, trucks and collections is not my forte.
However, the state of distributors is ever changing—hence Click being purchased by Winebow. The small-to-midsize distributors just do not exist anymore. And if they do, they are usually only months away from purchase via a larger distributor. There are a few big distributors out there—Southern Wine and Spirits, RNDC (Republic and National, two big distributors that merged), Charmers…to name a few. When the smaller distributors get gobbled up by big distributors, the brands from the little distributors book are merged into the big distributors book. That means the sales reps at the big distributor are selling XX more wine brands.
Clos LaChance produces 60-80K cases per year, depending on the vintage. We are not a small boutique winery—but we are not even close to being a large winery, or even a medium sized winery. The top producing winery in the US is Gallo—and they make close to 75 million cases annually. We aren’t even within spitting distance of being a part of the Top 30 Wine Producers in the US—number 30 on that list produces 300K cases annually.
There are hundreds of new wine brands being launched in the US every year. And because of buy outs, there are fewer and fewer distributors out there to sell that wine. So what happens? The sales reps at those distributors have to focus on something—how are they supposed to know the details of thousands of different wines? It’s impossible! So they focus on the big ones (see that top 30 list again). The big wine producers have the clout, the incentives and the money to dominate the mindshare of the distributor sales rep.
So where does that leave us? We try for the medium sized, independently owned distributorship—that’s where we have been very successful in the past. Click was a perfect example of that. Our brand will now be rolled into the larger book. There will be more sales reps covering a larger territory; but we will have to work that much harder to ensure our wines continue to be sold successfully in Seattle. Sometimes a buyout can be a good thing—more feet on the street, better internal communications and processes; however I am always skeptical about change.
On the other side of the spectrum, there are very small distributors. Ones that have just a few sales reps and less then 50 brands. Those are often tempting to us—as we have the opportunity to be a big fish in their small book. There are definitely a few good small distributors out there. The challenge with some of these companies is that they can be a slow (or no) pay. Once we don’t get paid, then we obviously are not going to sell more wine to that particular distributor—and then we have to find someone else to carry the brand in that particular market. It’s starting over from scratch—and risking money and time as well.
It’s certainly been challenging conducting business in current market conditions. We absolutely need good distributors to be successful in our business. So we have added more bodies to the Clos LaChance sales force (we have 5.5 people focusing entirely on our wholesale sales channel right now) to work with the wholesalers and get the wines to where they need to be. I think that is the best strategy for a winery of our size. We don’t have the clout or the dollars of the big producers to get, and hold, the attention of our distributor sales force as much as we would like. So we have an experienced and talented sales force that builds relationships with the distributors and the accounts to sell the wines in. And the wines in the bottle speak for themselves. Our goal is to produce quality wine from Estate fruit—at a fair price. Seems to be working so far, but not without a lot of effort on our part!
**6/5/08: Update: I jumped the gun a bot. Apparantly Winebow just purchased Click's import business. So for us, its business as usual. Good.
Clos LaChance is here at VinExpo, Asia Pacific. It is billed as one of the largest wine trade shows in the world. There are wineries here from all over the globe--both Old World (France, Spain, Germany) and New World (USA, Argentina, Chile).
It is really eye opening to be here. When we are at home in the US, especially on the West Coast, California Wines rule. Most accounts--restaurants and wine shops--tend to be dominated by California Wines. Here it is a totally different world. The Wine Institute of California organizes this trip. We have a great booth. There are about 25 wineries represented here at this particular event (which is not many, unfortunately considering there are a couple thousand wineries in California). But walking around the show floor, France and Spain in particular, they have such a huge presence. VinExpo, being a European run organization, is obviously well supported by the regions closest to home. The booths of some of the French producers are massive...with several bars and meeting rooms within the constraints of the booth.
I guess what I am trying to say is that we feel so big and important when we are on our home turf. But being here, I feel very small. But I think just being here will put us on the International map. We have made some really great contacts, and hope to get a number of importers out of this experience. So far, we have very good leads in China (several regions), South Korea, Singapore, Taiwan and more. The most important part of going to trade shows like VinExpo is the follow up. Colleen, Clos LaChance's International Sales Manager, will be spending her 14 hour plane ride home writing up a report on all the people we met, as well as sending off emails to close the deals.
We have received a number of inquiries about our safety and well-being because of the Summit Fire in the Santa Cruz Mountains (here's a link to a Santa Cruz Mountains Wine blog that has some winery related details on the fire). http://scmwine.blogspot.com/2008/05/fire.html
We are fine....and the concern is much appreciated. We are about 10 miles away, as the crow flies. The winds have settled down today, so hopefully the fire will not spread quite as much today.
We do have a number of vineyards that we purchase grapes from located fairly close to the fire--Erwin, Split Rail and Legan. We have calls into the owners to see if they are okay.
Thanks to the 500+ firefighters working hard to contain the fire.
A slight concern here that the heat could cause uneven set (once the grape buds are pollinated, the fruit begins to "set"). However, it is supposed to cool down tomorrow--so this short heat spike should cause little to no problems.
It's been awhile, so thought I would update my HUGE readership on what's been happening at the winery the last few weeks:
-Weather: It's been hot, then cold, then hot again. Now its getting cool. A typical Spring in the Northern Central Coast? Not really....its a little cooler then average. And just a few degrees makes such a difference when it comes to the f-word. FROST. We have received a lot of questions lately about frost damage. We had a tiny bit a few weeks ago in the Estate Vineyard's Grenache block--maybe 10%, which is usually fruit we drop anyway. So far, so good. Napa and Sonoma have not been so lucky, or so I have heard (Julie Nord, pictured in the Napa link, also consults for Clos LaChance).
-Wine Club Shipment: When boxes and bags are flying, that means its time for another Wine Club shipment. Wine Club Manager Cindy Flowers has been running around, processing orders, fulfilling shipments, threatening various staffers regarding inventory....However, the dust is starting to clear and the wines are getting into the hands of our valued members. We recently segmented the wine club into three-tiers (there is a theme with three tiers amongst our sales and marketing programs). If you haven't heard anything about the new levels of Wine Clubs offered, click here.
-Travel: Now that my kids are a little older, I have started traveling for business again. It's a really tough sales environment out there these days. The economy is awful, which makes restaurant dining and wine purchases even more of a luxury. All of all our distributors are hurting and cutting way back on their inventory. But my recent trip to Chicago was a good one. The accounts I visited were busy and seemed to be doing well. Fortunately, our Hummingbird Series Wines are priced right--especially for By The Glass in restaurants and for case stacks at finer retail shops. We are weathering the storm, but our sales team is working double-time to to hit numbers this year.
-New Wines: Rosé (dry), Viognier, Sauvignon Bland, Muscat....all new vintages. Available online and in the San Martin Tasting Room.
Had a little April Fool's Day fun with the Clos LaChance team this morning. However, it "may" become a problem with my sales channel later today.
A little background: when we get a good score or media write up on a wine, Sean from Benson Marketing Group (our long time PR agency) sends it out to the CLC team. So yesterday I typed this up and forced poor Sean into sending it out first thing this morning:
"Just wanted to give you the heads up that Clos LaChance 2004 SSS Meritage has received a score of 97 points in the April 15 issue of Wine Spectator, due on newsstands next week. This is a huge, huge score for the winery. In fact, this is the highest score I've seen for a US Cabernet Sauvignon blend that is not from Napa Valley. The review reads:
"A tour de force. Rich, opulent, powerful and very well-structured for a Meritage blend. This wine is packed with a lot of ripe, intense currant, spice, blackberry, earth and loam flavors framed by spicy, cedary oak. Ends with a firm wall of tannins, yet the berry and currant flavors push through. Best from 2009 through 2025. 680 cases made."
We'll send over the hard copy version once it's printed later this month.
Also, just a heads up (and I don't want you to get too excited in case it doesn't happen), but we received a call from an editorial assistant this morning and they are considering Stephen for a cover shot—albeit with some other winemakers as well—the story they are considering him for is “The Central Coast’s Hot Young Winemakers.” We trying to get more details on this photo shoot and will be back in touch with you soon.
Congrats to the entire winery team!"
My father immediately called Sean....and then called me. He was a little miffed at both of us. Stephen our winemaker comes into the office all puffed up with pride. It was a shame to have to bring him down (although I don't doubt that we will certainly get there some day...Stephen's wines are just getting better and better. The first vintage of our SSS Meritage got 92 points in Wine Enthusiast). Paige replies to the whole team with congrats.
And then the rug is pulled out from under me. Both my sales managers tell me they already sent the news out to our entire distributor network in hopes of selling the wine in.
Whoops. That's about 40 distributor contacts across the country that now think we got a 97 on our Meritage from the Spectator. A score like that would catapult our brand into cult status. Hopefully they will have a sense of humor about it when they discover the prank.
Or are my clever sales managers Kevin and Cher messing with me? Have the tables been turned and now I have been hit with a cruel April Fool's Day joke? Has the "messor" become the "messee?" I have to admit that I am a little worried.....so already the joke's on me.
