Probably the first hint that Saintsbury might turn out to be a bit different from other wineries was when Dick Ward and David Graves chose to make a 1979 Santa Barbara barrel-fermented dry Riesling as one of their first wines, a bottling that didn't exactly have consumer demand behind it.
SAINTSBURY EMBRACES THE ZEITGEIST
It turns out that the limb upon which Saintsbury’s founders stepped in the late 1970s and early 1980s was occupied by a few other trailblazers who were caught up in what David describes as a “Zeitgeist” of innovation and change that pervaded the California wine industry at the time. With the release of Saintsbury’s first 2000 cases of Pinot Noir in 1981 and by committing to pursuing high quality California Pinot Noir, Dick and Dave put themselves in the forefront of a movement that would eventually catapult California wines, Carneros Pinot Noir and Saintsbury onto the world wine stage.
Both Dick and Dave came to wine with scientific background, Dave with a degree in biology from the University of California at Santa Cruz and Dick with a degree in structural engineering from Tufts University in Boston. They met in 1977 while attending graduate classes in Enology at U.C. Davis.
THE PHILOSOPHY OF INVESTIGATION
An important part of the success of Saintsbury has been its unwavering commitment not just to demonstrating that world-class Pinot Noir could be a California mainstay, but also the founders’ commitment to the vineyards of Carneros as a source of outstanding grapes. The appellation was officially created in 1983, two years after Saintsbury’s founding. In the more than a quarter century since jumping in to wine, Dick and Dave have always believed that innovation and a critical look at the vineyard, terroir and winemaking is the best route to increasing quality. Experimentation in the vineyard and in the cellar led to the early adoption of new Pinot Noir clones, the acceptance of new and intricate irrigation regimens, and critical evaluations of the impact of filtering and must manipulation, all results of a “philosophy of investigation” that have helped make Saintsbury one of America’s foremost Pinot Noir producers.
According to the Wine Spectator’s Matt Kramer, Saintsbury not only “single-handedly demolished the old assertion that California cannot create Pinot Noirs of a Burgundian standard of delicacy and finesse,” but also “no winery has been more methodical in its investigation and pursuit of newly available Pinot Noir clones than Saintsbury.”
BROWN RANCH AND SINGLE VINEYARD WINEMAKING
Today, Saintsbury’s viticultural and winemaking adventures are tied to their belief in particular Carneros vineyards that have proven to be the source of outstanding grapes. In 1995 Saintsbury’s Brown Ranch Vineyard, with its selection of new Dijon Clones, began contributing significant amounts of fruit to the winemaking program. This well-known vineyard is the source of the “Brown Ranch” bottlings and adds extra mid-palate richness and finess to the “Carneros” bottlings. The success of the single vineyard Brown Ranch Pinot has led Dick and Dave to seek out other single vineyard sources as part of a new “Vineyard Series” pinot noir program continuing their pursuit of showcasing the best of Carneros.
Now at 60,000 cases, Saintsbury remains at the forefront of the Pinot Noir revolution in California and the constant evolution in Carneros winemaking. Dick and Dave continue to inch their way out the limb that they ventured onto in the early days. However, now it is a place from which they can continue to innovate yet also peer down from to survey a part of the California wine industry they helped create and inspire.
© 2006 Saintsbury
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