Appellation envy: sometimes bigger isn’t better
I mentioned a few days ago that some Santa Maria Valley growers and vintners are looking to promote their region, which they feel doesn’t get the same respect as Santa Ynez Valley and Santa Rita Hills — err, I mean Sta. Rita Hills — not to mention Napa, Sonoma, etc. They want to draw more attention to it, and more tourists.
More recognition = more prestige = higher bottle prices. You don’t believe it? Ask Oakville.
Wine regions are like actors who go to Hollywood hoping to be discovered. Many are called; few are chosen. Show business isn’t a democracy. A few stars get the lead roles; everybody else waits tables. Talent alone is a necessary but not sufficient condition for success. It also requires a nearly-impossible-to-achieve combination of luck and promotion.
Napa Valley was already famous for being famous by the 1960s, so it wasn’t too hard to transfer that fame to the various sub-appellations (Stags Leap, Mt. Veeder, etc.) which then became famous in their own right. Ditto Sonoma County and its plethora of AVAs. It’s like being the child of a famous actor. (Hello, Charlie Sheen.) You start on third base.
Newer wine regions have to carve out their own paths through the jungle toward recognition. Inland wine regions have a tougher time, because the media long ago dismissed inland California as too hot for great wine. Coastal appellations have it easier. Carneros, Santa Lucia Highlands, Santa Rita Hills and Santa Ynez Valley all got famous pretty quickly, and a big part of that was because they’re located close to urban areas and freeways, thus making them accessible to wine lovers. (Anderson Valley also got famous, even though it’s fairly inaccessible. If it were closer to San Francisco, it would be even more famous.)
Santa Maria Valley is also near freeways and the mega cities of Southern California. What it lacks is a tourist infrastructure to draw visitors. It’s hard to imagine much of an infrastructure developing there anytime soon. The inns, B&Bs, restaurants, art galleries, antique stores and spas just aren’t there.
But the great vineyards are, and I couldn’t agree more with Appellation America’s description of Santa Maria Valley as “one the finest viticultural regions in North America.” It may well have the highest overall quality of grapes and wines of any AVA in California.
I mentioned promotion earlier as a way to help a wine region. It can be done. It’s expensive, though. Glossy brochures, winemaker tasting tours, free stuff for us wretches of the media. It can be hard to get all the local wineries on board. Who pays, and how much? Do you base dues on case production? Then the big wineries complain. If you don’t, the little ones howl. Sometimes, a winery that’s doing just fine, thank you, doesn’t want to cooperate with an effort that might help its rivals. I’ve seen politics in appellation movements that would make Washington blush. Well, maybe not Washington…
But does every great wine region have to be a tourist destination? I don’t think so. Santa Maria Valley is an insider’s secret, a special place that knowledgeable people go to while the crowds throng the tasting rooms of Santa Ynez Valley. Besides, whenever an appellation gets famous, more and more wineries move in, the average quality dips, and it begins to lose its luster. It happened in Carneros, it’s happening in Santa Lucia Highlands, and it will happen in Santa Maria Valley if it gets too popular.
March 25th, 2009 at 8:59 am
Steve
The Santa Maria Valley may not be “touristy” but its wines are no secret either.
Santa Maria is THE largest city in Santa Barbara County’s wine country. It is more upscale and has more “sprawl” than Lompoc, Santa Ynez and Solvang or Los Alamos. Its problem may be the focused infrastructure – after all Solvang has more hotels/motels per square foot.
Santa Maria’s vineyards are deep in the valley, far away from the city, so the infrastructure that is needed could not be built on anything existing – unless you count the tiny township of Garey – which you can miss if you don’t pay attention while driving through it. Never mind that for a portion of the drive into the valley, a new visitor would be thrown off by all the row crops – unless they looked up and to the north: at the Santa Maria bench where the biggest vineyards sit.
Still, some winery estates are trying to develop hospitality centers. I think this will take time to develop. I understand that the tourism can generate as much if not more local revenue than wine sales (especially through distributors). This is why they want to pursue this avenue.
Funny thing is that the Santa Ynez Valley has had far more trouble with its identity – hence the Sta. Rita Hills in the west and the soon to be Happy Canyon of Santa Barbara in the East. In between, you have very varied climates and vineyards that are constantly being reinvented (and replanted). The Ballard Canyon area is finding its groove with Syrah, but the in-between sites have toyed with sauv blanc, zinfandel, cab sauvingon and cab franc as well as merlot and p verdot. These have been scrapped in favor of syrah and grenache (nobody saw the potential of these sites for Chinon-like reds, I guess).
Santa Maria does not have this problem. Thanks to people like Jim Clendenen and Ken Brown, the identity of Santa Maria Valley is firmly tied to chardonnay and pinot noir.
March 25th, 2009 at 10:12 am
Steve
I forgot to mention that much of Santa Maria Valley’s vineyards are either way off the beaten path, are not affiliated with an estate or label, or are part of a larger holding which spans several AVAs – with a production facility several miles away. Additionally, many wines labeled with the SMV AVA are made in an AP facility in the city – either Fess Parker’s or Central Coast Wine Services. These huge industrial buildings are neither romantic nor are they conducive to tourism like the Lompoc Wine Ghetto is.
Finally, there are large hospitality centers: Terravant in Buellton and a newer one in Solvang. This model may be a quick solution for Santa Maria but one has to always think if that kind of facility in Santa Maria could compete with the others.
March 25th, 2009 at 10:52 am
Arthur: And Syrah.
March 25th, 2009 at 11:17 am
Steve, fantastic blog post today. With the Cambrian-esque explosion of wineries over the last 10 years (mine included) and the rapidly growing interest in wine by a whole new generation of Americans, there are many regions all over the country grappling with this very issue. It is the proverbial double-edged sword. This is a must-read for wine-biz folks in any region, regardless of whether or not their place is “famous” yet.
You raise a great point about the qualities (all qualities, not just wine quality) that should turn a region into a destination getting diluted with new wineries. But the flip-side of that coin is that if you don’t increase the visitation to that region, now you have to spread the same amount of dollars spent on wine (and all support industries) out to twice as many (or more) wineries.
Man…somebody call me when they get the right formula figured out!!
March 25th, 2009 at 11:38 am
Steve,
Yes
Bob Lindquist has done a lot with SMV Syrah. While this variety holds much promise in the warmer nooks and crannies of SMV, it is not the hallmark grape of the SMV largely because the AVA has bet on chardonnay and pinot noir over the years as a flagship varieties.
March 25th, 2009 at 2:35 pm
[...] latest blog post, renowned wine writer Steve Heimoff of the Wine Enthusiast and SteveHeimoff.com gives high marks to the wines of the Santa Maria [...]
March 25th, 2009 at 4:08 pm
Steve: SMV unknown? Ummmm, I don’t think so. Maybe underdeveloped, and under visited, oh, I would tend to agree with that point. But I’m thinking about some of the brands, winemakers and vineyards originating in the SMV,: i.e., Brands such as Cambria, Qupe, Au Bon Climant, Rancho Sisquoc;Byron; Winemakers-Jed Steele, Ken Brown, Ken Volk, Dave Guffy (now at Hess), Lane Tanner,Jim Clendenen, Bob Lindquist, Gary Burk, Denise Shurtleff; Vineyards- Bien Nacido; Tepesquet (Cambria), River Bench, Costa de Oro.
Many of the wineries built in the SMV were built without having the idea of Napa like visitor centers being built. These were winemaking facilities in a rural area, on rural roads, focusing on growing quality grape, and making better than good wines. But this fact did not hamper reputation or brand development. While my love of Pinot Noir was born during my time in Burgundy, it came to maturity in the Santa Maria Valley.
The idea that the Santa Maria Valley is a second string anything must have Bob Miller rolling over in his grave
March 25th, 2009 at 5:10 pm
John, Oh, I totally agree. It’s the Santa Marians themselves who think they’re second string [not in quality but in public perception].
I wouldn’t have written this post if they hadn’t told me so.
March 26th, 2009 at 7:59 am
I would have to take exception with Arthur about the “in between sites” scrapping Bordeaux varietals for syrah and grenache. There are quite a number of us that have quarter of a century old Sauv Blanc, Cab Franc and Merlot planted in that area, and they do quite well thank you! But to Steve’s point, we are kind of lost in the SYV appellation, which covers way too large an area of diverse climates and soils.
March 26th, 2009 at 11:37 am
Karen
I agree with you on the issue of Bordeaux varieties at various SYV sites. They do well, they make for good wines with a good, distinctive character.
But you have to admit that many in the SYV have given in to the syrah and grenache craze and pulled their Bordeaux varieties. One glaring case in point: Beckmen pulling their cab vines in 2005.
My point was that (mid) SYV Bordeaux varieties do very well, but some growers seem abandon them. Why else would they abandon them? Nonetheless, my point did not come across very well.
March 26th, 2009 at 1:30 pm
In my travels to grape growing regions from Placerville to Temecula, Santa Maria has to be the most unappealing. The chosen grape varieties may love it, but the human ecology is miserable. It has the vibe of a central valley town. It will never develop as a wine tourism destination and so be it. The super star wineries don’t need to be situated around a place like Los Olivos. They’re distributed nationally. Just as Napa County has American Canyon, Santa Barbara County has Santa Maria.
March 26th, 2009 at 1:49 pm
Tom: Oouch!
March 26th, 2009 at 1:50 pm
Arthur, Karen: My experience with SYV Cabernet Sauvignon has been pretty disappointing. I think that’s why they’re pushing into
Happy Canyon. We’ll just have to wait and see if it works.
March 26th, 2009 at 2:41 pm
If you were looking for cough syrup, Steve, then I can understand your disappointment. A touch of herbaciousness ain’t a bad thing. OF course you can avoid that anywhere by hanging the grapes out to oblivion and making raisin wine. But I believe that is a different animal….
March 27th, 2009 at 6:53 am
As for the question of popularity ruining a good thing–I don’t necessarily think so. When something you enjoy gains popularity it means you can finally interact with more people over it. Of course, if you’re the type who feels bitter and says, “I liked them before they were big” you’ll have some trouble coping. Otherwise, it should be a treat to have an appellation you enjoy get the attention it deserves, allowing them to sustain business for years to come. Is tourism inherently bad? Only as bad as the will to explore and experience the new.