November 10, 2004
November 10, 2004
Just before Halloween I ran into winegrower Louis Lucas over at Cafe Quackenbush in Los Alamos. We talked about the 2004 harvest over Jesper’s tomato dill soup and a fresh tuna salad sandwich.“The fact it was an early season gave the grapes a chance to get ripe,” Louis told me. “There’s two ways to ripen the fruit,” Louis added, “the sun or the vine.”
The vines got a “wake up call” in March of this year with an early hot spell. The summer months were even and reasonably cool until we got the heat spell Labor Day weekend. Because the season was early, the fruit ripened pretty naturally on the vine and a lot of fruit was ripe and ready to pick by Labor Day.
The early season in 2004 gave sufficient “hang time” for the fruit to ripen on the vine.
This harvest, crop sizes were not larger, and the clusters tended to be smaller, Louis told me, adding that the yields were “pretty much decent.”
Summarizing, Louis told me the ’04 harvest will be good, some wines will be affected by the Labor Day heat, and when I asked him to rate the vintage on a scale of one to ten, he gave it a rating of seven. An early harvest, Louis said “It’s Halloween, and I’m through. Usually we’re picking ‘til the 15th.”
Louis Lucas is one of the grape-growing pioneers of Santa Barbara County. He planted his first vines out at Tepusquet east of Santa Maria back in 1970. My first experience with his fruit came in the form of chardonnay for the 1975, 1977 and 1978 vintages. Louis grew the fruit, the wines were made by ZD in northern California. Legendary wines as I recall, and this Santa Barbara County fruit received more acclaim from drinkers and enthusiasts than the northern California fruit from Sonoma and Napa!
Lucas & Lewellen own about 400 acres with Goodchild Vineyard in the San Maria Valley, Valley View- the old vineyard owned by George Ott, east of Solvang in the Santa Ynez Valley-and the old Carrari Vineyard just east of Los Alamos.
“There properties represent three distinct vineyards in the county,” Louis told me. Goodchild in the Santa Maria Valley is in a cool region where varieties like chardonnay and pinot noir excel. “Valley View, where it’s warmer, produces terrific cabernet sauvignon and sauvignon blanc,” he added. Then there’s the old Carrari vineyard with a plethora of Italian varietals.
Lucas & Lewellen have two tasting rooms in Solvang, Lucas & Lewellen at 1645 Copenhagen Drive and their Mandolina tasting room at 1665 Copenhagen Drive. (Mandolina is their label for their Italian varietal wines.) Both tasting rooms are open daily from 11 a.m. to 6 p.m., and Friday nights until 9 p.m.
Bon appetit!
Wine lover and Santa Maria Times Wine columnist, Bob Senn, lives in the bucolic Los Alamos Valley and owns the Los Olivos Wine & Spirits Emporium. Los Alamos is home to two fine eating establishments-Cafe Quackenbush and American Flatbread.
