By Gabe Saglie
(published in the Santa Barbara News-Press on November 28, 2011)
(published in the Santa Barbara News-Press on November 28, 2011)
As the Santa
Barbara wine buzz has exploded over the last decade, Los Olivos has become an
oenophile’s mecca. But as dozens of
tasting rooms have opened their doors, the quaint Santa Ynez Valley town has
seen many art galleries make way by closing theirs. Now, one young couple is putting the
spotlight back on art, with a venture that highlights the creative merits of
both jewelry and wine.
“Both
industries are extremely similar,” says jeweler Samantha Coghlan, 29. “It’s the idea of taking something the earth
is giving you – a rock or a grape – and transforming it into a beautiful
handcrafted product.”
Mrs. Coghlan
and her husband, Eric, fell in love with the Santa Ynez Valley when they
celebrated their first anniversary here in 2008 and spent several days wine
tasting. The small-town feel appealed to
them, and felt familiar; she’s from Sun Valley, Idaho and he hails from Kosciusko,
a Mississippi town of about 7,000 residents.
When they returned on their second anniversary, they looked at real
estate in earnest and stumbled upon a 100-acre property near Happy Canyon,
about a mile inland from where Highway 246 meets the Chumash Highway.
“There was a
cabernet vineyard already on it, but it had been neglected for years,” admits
Mr. Coghlan, 28. But farming was in his
blood; his father and grandfather had tended land in Mississippi since he was a
boy, so this was a challenge Mr, Coghlan welcomed. “We added 10 acres of vines and took it
totally organic,” he says, noting that the property where they grow grapes is
also the home where they’re raising their two sons, four-year-old Ozzy and
eight-month old Cash. “It’s important
for us not to have chemicals affecting our children and our animals.” Official organic certification of the
Coghlans’ land is pending.
But there’s
more than just the penchant for farming that runs through the Coghlans’
veins. The two are graduate jewelry
gemologists, having received their accreditation from the prestigious
Gemological Institute of America, or GIA, in San Diego. The organization is readily seen as a global
leader in diamond grading, jewelry education and gemology. “Getting a degree from here is seen like
having a PhD after your name” Mr. Coghlan says.
This is
where the couple met. He was there pursuing
the family business. In 1956, his
grandfather had bought what is now the longest running jewelry store in
Kosciusko, run today by Mr, Coghlan’s parents.
His father, himself, had ventured to Southern California to get his
training at GIA, and taught there for several years. The younger Coghlan’s focus was on jewelry
manufacturing arts and gemology. “Doing
work on a bench,” he explains, “like stone setting and metal snipping.”
She was there
following her dream. The young girl who
once considered a career in the CIA or FBI began handcrafting jewelry at age
16, “making leather cuff bracelets with antique fabric,” Mrs. Coghlan
recalls. She got such positive response
for her work, she evolved to working with gem stones and, by the time she
attended college in Arizona and became active in the trunk show circuit, wire
wrapping with beaded work. “Making
jewelry was my passion, and by now I felt that I really needed to have an
education,” she says. “Doing it just as
a hobby was not fulfilling enough.”
The couple
was engaged in 2006, and the pair reminisces with a laugh about the engagement
ring that sealed the deal. “The bad part
about that was that whatever diamond I bought, she’d know what it was,” he
jokes. “I couldn’t pull the wool over
her eyes.” Mrs. Coghlan’s ring finger is
now adorned with a champagne-colored diamond.
“We both love color,” he says, “and colored stones is what we enjoy
working with the most.” His wife agrees,
and adds, “Our jewelry is an expression of artistic abilities and colored
stones add a beautiful spectrum to that.”
So what’s a
couple with a penchant for the artistic – not to mention newly-acquired degrees
in jewels and a newly-acquired plot of vines -- to do?
Coghlan Vineyards
and Jewelers opened its doors along Alamo Pintado Road in Los Olivos on May
19. A unique venue, it features myriad
jewelry handcrafted entirely by Sam and Eric Coghlan, as well a tasting room
for their new line of wines.
The
Coghlans’ handiwork is featured in displays throughout the store and on the
walls, as well as inside the bar where wine curious visitors must rest their
glasses between sips. Talk about a
captive audience. The team crafts their
pieces both at a studio at home and a small shop setup inside the tasting
room. And the work load is steady. “We have to provide all of the inventory,”
Mr. Coghlan says, “and we don’t repeat anything, it’s all one-of-a-kind.”
Output
demand varies. “Eric works a lot with
18-carat metals and he may make three rings in a day,” says Mrs. Coghlan. “More intricate rings could take three days
or more to make.”
“And when we
were getting ready for a street fair [in Los Olivos] recently, Sam was beading
like crazy, pumping out five or six pieces in a day,” Mrs. Coghlan says.
Among the
best-selling jewels are wire-wrapped bird nest rings that she makes. At $30 apiece, “we can’t keep them on the
shelf,” she says. Her husband is gaining
a reputation for a high-end line of real antique Roman coins, which he sets in
gold. “They sell like crazy,” she adds.
Thanks to a
large selection of handmade beaded items, the Coghlans says they can keep price
points competitive. Gem stone earrings
sell for $30 a pair. Intricate necklaces
can range from $90-$150. “The most
expensive item we have is an 18-carat gold bracelet Eric made,” Mrs. Coghlan
says. It sells for $5000.
Custom
design is quickly becoming an important part of the Coghlans’ jewelry
business. “We’re updating, resetting,
recreating pieces for many clients,” says Mrs. Coghlan, “and they can walk away
wearing something for the first time in a long time and feeling good about
it.”
Modern
technology also plays a role. The couple
uses sophisticated computer programs to help clients design and visualize
jewelry pieces before they’re cast. “We
can see a rendered photograph of what they want us to make that’s so real, they
can tell us right away what we need to adjust,” says Mr. Coghlan. “Before, we had to do it all with wax.”
The Coghlans’
wine business is no less diligent.
They’re brought on celebrated local winekaer Alan Phillips to handcraft
a lineup that currently includes a 2009 estate cabernet sauvignon and a 50-50
cabernet-merlot dubbed Fusion, made with grapes off the family’s Happy Canyon
plot. “We make them so it’s not highly
extracted, not like the Napa Valley standard,” says Phillips. “Instead, we’re going for elegance and
balance, and luscious wines that are ready to drink as soon as you open them.”
Many of the
new planting on the Coghlans’ property will come online next year, so the
output of estate wines will increase.
For now, though, they’re sourcing grapes for their other wines from
other established vineyards. That
includes a Grenache blanc and two pinot noirs, one made with fruit from Richard
Sanford’s celebrated La Encantada Vineyards and the other from Rio Vista
Vineyard grapes.
Just like
any two pieces of handcrafted jewelry are unique, the two Coghlan pinots are
distinct. “My mantra is, let the grapes
dictate your style,” says Phillips. “Rio
Vista is in the warmest, eastern-most portion of the Santa Rita Hills, so it’s
more round and accessible, not as extracted.”
Le Encantada is in the much cooler, windier western stretch of the appellation,
and the resulting pinot is “more dense, darker, fuller,” Phillips adds.
The Coghlan
wine production is small – about 300 cases per lot. They’re sold exclusively through the tasting
room and, within a few weeks, the company’s new web site at www.coghlanvineyard.com.
The jewelry
and wine store on Alamo Pintado is on a one-acre piece of land which the
Coghlans also own, and which houses two other enterprises. One is the Art Outreach Gallery, a space the
Coghlans donated to the nonprofit group that promotes the arts to students
throughout Santa Barbara County. “It’s a
rotating art gallery where teachers can showcase their work,” says Mrs.
Coghlan, who’s also vice-president of the group’s board. “They can sell their work and proceeds go
back to Arts Outreach.”
The Coghlan
showroom’s other neighbor is another tasting room: Fontes-Phillips. This is Alan Phillips’ own boutique label,
which he owns with his wife Rochelle, and which features a highly-regarded
pinot noir, chardonnay and pinot gris; their celebrated Rhone rosé is playfully
called Panky. Suffice it to say, beyond
their business relationship, the Coghlans and Phillips have become good
friends, and the winemaker appreciates the Coghlans’ efforts at bringing two
seemingly disparate industries together.
“They’re
both artistic expressions in a different way,” he says.
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