by Gabe Saglie, Senior Editor, Travelzoo
photos courtesy of the Willson Family
story published in the Santa Barbara News-Press on 7/30/15
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| Tyler Willson at his Shepard Mesa vineyard |
The Willson
family harvested their pinot noir grapes last week, marking one of the earliest
picks of the 2015 harvest in Santa Barbara County.
“And I’m
glad we got it when we did,” Tyler Willson tells me. “Some of the grapes were starting to split –
because of the recent rains – and the bees were coming,” likely lured by the sweetness
of the exposed sugars.
Willson
Family Vineyard is unique on many fronts.
It’s in Carpinteria, for one: a half-acre of Clone 777 pinot noir that
Tyler and his wife, Mia, planted in 2009 in the backyard of their home. “We did it to see if we could,” he says,
echoing the dream scenario for many budding wine enthusiast drawn by the notion
of home grown vines. Three of their
neighbors have joined them, in fact, so that at least a couple of acres in the
foothills of Carpinteria’s Shepard Mesa community are now growing pinot noir and
sauvignon blanc.
Two miles
from the ocean’s edge, just past the fog line’s edge and at an elevation of
about 500 feet, the Willsons’ plot sees pretty dependable weather. Highs hover consistently in the 70s, “and it
never gets too hot during the day or too cold at night, like in Santa Ynez,”
Willson says, so the growing season is steady and long.
The pinot
noir these vines make is a genuine snapshot of the earth that breeds them. It’s not Santa Maria, not Sonoma , not
Burgundy. It’s Shepard Mesa through and
through, with snappy acids, a lean and bouncy mouth feel and bright flavors of
cherries and berries. I’ve tasted the
WIllsons’ inaugural vintage, 2012, and the subsequent 2013 pinot, several
times.
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| Tyler and Mia Willson |
“I know
terrior,” says Willson, who was a distributor for Henry Wine Group several
years ago; he runs a language school today.
“You have to love and take whatever that terroir is giving you, whatever
the climate or the soil happens to be.”
The call to
plant pinot was made with the help of Willson’s friend, Brett Escalera, the winemaking
mastermind behind the Sanger family of wines, including Consilience. “Within reason, he told me, ’Plant what you
like and make it work,’” the bidding vintner recalls. “This was going to be for our consumption and
friends, after all.”
The wine is
made by Fabian Castel, the right hand man for celebrated winemaker Adam Tolmach
at Ojai Vineyard. The wines have been
crushed and crafted at Four Brix Winery in Ventura for the last few years – the
2014 wines were bottled there just last week, after 10 months in oak. But the 2015 vintage marks a move to Tolmach’s
personal facility in the Ojai Valley.
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| 11-year-old Tyson Willson helps with the 2015 harvest |
Each harvest,
though, and even much of the physical labor that’s part of the process, is totally
a family affair. Tyler and Mia,
themselves, are the crew, often with the help of their 11-year-old son, Tyson. And even their 7-year-old daughter, Mylie,
likes to roll up her sleeves. “It was so
cool seeing her help clip grape clusters during harvest last week,” her dad
says.
And with
Mylie is where this story takes a heartwarming turn.
Mylie, a
beautiful and vivacious little girl, was born with Down syndrome. “All the tests we took during the pregnancy
came back negative,” Willson tells me.
“We didn’t find out the diagnosis until 24 hours after she was born.” Mylie would see multiple hospitalizations and
surgeries even before age two.
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| Mylie Willson frolics in her family's vineyard during the 2015 harvest |
Necessity (and,
as it turns out, serendipity) led the Willsons to Alpha Resource Center, the
Santa Barbara nonprofit that empowers
developmentally challenged kids, teens and adults through diverse life skill
training programs. They help them secure
housing, train for jobs and find a multitude of creative and recreational
outlets. Alpha impacts more than 2200
local families every day.
“They are
such wonderful people,” says Willson.
“Not just for what they’ve done for us, but also for what they do for so
many other people who can’t do it for themselves.”
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| Mylie helps her dad with harvest |
Among the
group’s resources is SlingShot, a working art gallery and studio at 220 W.
Canon Perdido in Santa Barbara where dozens of program participants create and
showcase their artwork in many forms.
Visitors get a chance to meet and mingle with the artists at work. And proceeds from the sales of pieces on
display here support Alpha’s ongoing work.
The Willsons
bought a large painting from SlingShot a few years ago – a vibrant, energetic piece
by artist Michael Constantine that they call “Impulse” and that now hangs
prominently in their home. “We looked at
it and immediately thought, ‘That would make a great wine label!’” recalls
Willson. “And that’s when it clicked!”
Artistic
inspiration, it turns out, would create a powerful way for the Willsons to give
back. “Impulse” became the label of the
Willson Family Vineyards’ 2013 Pinot Noir, making each bottle eye-popping and
special. And with the ’14 pinot now in bottle,
the Willsons are looking to select several other works of art – including a
painting called “Poppy” by Alpha artist Megan Isaac – to grace the glass.
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| 2015 pinot noir from the Willson Family Vineyard |
So the
Willson pinots have now become a powerful fundraising tool for Alpha Resource
Center. Wine tasting art shows have
started to pop up all over town, most recently at Churchill Jewelers in
downtown Santa Barbara. And SlingShot is
now part of First Thursday festivities in downtown Santa Barbara, drawing the
public in off the street both with art on the walls and Willson pinot in the
glass; the next event is Thursday, August 6th.
“We’re also working
on a silent auction for next year,” Willson says, “where bidders can take home
original works of art along with cases of our pinot that feature that same
piece right on the label.”
For more
information on Alpha Resource Center and SlingShot, visit
www.alphasb.org.
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I enjoyed a lovely pinot noir over the
weekend. It was easy-drinking, with
bright cherry flavors, earthiness and a clean finish. Made from Central Coast fruit, it paired
nicely with my wife’s homemade turkey tacos.
What was especially unique about these
wines, though, was not how they tasted, or their pedigree. It was their packaging. The pinot, on the new Alloy Wine Works label
from San Luis Obispo County's Field Recordings, comes in an aluminum can, just like any
inexpensive beer, complete with popable pull tab. The cabernet comes inside a small cardboard
box – a Tetra Pak is what the producer, CalNaturale, calls it. You open it by twisting a small plastic cap.
