story published in the Santa Barbara News-Press on 3/24/16
Turiya
Wines’ Angela Soleno has a very intimate relationship with the wines she makes.
“Just look
at the dark color she shows off,” she says of her 2011 Shapeshifter ($100), a sophisticated
petit verdot-based blend. “Who is she?
Who cares – you’re in love,” she continues.
“But be careful with this crafty one: things are not always what they
seem.”
The
Shapeshifter name was actually inspired by a girl Soleno once knew – a young
woman who was friendly enough when the evening was young but, fueled by several
glasses of wine, would be devastatingly different when night fell. A glimpse, if you will, into this winemaker’s
personal side. As a wine, the
newly-released Shapeshifter is deliciously layered and profound, with bouncy
fruit up front and a fleshy backbone on the back end. “But it’s a little higher in alcohol, so I
make no guarantees,” she jests.
Her 2011
Golden God ($125) is an homage to one of her favorite films, “Almost
Famous.” In one scene, a strung-out
rocker uses the phrase to describe himself while shouting from a rooftop. “It symbolizes all my dreams coming true, and
just feeling good,” she tells me. This
50-50 blend of petit verdot and sangiovese is powerful and voluptuous, a tasty
balancing act between muscle and finesse.
“Who says God’s not a girl?” she says to describe this wine. “This gentle beauty is a symbol of female
strength – the darker undersides of the earth, perhaps where a volcano once
erupted.”
Turiya, the
Sanskrit word for “pure consciousness,” is the ultimate example of garagiste
winemaking. Soleno produces just 200
cases a year in her Lompoc winery. And
that’s only if the vintage permits; Soleno made no wine in 2010 because
humidity prevented the late-hanging Bordeaux rapes she likes to work with to
ripen all the way.
“My approach
is really minimal intervention, letting the fruit decide when it’s ready to be
picked, cold soaking, letting it ferment, putting it in barrel and just tasting
it over time,” she says. “My wines end
up being the best representation of what’s going on in vineyard and of what’s
not going on in the winery.”
Pretty deep
for a young winemaker – Soleno is 36 – who released her first wines just three
years ago. But Turiya is clearly an
inspired project, an endeavor driven by both intuition and knack. And by patience: the 2011 wines spent 44
months in barrel and 6 months in bottle before they were released. “I want to deliver wines that already have
some age, that have already developed those layers and that finish,” she says.
The
result? Wines that are consistently
complex, robust and multi-dimensional.
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| Angela Soleno sampling from barrels (photo by Tenley Fohl) |
The 2011
vintage marks Turiya’s third vintage.
And a tiny annual production of just 100 to 200 cases – for 2011, 43 cases of the Shapeshifter,
23 cases of the Golden God, 23 cases of an all-Petit Verdot ($85) from Paso
Robles’ Solana Vineyard and 26 cases of an all-Sangiovese ($150) from
Ballard Canyon’s Stolpman Vineyard – means the wines are available only in
limited quantities and only through an allocation list.
The public
gets a rare chance this weekend, though, to taste the 2011 releases, as well as
barrel samples from subsequent vintages.
The annual Turiya Open House, free to the public, takes place this
Saturday, March 26th, from 11am to 5pm, at 316 N. F Street in
Lompoc. Appetizers, and live music from Ventura-based
Alas Latinas, included. Call
805-478-7016 for more information.
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