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Newsletter: Winter/Spring 2004Offering Wines from the Santa Rita Hills, CA'State of the Uva' address: The State of the Uva* at Clos Pepe Vineyards and Estate Wines is strong, and quickly growing stronger. Great reviews keep rolling in from just about every nationally recognized wine publication. Whether you follow Robert Parker, Wine Spectator, Wine Enthusiast, Decanter, or the local Santa Barbara 'buzz', you've seen a lot about Clos Pepe in 2003. Each Vintage brings higher scores for wines sourced from our fruit and for our Estate wines. Robert Parker graced our 2001 Clos Pepe Estate Pinot Noir with a 90 point score, and our 2000 won a Double-Gold Medal. Siduri 'Clos Pepe Vineyard' Pinot Noir 2001 tied for the highest scoring Pinot Noir (Wine Spectator) from anywhere in California for the entire '01 vintage. And if that wasn't enough, Brian Loring's 2002 'Clos Pepe' Pinot Noir just received a knockout 95 points (!) from the Wine Spectator. Clos Pepe is quickly establishing itself as the 'Grand Cru' of California Pinot Noir and Chardonnay. This newsletter will bring you up to speed on Clos Pepe, and offer you the rare opportunity to buy Clos Pepe Estate wines directly. We expect the 2002 Clos Pepe Estate wines to outscore anything we've done to date. The Pinot is dense, purple and amazingly rich and the Chardonnay is more sumptuous than previous vintages. This little vineyard is growing up quickly, and the 'juice' it produces is exciting wine lovers all over the country. *uva=Spanish for grape! Critical Reviews:
A few choice words about some of our producers and their Clos Pepe Pinot Noirs:2002 Loring Wine Company Pinot Noir 'Clos Pepe' '...something to behold for its dense, rich layers of flavor [...] among the best Pinots I've tasted from California. An extraordinary wine, with fabulous fragrances of rose petal, lilac, ripe plum, boysenberry and blackberry all beautifully focused and tapered. Exhibits dense, rich, concentrated flavors on the palate, with a finish that keeps pushing forth new nuances on a plush texture.' (95 points: J. Laube at the Wine Spectator) 2001 Siduri Pinot Noir 'Clos Pepe' 'Amazing elegance, richness and purity of flavor, with a tight, deeply concentrated core of wild berry, huckleberry and boysenberry fruit that's dense and sharply focused. Ample tannins for cellaring. Best from 2004 through 2010. 189 cases made. (93 points from James Laube at the Wine Spectator) 2001 Siduri Pinot Noir 'Clos Pepe' (Parker 92 Points) 'Very impressive!' (Robert Parker, WA #149) 2001 Ojai Vineyard Pinot Noir 'Clos Pepe' (Parker 92 Points) "The brilliant [2001 Ojai 'Clos Pepe' Pinot Noir's] compelling aromas of forest floor, black fruits, and white flowers are followed by a medium to full-bodied, dense, ripe wine with great fruit, tremendous purity, and a long concentrated finish. -- Robert Parker, Wine Advocate, issue 149 2001 Brewer-Clifton Pinot Noir 'Clos Pepe' (Parker 91 Points) "This offering is a dead ringer for a top-flight Burgundy." -- Robert Parker, Wine Advocate, issue 149 2000 Ojai Pinot Noir 'Clos Pepe' (Parker 90 Points) "...a dead ringer for a premier cru red Burgundy from Pommard." -- Robert Parker, Wine Advocate, issue 149 2002 Wines: We've tightened up our production with the 2002 Vintage. We've gone back to a single bottling of Chardonnay ('Homage to Chablis' -- 108 cases), and slightly increased our Pinot Noir production (about 250 cases). We expect these 2002 wines will sell out by Summer, so make sure to order early. As the reviews continue to improve, so do the phone calls for our wines. We want to make sure our 'core' customers (who didn't need a critic to tell them the wines were special), have the opportunity to buy our wines each year. Wines from 2002 are immediately available to the Mailing List, and will go on sale to the general public around April, 2004. For the third year in a row we have kept prices on wines unchanged. We think they represent an excellent value. Vintage 2002 was characterized by a long, cool season, a very small crop, and wines that show unbelievable richness and concentration. We honestly believe that these are the finest wines we've produced, and look forward to sending them to the wine press for their evaluation. More information is available on these 2002 wines at our online store: www.clospepe.com. Thanks also to David Clausen, our 2002 Intern, for his hard work. The wines are great thanks to you. Tasting Notes, 2002 wines: (for Tasting Notes from previous vintages, check the website: www.clospepe.com) Clos Pepe Estate 2002 Pinot Noir: The greatest vintage of Clos Pepe Estate Pinot Noir to date. From tiny yields in the 2002 vintage, between 3/4 of a ton to 1 ton per acre, this wine is a dark, rich, structured version of pure Santa Rita Hills Pinot Noir. Packing tons of mineral and spice-infused dark berry fruit, this wine is unusually generous and delicious in its youth, but certainly has the guts and the structure to go five years in a cellar with no problem at all. The nose offers up excellent fruit purity, with blackberry, blueberry and cassis. The wine shows excellent weight and glass-emptying charm -- a dark purple color and a balanced tannin structure that's impressive and softer than one might imagine for a wine with such dense color and extract. The tannins are fine, and I expect this wine to be wonderfully silky and supple with a few years of patient cellaring. 228 cases produced. $35 retail from the winery. Vigneron Select: $40 Clos Pepe Estate Chardonnay 2002 'Homage to Chablis': Rich pear, nectarine, hazelnut and tropical notes in the nose, excellent purity and sweetness on the attack, and surprisingly vibrant acidity and Clos Pepe mineral pedigree in the finish. A wonderful balance of full-bore California ripeness and a finish that hints of the minerals and structure of a Chablis or White Burgundy. As always, no new oak. Fermented in stainless steel 'barrels', sur lies, and finished in neutral 7 year old+ French Oak. Expect greatness.
Cellar Releases:Clos Pepe Estate Chardonnay 2000 'Cuvee Quercus': I generally shun oak in my Chardonnay. But in the spirit of experimentation, I decided in 2000 to make a single barrel of Wente Clone Chardonnay in a brand new oak barrel. The barrel was Slovenian, recognized pre-WWII as the finest wine oak in the world. The smell of the dry barrel was intoxicating -- beautiful toast and vanilla. The wine lived 14 months in this barrel, and was bottled without filtration, straight from the barrel, by hand. The wine really soaked up the rich character of the new barrel, and I decided (against a tradition of California winemaking that tends to release wines too early in their lives), to cellar the entire 22 case production until I thought the wine showed balance between the fruit, the malolactic elements, and the oak. It took two years of cellaring, but this wine is officially READY! This is a Clos Pepe white for those who prefer a little oaky richness with their minerality. We suggest you buy a bottle or two of this wine to taste next to the 'Homage to Chablis' or 'Barrel Fermented' (both low-oak, Chablis-style wines) to see how oak influences the character of Santa Rita Hills Chardonnay. This is also an excellent wine to examine the influence of Eastern European oak, and how refined it can be. The name comes from the French word for a special blend of wine: 'Cuvee', and the Latin name for the oak family of trees: 'Quercus'. $20 direct from the winery. Clos Pepe Estate Chardonnay 2001 'Barrel Fermented' (89 points, Wine Enthusiast). The low-yield, sustainably farmed Chardonnay grapes really shine through in this wine. It is quite Chablisian in style...chock full of minerals, good acidity, with an added layer of malolactic complexity. There's little oak here, (all barrels were 6 years older or more) but there are ML+, barrel fermented aromas and esters: butterscotch, lime-blossomy-creme brulee, wet stones as well as pear, apple, pineapple and grapefruit lurking in there as well. This wine spent 11 months in neutral French oak, was harvested the second week of October, and has spent 22 months after bottling in a nice, cool cellar. Expect it to peak in a year or two, from 2005-2007. Try this wine with sand dabs in a lemon-cream sauce, blue cheese, or fried chicken. . Retail: $20 direct from the winery, Special offer: $175 for one case, $300 for 2 cases (max). Clos Pepe Estate Chardonnay 2001 'Sweet Farewell': Sweet but not sticky, the sugar is enough to make this a dessert-style wine, but austere enough to let the mineral charm to show through. Expect a fruit-drenched nose of apricot, pear and honey, excellent acidity, and Clos Pepe mineral charm. Harvested in January, 2002 after allowing the grapes to raisin and develop the noble Botrytis. ($15/bottle) Family and Pets: It is with great sadness that we report that our beloved Dalmatian 'Bud', who served as our faithful companion and mascot for more than a dozen Vintages, passed on to the 'big duck-pond in the sky', where we hope he is surrounded by warmth, love and unending meaty treats. You will see Bud gracing our 2002 labels, where he overlooks the Clos Pepe Pond, which was his favorite haunt in his youth. The other dogs and pets are doing great, including the greyhounds (Indi and Tiva), the border collie (Rosa), the surviving Dalmatian (Samson), our aging but spirited pug (Winston), and our newest addition-a devilishly handsome Italian Greyhound named Oliver. All of the humans at Clos Pepe are doing great! Steve Pepe (the Vigneron) is slowly settling into his duties on the vineyard after retiring from his full time attorney duties. Steve is also spit-shining his first (non-law) publication, an enhanced compilation of his early Clos Pepe newsletters. Cathy Pepe (L'agent) is also retiring from the Law Biz and is looking forward to seeing her dream home finished here at Clos Pepe. Rob, Stacy, Jen and Nicole Hagen have returned to California to live in Orange County where Rob heads up a technology company called Aqueduct. Chanda Hagen, assistant winemaker, continues to make great strides in Dressage and Jumping with her Hanoverian horse, Chase. Chase has a new show name: Charlemagne (for his regal size, and for the Corton-Charlemagne vineyard in Burgundy). Wes Hagen continues to farm and make our wine, writes for WineMaker Magazine and the Burgundy Report, and runs the office here at Clos Pepe. Website: We're excited to announce that our new website is up and running! Go to www.clospepe.com and take a tour of the slick new site, with new pictures, the same great content, and our online secure wine store! You can order your Clos Pepe Estate Wines right from the comfort of your computer now! Just surf and click, and we'll do the rest! We think our customers will love the options and info the website offers. 2003 Vintage: The 2003 Vintage is harvested, fermented and settling in barrel. The Vintage is defined by tiny yields, full ripeness, and an incredible balance of 2002's color and richness, and 2001's structure, tannin and 'grip'. We expect this to be a worthy successor to the amazing 2002 vintage. The Chardonnays are a bit dryer and more austere than the 2002's; laser-pure in their spicy green apple/mineral character. The Pinot Noirs are purple and opaque in color, showing wonderful spicy, gamey, blackberry, strawberry and blueberry character. All 2003's show marked concentration, solid structure and acidity. If you're in the Santa Barbara area in 2004, give me a call at 805-735-2196 and set up an appointment to taste these wines from barrel. You'll love them. Vintage 2003 will be bottled in late 2004, and released in February 2005. Our 2003 Intern was David Gaertig of Lompoc. Thanks, Dave, for all your late-night punch downs! Ordering: Attached to this newsletter you will find an order form for new 2002 releases as well as some special offers from our Library of 2000's and 2001's. There's a few ways to order Clos Pepe Estate wines:
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