Harrison Clarke Vineyard

Pour

2005 Harrison Clarke Vineyard Grenache

THE WINEMAKING HISTORY of Santa Barbara County’s Santa Ynez Valley is one of fits and starts. From the time of their arrival, the Spanish explorers recognized the agricultural potential of this lush region, which sprawls from east to west between the Santa Ynez and San Rafael Mountain ranges. The padres who followed them, establishing California’s extensive network of mission settlements, hesitated neither to exploit the territory’s native populations nor use its rich pasture lands.

At Misión La Purísima Concepción de Maria Santísima, founded in 1787, the Franciscans dug wells and designed systems of aqueducts that filled pools and fountains, nourishing elaborate gardens, vegetable crops, orchards, livestock and, of course, vine yards. These latter, planted with the rude and rustic Mission grape——Criolla——were the forerunners of what has become in the late 20th and 21st centuries a thriving industry. Appropriately, some of the area’s finest wines are grown today in the Purisima Hills region, located within the Santa Rita Hills appellation.

Contemporary winemaking in Santa Ynez did not begin in earnest until the mid-1970s, when, during a blind tasting in Paris, a group of elite critics chose Napa Valley wines over most of the first-growth wines of Bordeaux. Fueled by this fresh fervor for the wines of the Golden State, Santa Barbara vintners planted Cabernet Sauvignon and Merlot, anticipating greater consumer demand for California iterations of these varietals. However, the warmer climate of the region tended to yield fleshy, fruity Bordeaux-style wines that lacked the tannic structure of those from the north. Gradually, as producers gained more experience, they discovered that two traditional red varietals from France’s Rhône region, Syrah and Grenache, grew and ripened to perfection in the valley. By the 1990s, Santa Barbara’s Rhône race was under way.

Among the contenders were Roger Harrison and Hilarie Clarke Harrison, who acquired approximately a dozen acres in the Purisima Hills, which they planted with these two vines. The 2005 Harrison Clarke Grenache ($27), which is sourced from a mere 1.5 acres, though small in quantity is large in character and style. Often Grenache can be acerbic and tart, but this convivial expression exudes aromas of ripe raspberry and milk chocolate, while the supple and enticing palate pours forth a bracing bath of black cherry; sweet, dark tobacco; red plum; anise; mild white pepper and café au lait.

805-686-0850; harrisonclarkewine.com.

Do you like what you read? Subscribe to San Diego Magazine »