East to West: Everything’s coming up rosé at Dragonette Cellars

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Brandon Sparks-Gillis, Dragonette Cellars' rosé, Happy Canyon of Santa Barbara AVA, Jen Hart, Jessica Gasca, John Dragonette, Steve Dragonette

“East to West” Revisted:” The vast Santa Ynez Valley appellation encompasses two smaller AVAs: Happy Canyon of Santa Barbara to the east, and the Sta. Rita Hills to the west. At the east end, various Bordeaux grapes thrive in the heat; on the west end, it’s all about pinot noir and chardonnay, which flourish in the fog.

The grenache, mourvedre and syrah grapes harvested from Vogelzang Vineyard last September now comprise the 2013 Rosé, Happy Canyon of Santa Barbara.

The labels for Dragonette’s new vintage are simple but elegant — a lot like the wine itself

Dragonette’s owner/winemakers released the wine just last week, said Brandon Sparks-Gillis, co-owner with his wife, Michelle. Brothers Steve and John Dragonette and their wives, Jen Hart and Mitchi Dragonette, respectively, round out the team of owners.

The three couples collaborate to carry out all of the winemaking, and most of the marketing and sales of the winery, based in Buellton.

James Sparks, winemaker at nearby Liquid Farm and former assistant winemaker at Dragonette, loads a pallet of empty cases onto the mobile bottling truck

“This wine is a southern French inspired blend of grenache and mourvedre, specially farmed for rosé at the Vogelzang Vineyard,” according to http://www.dragonettecellars.com.

“We harvest these blocks (over) several cool night and early-morning picks, and bring them straight to the winery, where they are gently whole-cluster pressed over a long, slow press cycle to provide just the right amount of skin contact, while gently extracting maximum flavors. We added five percent syrah, which had been bled off the syrah fermenters, for additional complexity and body.”

At 7:30 a.m. on Wednesday, Feb. 26, Brandon Sparks-Gillis, Steve Dragonette, Jen Hart, Jessica Gasca (national sales director) and small crew of friends starting bottling several new releases, this rosé among them.

Fill ‘er up! The 2013 rosé gets pumped into glass on the bottling line

I stood in the shadows of the winery, watching and listening to the mesmerizing “clink-clink” of empty glass as Sparks-Gillis stacked case after case of bottles onto the belt. At the end of the bottling line, Gasca labeled and date stamped each full case.

Before breaking for lunch, they’d finished bottling the approximately 950 cases of the new Happy Canyon of Santa Barbara Rosé. That’s a LOT of rosé …

Viola! The finished product: Dragonette Cellars’ 2013 Rosé, Happy Canyon of Santa Barbara

The crew also bottled about 300 cases of the 2012 Vogelzang Vineyard Sauvignon Blanc; 60 cases of Dragonette’s second rosé — the 2013 Sta. Rita Hills Pinot Noir — and two of the 2012 pinot noirs — roughly 425 cases from Fiddlestix Vineyard, and 175 cases of the Sta. Rita Hills, “Black Label,” Steve Dragonette told me.

Last in the “East to West” series will be a trip back to Lindley Wines when Frankie and Jake bottle some of their new releases.

East to West: Back East, with Dragonette Cellars

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Brandon Sparks-Gillis, Happy Canyon of Santa Barbara AVA, John Dragonette, Sauvignon blanc, Vogelzang Vineyard

Nearly one month has passed since I found time to pop in on John Dragonette and Brandon Sparks-Gillis, two of the three winemaker/owners of Dragonette Cellars in Buellton.

What I missed: Documenting additional fermentation of the grenache and mourvedre grapes that comprise Dragonette Cellars’ 2013 rosé. Both were harvested in recurring picks from Vogelzang Vineyard in Happy Canyon of Santa Barbara; the moniker of this particular Dragonette rosé is Happy Canyon of Santa Barbara.

By the time I made it back Oct. 18, those juices had been barreled down and were aging away.

In fact, all of the grapes harvested for the 2013 vintage were “in house,” Dragonette said. “All of our fruit has been in for about 10 days.”

Grenache for the 2013 Dragonette Cellars’ rosé is barreled down

“The rosé is now consolidated in barrels of varying sizes — some in barrels, some in (the larger) puncheons,” Sparks-Gillis said. And the juices were fermented at varying temperatures; some via a cool fermentation and others without any temperature control, he added. The commonality: All utilized native yeasts.

The morning I visited, the two were pressing off about six tons of Dragonette’s 2013 syrah from the John Sebastiano Vineyard.

Dragonette calls the 2013 harvest a “fast and furious” one, with several grape varietals reaching optimal ripeness within just a few weeks’ time. Dragonette’s first pick was sauvignon blanc Aug. 26 from Grassini Vineyard, and the harvesting wound up on Oct. 8 with grenache.

For comparison, Dragonette said, “This time last year, we were just picking grenache and syrah from Sebastiano Vineyard. This year, we’re already pressing it.”

Sure sign things are in barrel: Fermenting bins stacked outside the winery, cleaned and ready for 2014

“Since the entire season was a dry one,” Sparks-Gillis said, the lack of rain and extra degree days culminated in a harvest that “broke records — by a long stretch,” for being so abbreviated.

Missing from the weather picture were late-season heat spikes and rain, which can translate into sugar-ripe but unbalanced (immature) grapes, and a risk of cluster mildew.

The result: “Reasonable sugar levels — a little overripe, but good overall, and good phenolic maturity,” Dragonette said.

As far as yields for their 2013 Happy Canyon of Santa Barbara rosé and two lots of sauvignon blanc (from Vogelzang and Grassini vineyards), the two estimated the 75 barrels destined for rosé will produce roughly 1,050 cases.

Dragonette’s 2013 sauvignon blanc consists of about 30 Grassini barrels and 40 Vogelzang barrels, Sparks-Gillis noted.

The two said they anticipate bottling the finished rosé in March or April, and the sauvignon blancs between April and August.

Coming next: Back out West, with Lindley Wines

Copyright Laurie Jervis and http://www.centralcoastwinepress.com

East to West: A Tale of Two Harvests: Dragonette Cellars

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Brandon Sparks-Gillis, Dragonette Cellars' rosé, Grenache, Happy Canyon of Santa Barbara AVA, John Dragonette, Mourvèdre, Vogelzang Vineyard

Grenache vines produce large grape clusters like this one — which will eventually be part of Dragonette Cellars’ 2013 Happy Canyon rosé

Today: East, back to Buellton with Dragonette Cellars

Early Monday morning, Sept. 23, the remainder of Dragonette Cellars’ Vogelzang Vineyard grapes — grenache and mourvedre — were harvested and trucked to the winery.

Roughly two tons of grenache grapes were already dripping juice via a “free run” — no pressure — from the press into the tray below when I caught up winemakers Brandon Sparks-Gillis and John Dragonette about 8:30 a.m. at the Buellton facility.

“This is it from Vogelzang” for the 2013 harvest, Dragonette said. The winemakers source some of their sauvignon blanc and the grenache and mourvedre for their Happy Canyon of Santa Barbara rosé from Vogelzang Vineyard.

The two planned to press off everything — 2.5 grenache tons and 2 tons of mourvedre — that morning. The pressed juice would be drained into a tank for one night and then pumped into various neutral barrels Tuesday, Dragonette said.

Next in the series: Frankie and Jake Lindley survive a week of minimal sleep and maximum grapes as they finish their estate harvest (pinot noir and chardonnay) and get more pinot noir from two more of their other vineyard sources.

Copyright Laurie Jervis and centralcoastwinepress.com

East to West: A Tale of Two Harvests

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Ben Merz, Brandon Sparks-Gillis, Happy Canyon of Santa Barbara, John Dragonette, Santa Ynez Valley AVA, Steve Dragonette, Vogelzang Vineyard

About East to West: With a series of stories, I’ll share harvest with members of two very hands-on owner/winemaker teams as they pick, ferment and begin to age several grapes picked for the 2013 vintage. With “East to West,” I want to convey how the vast Santa Ynez Valley appellation encompasses two smaller AVAs: Happy Canyon of Santa Barbara to the east, and the Sta. Rita Hills to the west. At the east end, various Bordeaux grapes thrive in the heat; on the west end, it’s all about pinot noir and chardonnay, which flourish in the fog. The players: Dragonette Cellars, based in Buellton, and featuring Lindley Wines of Lompoc. East to West. And so it begins … 

At 6:45 a.m. on Friday, Sept. 6, I parked my car alongside Happy Canyon Road, the southern border of Vogelzang Vineyard, to track down the Dragonette brothers and a harvest crew.

John Dragonette has told me the brothers’ plan for today is to have picking crews from Coastal Vineyard Care Associates, the management team at Vogelzang and many of the county’s other top sites, clip several tons from the remaining vine rows of sauvignon blanc that Dragonette Cellars sources from Vogelzang.

Brandon Sparks-Gillis, the third winemaker/owner in the trio of men who, with their wives, own Dragonette, is in New York on a marketing trip. Otherwise, he’d been out here, as well, as the three couples behind Team Dragonette take turns to help pick, sort and transport grapes, run the press, work in the cellar throughout the season, bottle wine, staff the Los Olivos tasting room and market the wine across the country.

John Dragonette says that the Vogelzang sauv blanc grapes have been sitting at 22-plus brix for about a week and partner Ben Merz of Coastal Vineyard Care has labor available. It’s a beautiful late-summer morning, and the temperatures are expected to rise into the mid-90s by mid-morning.

At Vogelzang, 26 of the 77 acres are planted to sauvignon blanc, Merz said. Most neighboring vineyards in this tiny AVA also grow the Bordeaux grape. “Sauvignon blanc has been hitting home runs in Happy Canyon since day one,” Merz added.

Freshly picked sauvignon blanc from Vogelzang Vineyard

I find Steve and John Dragonette balanced on the edge of a trailer loaded with three half-ton picking bins as a tractor pulling it crawls down rows. Crews dump buckets of grapes into the bins, and the brothers hand sort clusters as they answer my questions. The sauvignon blanc clones are 1 and Musque, and the fruit is clean and ripe.

John Dragonette is very happy with the quality: “The pH and brix are all in line this year.”

Since Dragonette buys all of its sauv blanc by the acre, and “cluster weights are up this year,” we’re seeing a little extra weight (volume) this year … it’s higher than the expected yield,” he said.

Eno, a member of the Sparks-Gillis family, behind a glass of just-pressed sauvignon blanc

Naturally, this is good news — as long as enough bins, tanks and barrels are also available to hold the additional weight. Since everything picked this morning ideally should be pressed today, the brothers know by 9 a.m. that a very long day awaits them back at the winery in Buellton.

Dragonette also sources the grenache and mourvedre for one of its rosés from Vogelzang. In terms of ripening, “the grenache is moving along nicely — it’s probably anywhere from 10 days to two weeks” from being ready, John Dragonette noted. Mourvedre is always one of the last grapes to be harvested; it needs extra weeks of sustained warmth.

This year, Mother Nature cranked up the thermostat early, and rainfall was extra scarce. Spring came early and July packed a heat spell. Then there was the annual Labor Day weekend heat spike, and the days since have remained warmer than average.

During a typical year, the mood come harvest is “hurry up and wait.” One day, it’s hot, and then it’s not. Days stretch into weeks, and still, most fruit needs more “hang time” on vines.

But this year, “hurry up and wait” morphed into “hurry up and hurry — HURRY!,” as right on the heels of sauvignon blanc (typically the most early to ripen) came the chardonnay and pinot noir grown in the Santa Maria Valley. Vineyard managers fretted they’d run short of enough hands to pick, as various single clones and multiple grape varietals seemed to be ripening at once.

“There’s just been no let-up in the heat this year,” Dragonette said. “It’s just been hot, hot, hot.”

Merz, who by late August spends most of his waking hours in the various vineyards he oversees for Coastal Vineyard Care Associates, agrees. This year will have “a very compressed” harvest, with the majority of Santa Barbara County’s grapes ripening about three weeks sooner than did last year’s, he said.

Coming soon in East to West: Jake and Francesca Lindley of Lindley Wines make the inaugural pick at their Sweeney Canyon Road vineyard on the western edge of the Sta. Rita Hills, where they grow chardonnay and pinot noir.

Copyright Laurie Jervis and Central Coast Wine Press