by Tom Hill

A self-admitted wine geek, Tom lives in Northern New Mexico and works as a computational physicist at Los Alamos National Laboratory doing numerical neutron transport & large scale code development. He has been tasting wines since 1971, participates locally with a couple of large tasting groups in his area, and is practically a fixture at most California wine festivals, such as the Hospice du Rhône, Rhône Rangers, and ZAP. Other interests: Tom is heavily into competitive sport fencing (foil & epee), biking, cooking, basketball, skiing, backpacking, mountain climbing.

Prior to the HdR'02, I arranged a visit to the Stolpman Vineyard winemaking facility in the wine ghetto area of Lompoc. Several yrs earlier, afore there were wines being produced under the Stolpman  label; I had walked the Stolpman vnyd itself with its vnyd manager, Jeff Newton, one of the most highly regarded vnyd managers in the Valley. Just by looking at the vnyd, you could see that a lot of attention to detail was being given it. So I decided it was time to learn a bit more about the Stolpman wines themself. The first Stolpman wines were made by Craig MacMillan in another facility. Over a yr ago, Tom&Marylin Stolpman hired Sashi Moorman, Adam Tolmach's assistant at Ojai, as their full-time winemaker. Very smart move. And they rented space in the facility at Lompoc where Brewer-Clifton, Ric Longoria, and several others make their wine. Clearly, the Stolpmans were getting serious about the wines appearing under their name.  The vnyd itself has quite a range of varieties planted to it. Many of the grapes are sold to  other winemakers, like AdamTolmach and Craig Jaffurs and Bob Lindquist. Thus, the Stolpman Vineyard name is mostly associated with the Rhone varietals. But they also have planted a bunch of Cabernet varieties, as well as Italian varietals. These are not nearly as widely known. They should be. Joining me on this visit w/ Sashi was Larry Archibald, Howard&Rhoda Sherry, Jeff  Pfohl, and Shirene Le Clere. Also present was Sashi's assistant, Peter. After catching up on Sashi's post-Ojai life since I had last seen him there several yrs ago, we immediately went to work:

1. Stolpman Vineyard Viognier (14.8%) 2001: Just bttld. Very elegant/fragrant pear/Viognier nose; delicate/ elegant very fragrant pear/Viognier clean/spicy flavor; less a DollyParton but more JuliaRoberts in style. And for comparison:
2. Qupe Ibarra-Young Viognier 2001: Fairly fragrant/low-key pear/Viognier perfumed nose; acidulated/ tart/citric light perfumed/pear/Viognier flavor; in the much-leaner typical Lindquist style; needs more time in the btl to flesh out.
3. Stolpman Vineyard Rosato (15.3%; Grenache/Syrah/Sangiovese) 2001: Pale rose/rose petal color; attractive fragrant cherry/ruhbarb/spicy light strawberry nose; soft/lush/rich cherry/ruhbarb/strawberry fruity/spicy flavor; I prefer a more lean/austere style in my roses, but this is pretty good for a Loni Anderson-style rose. and then into the barrels to try:
4. Stolpman Vineyard Sangiovese 2001: Dark color; rather pencilly/oaked very fragrant black cherry/cherry  very perfumed nose; rather lush cherry/black cherry/Sangio bit tannic some tobaccoy/pencilly/oak flavor; very nicely done Sangio, more lushness than most tend to have.
5. Stolpman Vineyard Nebbiolo (Michet clone) 2001: Med.dark color; fairly classic Nebbiolo/licorice slight pungent/tarry nose; very tannic tarry/licorice/lilacs/floral very spicy rather charred/toasty/oak flavor; good color and lushness for Calif Nebbiolo; one to watch.
6. Stolpman Vineyard Cabernet Franc 2001: Dark color; rather spicy/fragrant some green olive/Cab/slight  herbal nose; rather hard/tight herbal/green olive light toasty/oak flavor; rather classic SantaYnez Cab wine, bit on herbal side.
7. Stolpman Vineyard Cabernet Sauvignon 2001: Very dark color; lovely licorice/chocolaty/mocha some toasty/oak nose; rich/round bit dusty rather mocha/chocolaty light toasty flavor; rather big/rich very ripe wine much like some of the Monterey Cabs
8. Stolpman Vineyard Cabernet Sauvignon (with saignee) 2001: Somewhat more herbal/dusty harder more tannic more Bordeaux-like in character.
9. Stolpman Vineyard Merlot 2001: Dark color; rather chocolaty/ripe quite spicy some smokey/toasty/oak nose; softer quite spicy/black cherry/chocolaty/CherryMash smokey/toasty some tannic flavor.
10. Stolpman Vineyard Syrah (Estrella clone; 10% saignee; newer Syrah block) 2001: Lovely blackberry/Syrah/ strawberry perfumed nose; big/rich dense blackberry/strawberry/Syrah toasty/oak some roasted/gamey flavor; going to be a killer Syrah eventually.
11. Stolpman Vineyard Syrah (w/o saignee) 2001: Slight more fragrant/perfumed/strawberry nose; slightly softer/rounder on the palate; prefer the one w/ saignee slightly.
12. Stolpman Vineyard Malbec 2001: Very dark color; big/rich mocha/chocolaty ripe gamey nose; rather big/ clunky chocolaty/mocha bit closed flavor; strange KingKong wine, will be interesting to see where this brute goes.
13. Stolpman Vineyard Syrah (Durell clone; 10% Viognier co-ferment) 2001: Rather spicy/peppery/EdStJ-like quite fragrant nose; soft/fat/rich peppery/Dr.Pepper quite spicy some blackberry flavor; a bit clunky/powerful wine that needs some time yet.
14. Stolpman Vineyard Syrah (Estrella clone; 10% Viognier co-ferment) 2001: Slightly more fragrant/perfumed in the nose; much the same big/spicy/peppery flavor.
15. Stolpman Vineyard Grenache (saH: 29Brix; 16.9%; 1/2% r.s.) 2001: Med.dark color; rather strawberry/ Grenache/fragrant/perfumed very spicy/ruhbarb/cranberry nose; soft/lush/very fruity slightly sweet quite strawberry/ruhbard/fruity very spicy flavor; very appealing/forward Grenache.

1. All in all, I was quite impressed with what I saw and tasted. The wines were far better and more interesting than the two Stolpmans I had thus far tried. This is a winery to keep your eyes on I feel.  There was one thing that struck me the most: The quality of the Rhone wines that are/can be produced  from the Stolpman vnyd is undisputable. What I wasn't prepared for was the quality of the Italian and the Cabernet-based wines. The SantaYnez  Valley is not known as being particularly blessed for these varieties. What I saw here could very well change that pre-conception. Not yet what I'd call great wines, but certainly a notch up in quality over what I've had thus far and certainly wines to watch. Keep your eye on Stolpman Vineyards in the future.

   TomHill