The morning after the nettle pizza and face-lifted 1964 Faustino @ Chez Panisse cafe, with importers/distributors and friends, Jose Pastor, Keven Clancy (I've decided everyone in California is named Kevin) and his wife Gillian, Jose and I traveled to Santa Cruz on a mission--this county's and perhaps the worlds only frum kosher vigneron.
I keep on thinking of that head winemaker of Moet Chandon I squared off with (not pretty) three years ago. He told me he wanted to be a winemaker because of the lifestyle.
That is what the wine world has been reduced to.
Lifestyle.
And not because someone wants to be linked to the seasons and the land, but the dinners and the travel and the marketing and the richness, especially if you've landed at MH.
Like, you think I wanted to be a writer because of the extravagant lifestyle? Likewise, even though he started this whole adventure just because he wanted to make his own kiddush wine, lifestyle was the last thing Benyamin Cantz had in mind when he ended up with Four Gates Winery and certified organic vineyards. His first commercial vintage was 1997.
Jose drove up a petite mountain and hooked off the main road where Benyamin told us to look for a shrine. Opposite the flower strewn roadside marker was a piece of drift like wood. On it, in Hebrew was written Bruchim Habaim, which distills down to welcome but which translates into blessings on those who come. Though this is a common greeting, I had no idea how literal it would be.
Riding up the dirt, bordered by the trees, I seemed to be back in the Catskills. A summer and a family intact. Me in sun-suit, running from the sun. Running from people.
We drove past two slopes of vines and then came face to face with
And then we were faced with
And then we say this trellising, of Cantz's own invention--some blend of Dyson and Scott Henry--he calls it a 'sloppy Scott.'
Download file
Santa Cruz just might have some of the more serious terroirs in California, will wait til history plays this out. Grapes were farmed where he is set up back in the 1880's.There's some limestone but mostly clay and sandstone. The chardonnay was there when he arrived in the '80's, and had been planted in 1971.
Benyamin takes a do nothing approach in the vineyard, he could use some clover to break up the soil up and let it breathe a bit. After we sat and watched the grapes grow. Jose and I had grumbling stomachs, running on empty and waited for the waiter to bring lemonade (kidding). Meanwhile, B and I talked about life, religion, and winemaking.
I have never met a commercial winemaker who works so in isolation. He is the only full time resident on the mountain, 660 feet up. Organic. Dry farmed. 2 tons per acre on 3.5 acre plots of chardonnay, cabernet franc, merlot and pinot. He lives there with horses, geriatric goats, golden dog, chickens, talmud and vines. 
We walked back to the winery, behind his Dickensian cottage where he showed us his panniers for picking grapes. Milk cartons.
TBC
And then we were faced with
And then we say this trellising, of Cantz's own invention--some blend of Dyson and Scott Henry--he calls it a 'sloppy Scott.'
Download file
Santa Cruz just might have some of the more serious terroirs in California, will wait til history plays this out. Grapes were farmed where he is set up back in the 1880's.There's some limestone but mostly clay and sandstone. The chardonnay was there when he arrived in the '80's, and had been planted in 1971.
Benyamin takes a do nothing approach in the vineyard, he could use some clover to break up the soil up and let it breathe a bit. After we sat and watched the grapes grow. Jose and I had grumbling stomachs, running on empty and waited for the waiter to bring lemonade (kidding). Meanwhile, B and I talked about life, religion, and winemaking.
I have never met a commercial winemaker who works so in isolation. He is the only full time resident on the mountain, 660 feet up. Organic. Dry farmed. 2 tons per acre on 3.5 acre plots of chardonnay, cabernet franc, merlot and pinot. He lives there with horses, geriatric goats, golden dog, chickens, talmud and vines. 
We walked back to the winery, behind his Dickensian cottage where he showed us his panniers for picking grapes. Milk cartons.
TBC
Comments