Grape Escape: The Joy of Cooking Up Something Other Than Buttery Chardonnay

June 2, 2023 – Had I known that Rombauer was planning to showcase its new Santa Lucia Highlands Pinot Noir at the SLH Gala, I might not have driven all the way to Napa the following Monday. 

But the visit was already on the books, and I got the added bonus of meeting the Rombauer winemaking team, as well as Rombauer president and CEO Bob Knebel, who is not only a Pinot Noir lover, but also an avid motorcyclist.

He’s a big fan of the Santa Lucia Highlands. I also saw proudly displayed around the winery The Joy of Cooking by Irma Rombauer, who was the late founder’s great aunt. The visit was arranged by Adam Lee, whose Siduri brand helped to introduce serious Pinot Noir lovers to the premium vineyards of the Santa Lucia Highlands, like Rosella’s and Garys’. 

Although Rombauer Chardonnay, aka “cougar juice,” is almost never found in my glass, I have to admit seeing the location of this House of Chardonnay, was impressive. The Napa winery was founded in 1980 and devotes over 60% of its production to Chardonnay, all of it from Carneros. Sauvignon Blanc, Zinfandel, Cabernet Sauvignon and Merlot round out the portfolio. 

The winery owns hundreds of acres of Chardonnay and Sauv Blanc, mostly in Carneros. They also own 168 acres of Zinfandel in Amador County, including those purchased as part of the Renwood tasting room and winemaking facility in Plymouth in 2019. 

Our local winemaking hero Joe Shebl, born and raised in Salinas, helped build out that facility and made some mighty fine single vineyard Zins and Barberas there under the Renwood label. He’s making wine for New Frontier now, as well as Fiddletown Cellars and his personal brand, STRIDE: but that’s a story for another time. 

Back to Napa. The views from the Rombauer tasting room and the front deck are simply stunning. The place is surrounded by rose bushes, all a-riot with color and fragrance. The view out the conference room window where we were tasting told the harrowing tale of how close the 2020 Glass fire came to enveloping this 400k case mecca to buttery beverages. Scarred forest looms as a reminder of what was lost—mostly trees and a few vines near Silverado Trail— and what was saved, the entire winery operation. Close call. 

As I admired the view through the lens of Sauvignon Blanc in my glass, sourced from their vineyards in Carneros as well as Napa and Lake County (it’s hard to keep up with demand for SB), I had a competing vision in my head: founder, Koerner Rombauer’s highly stylized photo in the tasting room, flanked by airplanes (he was a pilot for the Air National Guard and Braniff Air before starting his second career as a winery owner), looking a mix of triumphant and defiant. That this beverage in my glass existed at all was a bit of derring do.

Aussie Richie Allen, VP of viticulture and winemaking at Rombauer, has been with the winery since 2004. He worked with the original creator of the Rombauer style (quite by accident, I’m told), Gregory Graham, who retired and went to Lake County. 

An unabashed lover of Sauv Blanc, Allen couldn’t fathom why there was none in the Rombauer product set. “After a few years, I had enough money saved up that I figured I could buy a few tons of fruit and make some wine,” says Allen. “When I approached Koerner about making a Sauv Blanc, he wasn’t at all keen. But I persisted. 

After a while, he ‘said, ‘alright, if it’s any good we might consider it.’ I knew I was on the hook, so it had to be awesome, otherwise I was paying for it, and then how the heck am I going to sell all this wine by myself?! Fortunately, he liked it and agreed to bottle it with a Rombauer label!”  And so, I got to enjoy some while admiring the guts required to turn that dream into a reality. 

It’s no surprise that it took even longer to add a Pinot Noir to the Rombauer set. Koerner was not a big fan of the grape, preferring Cabernet. It took some doing to make Pinot Noir happen, and the person responsible is Adam Lee, who became the first winemaking consultant hired by Rombauer. (After selling Siduri to Jackson Family in 2015, Lee founded a new label, Clarice, and later co-founded Beau Marchais with French winemaker, Philippe Cambie: he likes to stay busy.) 

At one point, Lee mentioned to Rombauer that they should add a Pinot Noir for all those loyal Rombauer Chardonnay lovers who don’t dig Cab, Merlot or Zin. The game was on. Lee says he literally bought dozens of Pinots to try with the Rombauer winemaking team—Luke Clayton and Andrew Holloway. They tasted Pinots from every part of the West Coast, including Santa Barbara, Russian River, Sonoma Coast, and Oregon.

It was a wine from the SLH that Lee had made under the Clarice label that really turned the tide. With his many vineyard connections, Lee arranged for Rombauer to score fruit they needed for their first vintage, which was supposed to be 2020, but Mother Nature ruined that party. 

In 2021, they were able to get fruit from five stellar SLH vineyards: Garys’, Soberanes, Rosella’s, Sierra Mar and Lemoravo. The latter is farmed by grower Kirk Williams, who called it Fairview, back in the day when Big Basin Vineyards sourced some Syrah from there. A dispute with another winery led to Williams changing the name to Lemoravo, a mashup of lemon and avocado, two other crops that Williams tends here on the road that goes up to the Boekenoogen winery. 

So how did the Pinot Noir turn out? The 2021 Rombauer SLH Pinot Noir ($65) is aged for 10 months in 30% new French oak, rendering it silky and complex, with lovely layers of ripe cherry and plum, then lilting cranberry and pomegranate, all underpinned by earthy depth and alluring warm spice. 

We also tasted a barrel sample of the 2022. With lively red cherry and cranberry, it is definitely more acid-driven and energetic. The team has been vinifying each vineyard lot separately, evaluating their individual characteristics. Although the 2021 was an appellation blend, it’s possible that one vineyard might make it into a separate bottling for 2022. Or maybe that will happen in 2023. Only time will tell. The recipe is still under development.  

My trip was certainly not wasted, as we also got to try a good slug of the Rombauer portfolio, as well as four wines from Clarice and Moret Brealynn, a new eponymous label from a young lady who recently joined the Santa Lucia Highlands Artisans, and who is helping Lee market both her brand and Clarice, where she serves as GM. 

Brealynn’s 2022 SLH Pinot Noir Rosé is a stunning color, not shy of tannin or fruit, and definitely one that stops you in your tracks. She also poured a very fun and tasty 2021 blend of stray barrels of SLH (Garys’ and Soberanes) and Clos Pepe Pinot Noir called Stray Dogs, which is a fetching idea and benefits dog rescue programs. Her own rescue dog, Stout, is depicted on the label. With its chewy tobacco, blackberry plum and licorice, it could easily be that midweek Pinot you’ve been seeking. 

Lee, unsurprisingly, stole the show with his Clarice wines. Twist off the cap and pour the 2021 Clarice Rosella’s Pinot Noir and tell me that isn’t the purest expression of that vineyard you’ve had yet. 

“It’s taken me a while, but back when I started, I was making these big ripe wines that were meant to be consumed right away,” Lee told us. “Now, I’m taking a more long-term approach. I’m picking earlier, using less oak and really trying to preserve the freshness and purity. I think the 2021s will really age beautifully, but they are also pretty approachable right now.” 

The 2021 blend of Garys’ and Rosella’s is a stunner, too. The depth and structure of Garys’ underpins the floral perfume and rose petal prettiness of Rosella’s. It’s a liquid version of the Don Henley and Stevie Nicks duet, “Leather and Lace.” 

I could see the wheels turning as Luke and Andrew tasted these wines, dreaming perhaps of taking one of these amazing vineyards for a solo flight.