February 22, 2022 – Climbing Trout Gulch Road to the intersection of Larsen feels like swimming out of the murky depths to where the light plays brightly and happily on the water above. Suddenly, you can breathe again. Turning into the driveway, you spy the old apple trees, still adorned with golden apples, birds feasting on them like a fragrant banquet. Rows of neat vines race up and down the sloping hillsides, trellises open to absorb the sun. A Grand Pyrenees lounges lazily at the edge of sun and shade at the top of the driveway, near a stand of redwoods, one eye watchful.
Grinning from ear to ear, a jovial and welcoming Eugene “Eug” Theron and his wife Julie wave me to a parking spot that involves moving said rather large dog, Lobo, who doesn’t want to move. Can’t blame her one bit. She’s a pandemic rescue and she is way bigger than me, so I give her space. Like everyone who lives on this property, including their adorable little pup “Worsie,” Lobo is a refugee.
The Therons came to America in 1989 with barely enough money to rent a car, let alone buy property. But they were determined to make a go of the dream they had to earn a living making wine. The dream is in the genes and goes way back to the revocation of the Edict of Nantes, when Louis XIV essentially took away the liberty of Protestants to pursue their religious preferences. It’s important to remember one’s past as it always, always has its hand on the steering wheel of the future.
Eug tells me that in 1688, Theron’s French Huguenot farming ancestors fled persecution in the Languedoc region of France—now famous for its bodacious and inexpensive reds—to South Africa. Their farming lifestyle thrived there and one of his distant relatives, Professor CJ Theron, was among those who propagated Pinotage—a cross between Pinot Noir and Cinsault—now South Africa’s dominant varietal. But as apartheid’s ugly anachronism became a flashpoint in the 1980s, Eug and Julie found themselves yearning for a new opportunity.
As beautiful as farming was in South Africa, the political climate made the US much more attractive. Working at their respective careers in their new home, Eug yearned to return to his farming roots.
“Every weekend we were not traveling, we would visit five or six properties I found online,” says Theron. “Julie was good at assessing neighborhoods before we even got to a property. ‘Crack house over there!! Nope! Don’t like the vibe.’ So, when, we drove up the road to this place, she said nothing. I felt pretty confident we were maybe onto something. We got to the gate and I took one look and said in Afrikaans, ‘Die plek is sjarmant!’ which translates to, ‘This place is charming!’” The name stuck, and to honor their French heritage, they chose the French spelling “Charmant.”
That was 2014. When they realized the place was pre-planted with Pinot Noir selected by Jim Schultze and the former owners, Dick and Diane Klein, Eug and Julie, who’d already fallen in love with the house built of old growth redwood in 1979, knew they had to have it.
The 16-acre property, of which 5.5 acres are under vine, consists of two distinctly separate and deep bowls—one plunging down a steep hillside to border with Richard Alfaro’s Trout Gulch Vineyard—and the other gently sloping in front of the house towards the southwest. That vineyard is planted to three clones of Pinot Noir, 115, 667 and Chambertin, in six blocks.
It would take a while to transition the farming and winemaking from Schultze to Theron, but the handoff happened officially in 2017. Meanwhile, there was work to do in the vineyard and in the cellar.
“I enrolled in the UC Davis winemaking program and learned winemaking from the ground up, with the excellent help of viticulturist Prudy Foxx and winemaking consultant Tom Stutz,” says Theron. “While I am proud of our first vintage, I really like where things are going, especially as we learn the vineyard blocks and which barrels are the best match for each.”
At first, he had a lot of new barrels, the scourge of any tiny new winery, but he’s figuring out how to make harmony rule. Did we mention he is taking care of the entire crazy property by himself? Yes, he has a day job, working for the Securities and Exchange Commission as an auditor, while Julie runs an investment real estate firm out of Berkeley.
“There’s no trust fund or inheritance here,” explains Theron. “My job used to involve constant travel. The pandemic has helped me spend more time in the vineyard and working on the tasting area.” He’s currently building a deck off the existing barrel room and intimate wine tasting room, which will offer a wonderful view of the vineyard and house. There will also be a handicap access area. For those with strong legs, there’s a set of stairs to a gazebo with a fabulous view of the Monterey Bay.
This place glows with growth, life, warmth and hospitality. It feels at once a celebration and a desperate attempt to impose some sense of order on a truly sprawling sense of possibility. A cover crop is making merry between the vines, that have not yet been pruned. “I’ll mow the cover crop when it gets hip high, and then I’ll prune. I’m still concerned about frost,” Theron tells me. Given the turn of weather just this week, that approach appears prescient.
A riotous fountain draws lots of birds, while protea, a flowering plant native to South Africa, raise the curiosity of hummingbirds. Everywhere you look, there is something to transfix. The place is dry-farmed organically and all pruned canes are chipped and mulched back into the vineyard, to promote soil health. Organic fungicides help mitigate disease, and winter cover crops replenish nitrogen levels and promote beneficial insect life.
Tasting seemed like an interruption, but it’s my job, so I bellied up to the bar, where I spied a tarnished silver receptacle that I thought was some kind of ritual drinking cup. How little I apparently know about South African customs. Nay nay, says Theron. “This is one of our family heirlooms! Oh, one of so many! It’s actually an ashtray. See, this little receptacle on the side, it’s for the matches!”
He pours me a sip of the 2020 Rosé of Pinot Noir ($28), his first iteration. It’s a direct press, picked really early. In fact, it was snatched off the vine a full month earlier than the red wine grapes. Theron points out proudly that it’s the antithesis of saignée, which explains its pale pink prettiness, so pale you can easily mistake it for Hampton water, Bon Jovi’s much more expensive rosé from Provence.
It’s pretty and quite perky and won’t get you to wobbly at 11.2%. We were just getting started.
Next up was the 2019 Tondré Chardonnay ($38), an awesome lemon drop of a wine, done in one-third new French, sur lees for 18 months, with stirring once per month. “Other than that, I don’t pull bungs, so there’s no barrel tasting,” says Theron. He defers SO2 until bottling. The wine is super juicy with ripe nectarines and biscuits and honey, with apple jam and quince building to a creamy finish that smacks of guava. If he’d picked the fruit any riper, it would be all tropical. Theron says he originally planned to bottle this Chardonnay after 10 months in oak, but life got in the way. “When I tasted it next, it was so much better, I thought I might as well let it rest in barrel a bit longer.” Tom Stutz introduced Eug to Joe Alarid of Tondre Grapefield. Thank goodness for that, because the Chardonnay is amazing.
Everyone will relate to the concept behind the 2018 Lé Refugié Pinot Noir ($38), with its bouquet of plums, raspberry and iron filings indicating a pretty tempting treat on the palate. At just 12.05% alcohol and done in a Damy barrel, its grippy wood tannins and mouthfeel make it a popular Pinot Noir for family gatherings.
Theron says he made it “in honor of all migrants and refugees, and to celebrate the journey we all had to endure to be where we are today!”
The 2018 Estate Pinot Noir ($48) is made from all the blocks on the estate and delivers wonderful depth from first whiff to last sip. The aromatics so precisely reflect the terroir, with forest floor, spring meadow, pine, orange peel and porcini mushrooms. There is a whiff of ink well also. Complex and lovely in texture and acid, it delivers raspberry, pomegranate, cherry, leather and Linzer torte. Its superbly spicy finish is reminiscent of pfeffernusse, the German Christmas cookie. Get your hands on this wine that spent two years in barrel and then sat another year in bottle before release.
The Reserve Pinot Noir gets three years in barrel. Theron plans to make one Pinot Noir from each vineyard block, for a total of six different wines. “This will add so much to the spice rack,” he says, eyes dancing with the possibilities. He’s also contemplating grafting some Pinot Noir to Chardonnay, so he can add an Estate Chard to the lineup.
The “to do” list grows daily, but the joys and rewards of being a winegrower will surely empower Eug and Julie on to fulfill those long held dreams.
Charmant will be pouring its four wines at Cantine Winepub in Aptos on Saturday, February 26 from 1 to 4pm, as part of the Aptos Wine Wander. For more info: charmantvineyards.com
About the author
Laura Ness is a longtime wine journalist, columnist and judge who contributes regularly to Edible Monterey Bay, Spirited, WineOh.Tv, Los Gatos Magazine and Wine Industry Network, and a variety of consumer publications. Her passion is telling stories about the intriguing characters who inhabit the fascinating world of wine and food.
