Clos Pepe Release Party

Saturday, August 4, 2007

Drove up to Buellton/Lompoc area today to attend the 2006 release party at Clos Pepe Vineyards. www.clospepe.com

We stopped in Summerland on the way up (just outside of Santa Barbara) and managed to get a parking space which is hard to do in that blip of the road. Tasted a few wines at the Summerland Winery tasting room. I found them all pleasant wines and nicely priced. Worth a stop if you are in the area.

Since we were meeting our guests for the day at 1:40 we have a little time to kill so we hit the "Shoestring" Winery. On 246 on the way into Solvang. It is close to hwy 101 so it was a convenient stop. Apparently they had cleaned the floor (which is made of sawn timbers that have creosote in them) that morning and the smell really took over the tasting room. I'd rather have a dirty floor that the smell.

Met up with our guests and boggied on down 246 towards Lompoc. Clos Pepe is right after Melville and Babcock and the driveway has Italian Cypress trees growing next to it but every time we seem to miss the driveway by a hundred feet of so and have make a U-turn . Today was no different. After finally driving through the correct gate was were stopped by the "keeper of the list". If your name was not on that list you got no further. After finding that indeed my name had not been deleted (I'm always amazed) we were allowed to enter.

The release party was held at the main house (magnificent) as it was last year. New West Catering was busy making gourmet pizzas and grilling vegetables and sausages. As usual they were really good. Saw quite a few people that I knew from various events. Old home week.

We tasted the 2006 release of the Estate Pinot, the VS Pinot and the Chardonnay. All were excellent. Then off to the table with the 2005's. The Estate Pinot is the only wine available from that vintage and it is in short supply.

We headed to the library table with vintages from 1999 to 2004. Ken Brown was there pouring his 2003 and 2005 Clos Pepe Pinot. The 2003 is really drinking nice. Arcadian was there pouring his 2005 Clos Pepe Pinot which will not be released until 2008. I really liked this wine. I will have to check out their website.

Bubblies were the theme of this years addition to the party. Every year they have a theme and ask people to bring a bottle per their group to add to the festivities. I remember the first year I attended the theme was Burgundies at least 10 years old. I remember I tasted a 1970 something Romanee Conti. This time with the bubblies it ranged for high end Champagnes to inexpensive Proseco's. A fun time was had by all.

The house was fully opened to everyone and you could sit any where you wanted. I heard a glass break and I really hope it did not have wine in it. The house and the furnishings are outstanding.

They had an auction of various items to raise additional money for the familes of the two workers that were killed in an accident this summer in the vineyard. A bottle of burgundy went for $3,100. A lot of high rollers in this group.

Clos Pepe has a small breed of English sheep that they keep in the vineyards to weed between the rows. The sheep are so small they cannot reach the grapes so they just keep munching away on the vegetation close to the ground. They have a new ewe and had a contest to name it. I sent in the name "Penelope" and that was chosen for the new ewe. I was given a bottle of 2000 Clos Pepe Pinot for my effort.

It was starting to get close to 4:30 so it was time to say our goodby and head on down the road to the Stolpman Vineyards for "Dinner in the Vineyard"