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Alma Rosa in the Press
Screwcaps are Best, states Decanter Magazine! It's official: screwcap is the best closure for the vast majority of wines, both red and white.
This is the opinion of Decanter magazine's most senior contributors,
from Steven Spurrier to Linda Murphy in California and Huon Hooke in Australia,
tastings director Christelle Guibert and restaurant critic Brian St Pierre.
Read the entire article here.
Grape
Radio
Listen to Grape Radio’s podcasts of Wine & Fire, where they interview Richard:
Exploring
California Wine Country
“Owner Richard Sanford looks youthful at 67, but he's the undisputed gray eminence of Sta. Rita Hills. He planted Sanford & Benedict, the first vineyard in the region, in 1971, 30 years before the establishment of the AVA. In 2005, he started Alma Rosa with his wife, Thekla. Their tasting room is an unembellished farmhouse, with 9-foot cactuses by the entrance, two barrels and a wood plank for a bar, and what is possibly the fattest cat on the Central Coast sprawled on the floor. They pour six wines, including two stylish Pinot Noirs and a lively, intense Chardonnay from the home estate.” Click here to read the full article.
“Unearthing
soul in the soils of the Central Coast’s lauded ground” La
Encantada truly reveals its meaning (“the enchanted) in this wine
– one of the best of its class. Read
the entire article here.
New
Names & Familiar Faces
”Richard Sanford's name is honored among the best of Santa Barbara vintners, and deservedly so. However, there's been a change that few wine lovers are aware of: The visionary winemaker is no longer associated with the winery that bears his name. After selling his shares of his eponymous brand to his partners in Paterno Wine Company over philosophical differences about organic farming, Richard and his wife and partner Thekla walked away. Now they've reinvented themselves under another new brand they named Alma Rosa, and they're producing an excellent lineup of Pinot Noirs and Pinot Gris. They explained that their brand represents the culmination of their life experiences and their commitment to organic and sustainable agriculture." Click here to read the full article.
Green
Grapes in the 805
Many wineries in Central California have adopted organic and biodynamic farming practices to produce the best wines possible. For Richard Sanford, founder of Alma Rosa Winery & Vineyards in the Santa Rita Hills appellation of Santa Barbara County, farming organically was an easy choice. Sanford founded both the Sanford & Benedict and Sanford Wineries before going out on his own with his Alma Rosa. “My wife and I had an organic garden,” he recalls of their early days, “and she suggested that we grow the grapes organically. So in the mid-eighties, we weaned ourselves of all chemicals.” Look to Alma Rosa for both exceptional chardonnay and pinot noir made from organic grapes.
Earth
Friendly Spring Fling
In the March 2008 issue of Sunset Magazine, they suggest 10 earth friendly Spring Flings. #1? Go Wine Tasting!
“You thought the movie Sideways told you all you need to know about Santa Barbara? You thought wrong. There is, for instance, the Sustainable Vine Tour that we’re guessing you haven’t tried. The six-hour, behind the scenes look at organic winemaking might include a visit to Demetria Winery, lunch with the owners of Ampelos Cellars and a grand finale at Alma Rosa Winery & Vineyards, run by eco-minded wine pioneer Richard Sanford..
The other nine flings? Click here!
A
post-Sideways tour by Food & Wine magazine
“Of course, the groundwork for many of these changes was laid long before as seen in Sideways signs were posted around the county. A number of important new wineries were in the works around the time that Sideways debuted—among them Alma Rosa and Jonata—and the amount of acreage under vine was at a record high. Recently, I drove up Pacific Coast Highway to see how the wine scene in Santa Barbara County was unfolding.
Richard Sanford, a founding father of Santa Barbara Pinot Noir, presides over Alma Rosa. Sanford founded the Alma Rosa winery after selling the original Sanford Winery. The property is fairly hard to find, located behind a cactus gateway on Santa Rosa Road in the relatively new Santa Rita Hills appellation that he himself helped to create.
Sanford, a tall, tanned and presidential-seeming man, showed me around the buildings, fountains and Taoist-inspired paths of Alma Rosa. When he arrived in Santa Barbara County in 1969, farmers were growing mostly barley and garbanzo and lima beans, or grazing cattle. Sanford studied the area’s geography and topography to see if it could support vineyards, and he drove around with a thermometer taking measurements. “People thought, ‘This person is nuts!’” Sanford recalled. “When I said I wanted to grow grapes, I was told it was a dumb idea.”
Read
writer Chip Brown’s Santa Barbara Winery tour here.
A
Trio of Silver Medals!
The results are in for the results of the prestigious 2008 San Francisco
Chronicle Wine Competition, and we are very pleased to report that the
following wines each brought home a silver medal. 2006 Pinot Noir, La
Encantada Vineyard, 2006 Pinot Noir, Sta. Rita Hills and the 2006 Chardonnay,
El Jabalí
Noteworthy,
Outstanding and Impressive!
A new operation owned by Richard Sanford, Alma Rosa’s two 2005 Pinot Noirs are both noteworthy offerings. The single vineyard 2005 Pinot Noir La Encantada Vineyard exhibits a dark ruby color along with a big, spicy, plum, cherry and earthy-scented perfume with hints of roasted herbs and wood in the background. A soft entry on the palate offers deep fruit, an elegant style, impressive purity and ripeness and good overall harmony. Enjoy it over the next 5-6 years. Surprisingly, the generic 2005 Pinot Noir Santa Rita Hills is even more complex, displaying additional notes of beet roots, forest floor and sweet cherries. This well-made, medium-bodied Pinot possesses excellent fruit, spice, earth and subtle herb and smoke characteristics. It too should be consumed over the next 5-6 years.
The two outstanding Chardonnays include the 2005 Chardonnay El Jabali Vineyard which offers plenty of tropical fruit, peach, and honeysuckle notes, an excellent texture, medium to full body and an up-front style. Drink it over the next several years. More hazelnut, toasted almond and buttery popcorn characteristics are found in the 2005 Chardonnay Santa Barbara. Not as forceful, rich or delineated as the single vineyard cuvee, it is an outstanding Chardonnay to consumer over the next 1-2 years.
Lastly, two impressive Pinot Blancs include the fruit-dominated, single vineyard 2005 Pinot Blanc La Encantada Vineyard. Aromas of white currants, orange blossoms and apple skins are followed by a wine with gorgeous fruit, a striking minerality and no evidence of wood. It should be a food-friendly white to enjoy over the next 1-2 years. Cut from the same cloth, but not quite as nuanced and complete, the 2005 Pinot Blanc Santa Rita Hills should drink well for 1-2 years as well.
2005 Chardonnay, Santa Barbara County 90pts
2005 Chardonnay, El Jabali Vyd 90 pts
2005 Pinot Blanc, Sta. Rita Hills 87 pts
2005 Pinot Blanc, La Encantada Vyd 89pts
2005 Pinot Noir, Sta Rita Hills 89 pts
2005 Pinot Noir, La Encantada Vyd 88 pts
One
to Watch
After pioneering Pinot Noir in Santa Barbara's Santa Rita Hills in the 1970's, Richard and Thekla Sanford sold their namesake winery to partner Terlato Wines International in 2005 and started Alma Rosa. The couple's new venture made a splashy entrance with its graphic floral label, screwcapped bottles, sustainable and organic farming practices and a wine makeover that showcases bracing acidity and bright fruit. 'This new winery has allowed us to move in new directions with our wines - more acid, less alcohol, modern wines that work with modern foods,' says Richard Sanford.
Now in the second vintage, Alma Rosa wines - Pinots Noir, Blanc and Gris, Chardonnay and a Vin Gris - are elegant, with restrained but luscious fruit.
Sanford has found his winemaking paradise in the Santa
Rita Hills, an area he long ago determined similar to Burgundy and hospitable
to Pinot Noir. Sanford cites an east-west valley that runs from the vineyards
to the ocean as 'the most important feature in our area', allowing the
grapes to benefit from a marine influence.
The couple's respect for nature is reflected on the back labels, which
read: 'Nature and agriculture in sustainable harmony. Particularly these
days with global warming, we all have to be more responsible about the
environment. We all have to work together.'
Pinot
Noir: Chasing Greatness
This Los Angeles Times article describing the ever increasing popularity of Pinot Noir confirms Richard Sanford’s place as a Pinot Noir pioneer, saying “Pinot's calling card is terroir expression, its uncanny ability to convey a distinct sense of place, just in its aromas and flavors. No other grape is as evocative; none has its powers of seduction … Santa Rita Hills in Santa Barbara County shares this reputation for fruit intensity. Thirty years ago the region was considered too cold, too marginal and too exotic for any but the most stubborn of winemakers — such as Richard Sanford, whose leafy, cool weather Pinots benefited from a fair amount of time in the bottle…”
Click here to read the full article.
Full Circle, Four Winemakers Retool for the Future
“Not
many people on the local wine scene go back as far as Richard and Thekla
Sanford. The Sanfords were instrumental in planting the Sanford &
Benedict Vineyard along Santa Rosa Road in 1971, making it one of the
oldest vineyards in Santa Barbara County … The Sanfords also made
local history by establishing the first certified organic vineyards in
the area. … They used these vineyards to create a new winery, Alma
Rosa. These vineyards are, of course, still farmed organically and the
Sanfords are continuing their commitment to sustainable farming, sustainable
winery operations, and their uncompromising philosophies.”
Click here to read the full article.
Lust for the Must by James Laube
“In
the eternally fascinating wine world, vintners bow out of one winery to
start another. For some it’s like the metamorphosis from caterpillar
to butterfly. How else to explain Richard Sanford, the Pinot Noir prophet
of Santa Barbara, leaving his namesake winery last year and soon after
revealing that he was hatching a new endeavor called Alma Rosa?”
Click here to read the full article.
The Pinot Passion Awards
Richard
Sanford is one of twelve recipients designated “Pinot’s Master
Vintners of 2005” and described as “decades ahead of the rush
of vintners who would eventually see what he saw in the area that is now
the Santa Rita Hills.”
Click here to read the full article.
Alma Rosa Winery & Vineyards
“Pioneering winemaker Richard Sanford planted the first Pinot Noir Vineyard in Santa Barbara County in 1971, pairing a magical grape with its ideal soil and climate. … In September 2005 Richard and Thekla Sanford, taking advantage of 35 years of viticulture and winemaking experience, launched a new venture, Alma Rosa Winery & Vineyards. They chose the name Alma (meaning “soul”) because of the strong, soulful connection they feel between themselves, their employees, and their land. Their goal for the new winery is to move to new levels of sustainable, organic farming and green business practices.”
