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Central Coast Golf & Wine News and Events
Monday, April 02, 2007
Area vintners and public officials are trying to capitalize on San Luis Obispo County's booming wine industry while they plan for more.
Winery trade groups are taking steps to promote local wines and draw more tourists to area tasting rooms to increase sales. And city and county officials are making sure they're prepared to handle the growth, primarily by finding ways to reduce traffic congestion.
In the last decade, the number of wineries in the county has tripled to 217. Most are in the Paso Robles area, which now accounts for 86 percent of the retail value of county wine.
The growth is continuing. Last year, the county approved new or expanded wineries at the rate of one a month, most of them near Paso Robles.
Jon Fredrikson, who has studied the California wine industry since 1970, believes the Paso Robles region is still in its infancy - and that it may get some of the market that Napa County is losing because of overdevelopment.
Wine grapes now represent a third of the value of all crops grown countywide, according to the latest statistics available. They generate more than $61 million in state and local taxes and have an economic impact of about $1.6 billion, including 6,364 full-time jobs, according to a report by MKF Research of St. Helena, a wine business adviser.
Article:
Grape expectationsThe Tribune, P. Kim Bui
Tags:
San Luis Obispo Central Coast WineLabels: Central Coast Wine, Wine Business
Tuesday, March 06, 2007
The first study on the wine industry's impact in San Luis Obispo County is out and it shows the region is at a tipping point in becoming a Napa or Sonoma Valley.
The study found wine grape vines like these in San Luis Obispo County are generating more than one-and-a-half billion dollars for the local economy and if the industry plans correctly it could start to generate even more.
The study commissioned by the Economic Vitality Corporation and the Paso Robles Wine Country Alliance shows the wine grape industry in San Luis Obispo County is now triple the size it was ten years ago.
The rapid growth ranks Paso Robles and the greater San Luis Obispo County third in the state, just behind Napa and Sonoma Valleys.
To bring in even more money to the local economy the study recommends the industry plan wisely.
Some of the ways the wine and wine grapes industries impact San Luis Obispo County's economy are, the industries pay 162 million dollars in wages, the region's wine's retail value is 763 million dollars, and the industries generate 97 million dollars in tourism.
Story:
Avenue WineSource: Press Release: "Paso Robles and Greater San Luis Obispo Wine and Wine Grape Industries Have $1.566 Billion Impact," PASO ROBLES, Calif.–March 3, 2007
Tags:
San Luis Obispo Central Coast WineLabels: Central Coast Wine, Wine Business
Monday, February 19, 2007
The town of Solvang recently rolled out the red carpet for the opening of the Sideways wine bar, named after the Academy Award-winning film.
Located about 1 hour south of San Luis Obispo, the Sideways wine bar - also referred to as Tastes of the Valleys - features wines from 15 central coast wineries. Acting as both a wine shop and a tasting bar, Tastes of the Valleys offers customers a chance to taste wine and purchase bottles from its selection of 72 wines.
The bar will promote wine tasting education, and cater to first-time wine tasters as well as experienced drinkers.
After the success of the movie, which was filmed in Santa Barbara County about three years ago, the owners of Tastes of the Valleys bought the rights to the name "Sideways" from Fox, partner-owner Dave Chambers said. The original plan was to open a wine club, but the idea turned into a bar.
The Sideways name has been a big draw for both wine and movie enthusiasts, Moy said. The bar opened on Jan. 12, and has done better in the past month than the owners expected. Moy said a grand opening party will take place within the next month and a half.
The bar will also begin offering wine tasting classes after the grand opening.
Tastes of the Valleys features wines from such popular producers as Au Bon Climate, Qupe and Lane Tanner, offering a large number of pinot noirs, chardonnays and Rhone varietals. Almost all are local wines produced in San Luis Obispo and Santa Barbara County.
Prices for wine tasting range from $15 to $18, and bottles cost an average of $35 per bottle. Although the wine is expensive, the owner says the high prices are justified since they do not produce wine and must purchase it wholesale, They claim pour more wines than anyone else and they guarantee you'll get what you like.
Depending on the success of the first location, Tastes of the Valleys would like to expand to other locations. In Solvang - a popular destination for wine tasters - 16 new tasting rooms are expected to open by this summer.
Tastes of the Valleys, a Sideways wine bar, is located at 1672 Mission Drive in Solvang, CA, and is open from 11:00 a.m. to 8:00 p.m.
Tags:
San Luis Obispo Central Coast WineLabels: Central Coast Wine, Sideways, Solvang, Wine Bar
Sunday, January 14, 2007
The tiny hamlet of Santa Margarita could balloon into a new city that includes three places of worship, private golf courses, hundreds of homes, nine wineries, galleries, shops, a livestock yard and many other amenities, under a plan to be unveiled Thursday night in Santa Margarita.
The county planning department and developer Santa Margarita Ranch LLC will release an environmental impact report delineating the possibilities for the land at a public meeting from 7 to 9 p.m. at the community room on I Street.
The EIR also will set forth potential problems, environmental and otherwise, with the putative development.
The report comes in two parts. The first assesses the impact of a proposed agricultural cluster subdivision on property southeast of town. The developer proposes 111 sites, to be built in three phases, and completed in 2010.
In a cluster subdivision, the homes are clustered in order that agriculture can take place on the surrounding land.
The second, and larger proposal examines what might become of the 14,000-acre Santa Margarita Ranch, which surrounds the current town.
Tags:
San Luis Obispo Central Coast Golf WineLabels: Central Coast Wine, Golf Courses, Santa Margarita
Monday, January 08, 2007
Vintners and growers in the Paso Robles wine region are working on a proposal to create several AVAs within Paso Robles. Following the example set by Napa, part of the proposal is that in addition to the AVA, Paso Robles would be listed on every bottle. The development reflects the region's rapid growth and determination to work as a cohesive group, promoting the region and strengthening the brand equity that's been created there.
Bearing acres of winegrapes have more than doubled since 1999 in Paso Robles, and the region has grown to include more than 120 wineries and 26,000 vineyard acres, making it roughly the same size as Washington, in terms of planted acres.
The region faces a dilemma seen in several other areas, such as Monterey, Mendocino and Lake counties. More than half of all winegrapes grown in Paso Robles are sold outside the Paso Robles AVA, with most of them going into Central Coast and California appellation programs. And less than one-third are sold as wines with a Paso Robles AVA.
That looks to be changing, however, and growers in Paso Robles have been focusing on regional branding to increase awareness.
As with other grape growing areas, vintners in Paso Robles seem to understand that the more the region can invest in regional branding, the higher the perceived value of Paso Robles wine grapes will be, and the more wineries will see a need to highlight Paso Robles on their labels.
Article:
How Will Global Sourcing Affect the Future of the Wine Industry?Wine Business Monthly, Cyril Penn
Tags:
San Luis Obispo Central Coast WineLabels: Central Coast Wine, Wine Business
Saturday, January 06, 2007
San Luis Obispo County's wine industry offered plenty to write about last year. Wineries here continue to grow and evolve - both in the North County and South County - and the region has received a lot of national attention, and it looks like that trend will continue into 2007.
For 2006, The Tribune shares
six stories that had the most impact on the industry in 2006. Here's the first story:
1. Paso Grows Up. Named this year as "the next up-and-coming California wine region" by the California Wine Club, the once tiny wine area of Paso Robles is now emerging as a premier wine region on a national level. With close to 200 wineries - up from 50 in 2000 - Paso Robles is the fastest growing wine region in the state, and there seems to be no end in sight. With stunning new wineries including Robert Hall, Denner and Eagle Castle, and talented winemakers from around the world choosing to make wine here, Paso Robles has joined the company of Sonoma and Napa counties as a destination wine region.
Article:
SLO County’s top wine stories of 2006The Tribune, Janis Switzer
Tags:
San Luis Obispo Central Coast WineLabels: Central Coast Wine
Friday, December 22, 2006
Three Paso Robles wines made the "Wine Enthusiast Top 100 Wines of 2006" list.
EOS' 2004 "Tears of Dew Late Harvest Moscato," a dessert wine that sells for about $22 per bottle, earned a 95-point rating from the magazine.
The review stated: "This dessert wine has pushed itself to the front of the line of California sweeties, and the '04 is a great bottling. It's enormously sweet in late-harvest character, with apricot liqueur, pineapple tart and vanilla cream flavors that are brightened and boosted with cleansing acidity."
The magazine's staff selected the wines from a pool of 8,000 selections.
Linne Calodo's 2005 Contrarian was also named to the list. The white wine sells for around $36 a bottle.
The Enthusiast review: "What a complex and interesting blend of Roussanne and Viognier. Opens with a honeyed, marzipan and almond cookie bouquet, but turns surprisingly dry and acidically crisp in the mouth, with Meyer lemon, vanilla, gingerbread and Asian spice flavors."
The Contrarian earned a 94-point rating.
Treana's 2003 Mer Soleil Vineyard Viognier-Marsanne, made with grapes from Monterey County, also made the list. The white wine sells for around $25 per bottle.
According to the Enthusiast, the 94-point wine is one of the best Rhone whites in California.
The review goes on to state:
"The '03 is an amazing wine. It displays the fresh, keen acidity of the vineyard, which grows no reds, and detonates on the palate with tremendous apricot, papaya, mango, pineapple, tangerine, peach and mineral flavors. It's basically dry, although there's a touch of botrytis honey."
Article:
Wine Enthusiast fetes three Paso winesThe Tribune, Leah Etling
Tags:
San Luis Obispo Central Coast WineLabels: Central Coast Wine, EOS Estate Winery, Linne Calodo, Paso Robles Wineries, Treana, Wine Enthusiast
Monday, December 18, 2006
At the age of 14 and 10 respectively, Frank and Phil Arciero arrived in America from Italy in the late 1930s. America was in the throes of the Depression and work was scarce, but their father had finally scraped together enough money to bring them over from Rome, where much of the family would remain until more money was raised. Frank immediately went to work digging ditches while his younger brother went to school, and gradually the Arciero family was reassembled in America, member by member, year by year.
By the time everyone had finally made it to Detroit, Frank and Phil were ready to leave and seek their fortunes as young men, and at the time, there was no better place to do it than California. The two inseparable brothers arrived in central California in 1948 and quickly launched their own construction company. In a combination of hard work, business savvy, and being in the right place at the right time, the Arciero Brothers, as they and their company came to be known, prospered well beyond their immigrant parents' dreams. Over the course of nearly forty years the two brothers build a concrete company empire that would eventually include residential and commercial construction, farming, and one of the country's most successful Indy Car racing teams.
The process of building this empire no doubt consumed all the time and energy that the brothers could muster. Those who start out with very little don't find it easy to rest on their laurels. Yet at a certain point, Frank had the time and the luxury to slow down a bit, and to begin to feel the call of some deeper family traditions that the family had left behind in the old country. Instead of fighting his way through the Emigrant Wilderness on a wagon train like the Italian immigrants to California that preceded him by 100 years, Frank fought his way through the struggles of surviving in the Depression, but like those immigrants before him, there came a time where Frank felt the need to start planting grapes.
The first parcels went into the ground in the 1980s amidst the rolling hills of Paso Robles, which reminded Frank of his childhood memories of Italy. Over the next fifteen years, Frank literally built himself a winery, from the vines in the ground to the cement of the walls.
And like all the other Arciero projects through the years, it took off with a bang. The Arciero family continued to purchase and plant vineyard land throughout the Nineties, and by 1996 they were producing enough wine under the family label that they needed to do some "brand diversification" which is a fancy name for creating different wine labels to sell different types and quality levels of wines. As part of this move, the winery brought on liquor industry veteran Kerry Vix as general manager, and distributor Vernon Underwood, and EOS Estate Winery (along with several other brands) was born.
Named after the Greek goddess of the dawn, EOS has been producing varietal wines in the Paso Robles area since 1996. Its sister brands Novella (Italian varietals) and Cupa Grandis (reserve wines) join the original Arciero Family Winery label to complete the portfolio. The wines are made by winemaker Leslie Melendez who worked her way up through the ranks to head winemaker from her beginnings in 1993 as a lab technician.
Apropos of its name, the winery harvests all its fruit before dawn, from vines that have an average age of over 20 years, planted from cuttings taken from some of the first vines planted in the area. The fruit is hand harvested and the whites are pressed in small lots with a traditional Champagne basket press.
Website:
EOS Estate WineryTags:
San Luis Obispo Central Coast WineLabels: Central Coast Wine, EOS Estate Winery, Paso Robles Wineries
Thursday, December 14, 2006
The "Economic Impact of California Wine" report, compiled by MKF Research and released December 7, 2006, by Wine Institute (WI) and the California Association of Winegrape Growers (CAWG), revealed that the number of grapegrowers in the state is declining. Reasons for the decline include demographics, low grape prices and consolidation.
Between 2002 and 2005, the number of growers decreased from 4,805 to 4,600. By contrast, the number of bonded wineries in the state increased by more than 33% during the same period.
The positive side is that more and more people are choosing to become grapegrowers and vintners later in life.
In certain areas, like Paso Robles, there are a lot of people getting into the business who were not in farming before. They did something else, then they moved out of the city and are trying their hand at growing winegrapes and starting a small winery. There's a real desire for people to go back and connect with the land.
Although a number of new wineries are virtual wineries, a lot of them are smaller-acreage growers who want to do estate bottling, have a wine tasting room and be part of a wine community, like what's happening in the Central Coast.
As the number of California wineries continues its explosive growth, and the demand for premium California wines increases, the state's growers will be faced with the challenge of providing enough fruit to fill the need.
California had 477,000 bearing vineyard acres in 2005, according to the 2006 "Economic Impact of California Wine" report, up from 437,532 acres in 2003.
Article:
Number of California Grapegrowers DecliningWines & Vines, Tina Caputo
Report:
Economic Impact of California Wine (PDF)
Tags:
San Luis Obispo Central Coast WineLabels: Central Coast Wine, Paso Robles Wineries
Saturday, December 09, 2006
Cyril Penn at Wine Business Monthly reports that grape prices continue to decrease while vineyard values continue to increase. He ponders how long will it take to regain balance?
During the last 12 to 18 months wine industry lenders have noticed a firming of vineyard values throughout most of California, despite a record crush in 2005. Moreover, in mid-October, with the harvest about half over, expectations were that up to 125,000 tons of winegrapes could go unpicked in California during 2006.
Vineyard prices are mostly up, despite a dip in grape prices.
"Eighteen months ago grape prices looked better than they do today, and there was more optimism," said Mark Clarke, executive director of Rabo AgriFinance in Fresno, California, a division of RoboBank Group, regarded as the world's largest agricultural lender.
"In many cases, prices being paid for vineyards today indicate that buyers are expecting that grape prices will rise sharply in order to deliver expected returns," he said. "Or buyers are willing to accept returns that are low by historical standards,or a combination of these two."
How long the market value of vineyard land can remain out of step with its economic value is anyone's guess.
During 2005, vineyard sales activity increased sharply along California's Central Coast, with corporate and financial buyers most active. With the exception of Pinot Noir, fundamentals continued to weaken for most varieties, though. The "Sideways effect" from the 2004 movie has been particularly pronounced on the Central Coast. "What we're seeing in 2006," said Clarke, "is that prices for bare land in places suitable for planting Pinot Noir are equal to prices paid for Pinot Noir vineyards in 2005."
While the Central Coast is still considered the area where growth can occur in new premium vineyards, values for raw land have escalated, partly because of competition for the land from produce growers in Monterey and Santa Barbara counties.
Paso Robles has seen significant plantings, though water is an issue for vineyard expansion and even a potential issue with existing vineyards.
In Monterey County, an increase in vineyard pricing began in 2004. The price of open-irrigated farmland has increased to the point where "some smart people say there isn't an acre of irrigated land in Monterey County that's worth less than $30,000 today. It's hard to say you can create any value by putting a vineyard on top of that," Clarke said.
A comparison of the change in vineyard values and prices for Chardonnay and Cabernet in Monterey indicates investors are willing to accept a lower return, or they expect things to turn around and improve, Clarke said.
In San Luis and Santa Barbara counties, the range is tighter, with some volatility at the lower end of the price range in recent years. "There were some exceptional values found by buyers at the bottom of the market in 2003," Clarke said.
Article:
Vineyard Land Prices: Boom or Bust?Wine Business Monthly, Cyril Penn
Tags:
San Luis Obispo Central Coast WineLabels: Central Coast Wine
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