Spritland Bistro’s monthly Wine & Dine dinner featured Pete Stolpman from Stolpman Vineyards last night, who attended to speak and sip on Super Tuscan wines.
Spritland Bistro (230 E. Victoria St.) is an intimate local restaurant that holds monthly (sometimes bi-monthly) BYOB wine dinners of a specified variety or region. Super Tuscans were up last night for the 24th BYOB dinner. Pete spoke between and over each course about the diversity of Italian wine on the market, the ramifications of Italy’s quality designation system (IGT, DOC, DOCG), and the south-facing, calcareous soil of Stolpman Vineyards in Ballard Canyon.
The care that goes into that vineyard (which we source Sangiovese and Nebbiolo from), is extremely intricate – from farming practices to “La Cuadrilla,” which refers to their full time vineyard crew. Stolpman Vineyard is organic, sustainable, and dry farmed. Pete discussed their choice to dry farm as a “quality reason.” Starting in 2001, they cut irrigation to all mature vines. How do vines survive without water? Some of the crowd was perplexed… “Vines are trained weeds,” Pete went on to elaborate, “they will find a way to survive from rainfall throughout the year and sucking up whatever moisture they can from their environment.” The consequences is a smaller crop (usually less than a ton per acre) and you can’t make cheap wine. This is just one of the many indicators of quality that has become synonymous with the Stolpman name.
A little bit about Super Tuscan wines… Some may have been confused by the ‘Super Tuscan’ theme, as there were many Chianti wines being passed around and tasted. To be honest, if I didn’t spend a lot of my time reading wine books and magazines, and I saw the theme Super Tuscan, I would probably just think that I was supposed to bring “a great Tuscan wine – like a SUPER one” so I can see how the confusion occurred! Super Tuscan describes a Tuscan red that does not adhere to traditional Italian blending laws for the region. Super Tuscans use grapes such as cabernet sauvignon or merlot, making them ineligible for Tuscany’s acclaimed DOCG status. So in short, last night featured sangiovese-based wines from all over the world with either some cabernet sauvignon, merlot, or syrah blended in.
For fun I brought along the 2004 Santa Barbara Winery Sangiovese from Stolpman Vineyard, which is one of my personal favorite wines that we have produced at the winery. It is at a phenomenal place in its wine life, full of juicy fruit and bright acidity, some mellowed out tannins make this wine very approachable. Our current release of this wine is 2006. (click image to enlarge)
We are proud to be associated with the Stolpman name.
Joanie Hudson, Director of National and International Marketing, Santa Barbara Winery / Lafond Winery & Vineyards
Santa Barbara wine and fashion pioneers Pierre Lafond and Wendy Foster have spent the past few decades establishing and building an empire with businesses spread out between Montecito’s glitzy upper and lower villages, bustling State Street, and the serene vineyard packed Sta. Rita Hills. An ocean side drive that spans about an hour in length can get you from one end of their trail to the other – shopping, wine and dining along the way. 
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