Talley Ho! Minimalist Winemaking Burgundy Style
Courtyard at Talley Vineyards
The Arroyo Grande winegrowing region of the California Central Coast has a climate and soils very similar to those of its famous French cousin – Burgundy.
While Burgundy’s northern-latitude location keeps high temperatures at bay, the Arroyo Grande AVA owes its, micro-climate to an east-west orientation, which allows cooling fogs from the nearby Pacific Ocean to drift directly into the vineyards.
As a result, the same great grapes love both areas.
No wonder Don Talley decided to plant Pinot Noir and Chardonnay on the steep hillsides above his family’s vegetable farmland in the early 80s.
Burgundy has influenced Talley’s winemaking in another way, its minimalist approach – a strong belief in “terroir’ with as little manipulation as possible during the winemaking process, allowing a sense of place to infuse their distinctive wines.
It takes a winemaker with a light hand and a sense of restraint to resist the invasive techniques so many California wineries succumb to.
“We try to capture the individual expression of each of our vineyards,” says Leslie Mead, appointed Talley winemaker in Jan. 2007, after serving as an enologist there since 2005. Her background also includes working in the forestry industry and in a wet lab.
Morphing from water quality analyst into winemaker was “a complete happy accident” for her. “I just happened to see a newspaper ad for a lab technician at a winery in Calaveras County,” she explained. She jumped at the chance, later picking up production management experience at another vineyard.
Was it hard for someone with such a technical and analytical mind to embrace the traditional techniques of Burgundy at Talley? “Not at all. In fact, it makes my job easier, since all the work is done in the vineyard but I get to take the credit,” she says with sincere modesty.
And there is plenty of credit, with numerous wines ratings in the 90s, as well as praise from the likes of Robert Parker – arguably the country’s best-known wine critic – who has referred to Talley as “the superstar producer of Chardonnay and Pinot Noir on the Central Coast” and “one of the finest Pinot Noir producers in California.”
Other factors help Talley garner these accolades, such as quality control and consistency, according to Mead. And she doesn’t just mean consistent weather. Good business practices contribute, as well.
The vineyard workers, who all started first at Talley farms, are long-term employees of the family business. And the pickers are also the sorters. “So when they see which grapes we discard during sorting, they know which ones not to pick the next day,” she said.
Compartmentalization is another key to quality and consistency, she added. “We keep all lots separated right up until we make the final blending decisions. We even have lots as small as a barrel’s worth.”
All of the rigor and regimen doesn’t stop the playful side of a winemaker from emerging. To have a little fun, as well as to try new things with grapes from a huge vintage that might otherwise go to waste, Mead concocted a few novelty dessert wines you can sample in the tasting room: the Raising Cane, a Pinot Port, and Stone Cold Chardonnay, an Old World-type ice wine made from frozen grapes.
Can a winemaker have a life outside the lab and the barrel room? The fact that Leslie lives only 10-minutes from the winery is a big clue to the answer to that quesion. “I have the best job in the whole world,” she hedges. “We even have someone come in on Thursday and fixes lunch for the whole winery! And I do travel some. I went to Chile recently but I, um … worked the harvest.”
Obviously, I needed tougher interview skills. Okay, what wine-related interests do you pursue when you’re off duty, I asked, looking her straight in the eye. Mead seemed more eager to answer that question.
She heads up a literacy center at the winery to help the field workers learn to speak, read, and write in English. “I love the way Talley gives back to its workers,” she said.
She also serves as chair of the local chapter of the California Eneological Research Association and on the advisory committee for the World of Pinot Noir event held each year in Pismo Beach.
Her current pet project is producing and marketing a very special wine – Mano Tinta, a Syrah made from donated grapes and packaged in donated materials. Even the artwork for the label was donated by the artist, the nine-year-old son of one of the farm workers.
All of the proceeds from the sale go to the Fund for Vineyard and Farm Workers. “By law, we can sell it here now, even though other SLO wineries donated grapes and packaging materials. Although restaurants and wine shops offer it by the glass, my hope is to increase the money we raise, by other wineries someday being able to make and sell it, too.”
For more about Mano Tinta, go to www.talleyvineyads.com and click on Wine & Reviews. You’ll find Mano Tinta at the bottom of the left-hand column.