Dennis Schaefer (DS): Back in the days when you were apprenticing at Santa Barbara Winery, was there any concern about what the consequence of appellations (AVA’s) were? Or were you (and winemaker Bruce McGuire) more focused on the actual vineyards you sourced from?

Craig Jaffurs (CJ): My apprenticeship with Bruce at Santa Barbara Winery was very informal. I was more of a harvest slave with a few privileges because I didn’t make any mistakes with the wine. One of the privileges was that I got to walk the vineyards with him and viticulturalist Jeff Newton, which was incredibly educational. Still, I don’t think we were working on the appellation level. We were more varietal driven. Bruce was focusing on Pinot Noir and Chardonnay, and distancing himself from Cabernet Sauvignon. He had a lot of varietals in the ground and was figuring out what to do with them.

At his encouragement, I had started playing with Syrah in 1989 as something to plant in my tiny .25 acre square home vineyard. Ultimately, Syrah became my focus. After Bruce introduced me to Chris Whitcraft and he turned me on to the first magnificent Viognier of my life, the focus broadened to the Rhone, or to the wines of Cote Rotie. Because Syrah and Viognier were so rare back in the early 1990’s, I had to get fruit where I could find it. I was lucky that the sites I started with worked out well for the varietal (Thompson 1994, Stolpman 1995, Bien Nacido 1996, Melville 2000, Verna’s 2004, Ampelos 2004). I didn’t get over the Cote Rotie obsession until after my first Syrah vintage in 1994 when I realized that there was just no way that Santa Barbara or its wines were at all like the northern Rhone’s.

DS: At Jaffurs, you source from all the appellations in the county; you make many different vineyard designated wines. Are the grapes from each of those individual vineyards (and thus those appellations) really that distinct? How do you explain that?

CJ: Yes, the wines from the different sites are distinct. When we taste all the wines side-by-side, this is very clear. Why? It is mostly site, with some impact from clones and winemaking. The sites really set the tone for the wine – cold sites like Ampelos Vineyard and Bien Nacido Vineyard are the blackest wines we produce. Ampelos is fatter and more tannic due to its extremely low yields. Bien Nacido is more spicy and leaner in the mouth, but quite powerful - raspberry. I don’t know why. The yields at Bien Nacido are about three tons per acre–pretty low–and the wind never stops there. There is a Bien Nacido “spice” there that I even taste in the Pinot. Both sites are Estrella clone grapes growing in gravel/sandy loam.

Thompson Vineyard is another Estrella clone site. It is a little warmer in the Los Alamos Valley and is harvested a few weeks before Bien Nacido. It is planted on its own rootstock which makes it express itself differently. It is not so black as other Syrahs, but is thick with glycerin that sticks to your lips. Sometimes it has tobacco notes, and sometimes it gets a little mint from the eucalyptus that grows nearby. Again, it only wants to set about three tons per acre, so the fruit is concentrated.

Verna’s Vineyard in Cat Canyon is new for us and I am still getting a handle on what it is that I can call its character. My blocks are planted to four different clones – Clone 1 and Estrella on the steep hillsides, and 174 and 877 on the bench area. The hillside stuff struggles to produce one ton per acre and makes denser, fuller wines than the grapes on the bench that can give me up to four tons per acre. Interesting, I can’t actually say that the low yield blocks produce radically better wine than the higher yielding blocks. The final cuvee from this vineyard tends to be driven by the hillsides, with a little of the other grapes blended in for balance. All the clones bring something different to the table. Maybe in a few years, I’ll know exactly what that is.

The winemaking for all my Syrahs is identical – perfect de-stemming followed by 24 to 48 hour cold soaks, a day to warm up and then 14 days to ferment in 1.5 ton bins. We use different yeasts in the bins and create sub lots.

DS: You attribute the distinctiveness of the wines mostly to the site itself, but you say there is also "some impact from clones and winemaking." Could you give your thoughts about how clones and winemaking have made a difference?

CJ: Truly, site dominates this conversation, but the clones just taste different. For example, I use to think the Cote du Rhone wines had an herbal flavor that came from French soils and climate. When we got our first NTAV clone fruit, it clearly had more of these flavors than Estrella or Shiraz Clone 1. So, some of what I thought was terroir is really the clones. Shiraz Clone 1 has darker, fruit driven flavors and a coarser tannin profile. For us here in Santa Barbara County, Estrella is the benchmark since it comprised all the early Syrah plantings. It is still my favorite: deep, fruitful, tannic, clean.

Similarly in the winemaking, if you keep your stems in the fermenter, you can get herbal flavors, plus lower pH and a thicker, more liqueur-like mouth feel. You can extend your fermentations and soften the wines, but I think you lose color and roughness.

DS: If each vineyard source is distinct, why make a Santa Barbara County appellation Syrah. Doesn't that mute the individuality of each of those vineyards when you put them into a blend?

CJ: Our Santa Barbara County Syrah is a vehicle which allows us to make more focused vineyard designated Syrahs. The best barrels from each wine lot are selected for extra barrel aging, which lets the vineyard designated wines move upwards to a higher level or evolution. The remaining barrels are combined to make our Santa Barbara County Syrah. It is a great wine at a great price and serves to keep the Jaffurs and Santa Barbara County name out there in peoples’ minds. Truly, it is the same exquisitely farmed, expensive grapes brought together with the same loving winemaking. As a cuvée, it shows the true overall flavor of Santa Barbara County, not just one site.

Similarly, our UPSLOPE Syrah, the best six barrels in the winery regardless of vineyard, are blended together to make a wine of distinction, and one that is better than any single vineyard wine. It may change in composition every year, but is always our best Syrah. It may not cry Bien Nacido Vineyard or Thompson Vineyard, but it sure cries Santa Barbara cool climate Syrah!

DS: Is there a regional character to the Syrah growing in Santa Barbara County? If so, what is it and how would you define it? How would you compare it to Syrah grown in other regions?

CJ: The classic Santa Barbara County Syrah is tannic, dark, and fruit-driven, with a nice pinch of spice on the finish. It has a lower pH (higher acid) than Syrahs from Napa Valley or Paso Robles, so ours are fresher, more gripping and less soft. I expect ours will age a bit longer, if one is in to that. Ours are equally dark as these northern (warmer climate) wines, but maybe not so thick as the really good Napa Valley ones. They can’t get the spice we have. Ultimately, ours are more interesting. We are a tad lower in alcohol perhaps.

Santa Barbara County Syrahs are the best in the country – hands down. We have hardly begun to see what we can do. Our appellation needs to become comfortable with itself. We should let the wines be what they want to be and not try to make them be wines from other places in the world. I wouldn’t make Syrah any other place.

DS: In your cooler sites, can you pick at lower sugars and get the flavors you want or are you looking for longer hang times?

CJ: Yes, you can pick at lower sugars and still have physiological ripeness/fruit maturity (e.g., brown seeds, browning stems with red streaks, soft berries, varietal flavors, etc.), but why stop there when you can get better flavor development through hang time, and still not have alcohols that are over the top. Our wines can support higher alcohol because the cool climate gives us wines with lower pH and higher acid, hence more balance. I think, though, that we may be over stating this pursuit of ripeness. I routinely bring Roussanne in “under ripe” at 22 brix, and the wine is delightful.

DS: Are there any specific winemaking techniques you employ that you think help express the regional character of wines?

CJ: Yes, complete (perfect) stemming of the fruit, not crushing it, and ever vigilant attention to cellar sanitation. Keep the wines topped and avoid spoilage. It’s easy: just don’t spoil the core of flavors which we spend all year growing in the vineyard.

DS: With the tendency toward longer hang times and greater ripeness in Santa Barbara County, thus higher alcohols, do you think those higher alcohol levels obscure the regional character?

CJ: Sure, alcohol can get in the way. The wines are hard to get dry, but a touch of sweetness can balance the alcohol taste. Our higher acidity helps us have more balanced wines too, but you need to know when you are ripe enough, and what you can deal with in the context of winemaking. You don’t bring in 26 Brix fruit if you can’t get it dry.

DS: Can you explain why Syrah can seemingly be planted almost anywhere (cool or warm climate) and still retain its defining varietal characteristics?

CJ: No, I can’t, from a scientific perspective, but I can attempt to answer from a operational perspective. The grape itself is pretty tough and has a lot of color and tannin from an early point in its maturity. This early maturity and toughness means the core flavors of Syrah are able to be achieved in almost any locale that can successfully grow wine grapes.

So, in cool, dry places, it develops flavors early, and then they continue to develop until the winemaker determines it is time to pick. And remember, cool places produce fruit that maintains its acidity well, so the wines are brighter. They also have deeper color, bigger/harder tannins, and more fresh fruit flavors. In warmer places, since the flavors develop early, they are present when the heat makes the harvest happen earlier. They have less acidity, and softer, more red fruit/dry fruit flavors. In wet climates, early winter rains don’t destroy the fruit. Usually, they can go through a few rains (assuming proper canopy management, crop load, etc.) before they are in danger of spoilage.

DS: Cool climate Syrah and warm climate Syrah are both interesting; what have you found to be the difference between cool climate and warm climate Syrah, as it manifests itself in the aromas, flavors, texture and mouth feel?

CJ: Cool means higher acidity (low pH), bigger tannins, harder tannins, fresh fruit flavors/raspberry/cherry, more spice in the nose and mouth, aromatically closed when young, beautifully giving aromatically one year after bottling, warm aromas, dark aromas, (think Northern Rhone/Cote Rotie).

Warm, on the other hand, means lower acidity, softer tannins, more red fruit/dry fruit flavors, less spice in the nose and mouth, more open when young, sweeter flavors, fruitful aromas, (think down under Barossa Valley Shiraz).I always say U.S. Syrah is halfway between Australia and France in flavors.

DS: We've been planting and harvesting Syrah in Santa Barbara County for over 30 years now; do we know what its potential is by now or have we just scratched the surface?

CJ: Yes, we know the potential. We can make world class Syrah here. We already have. Can it get better? Santa Barbara County is a big place. I think we are just now figuring it out, but we will see some surprises. We’ve come a long way, but if we can increase quality 10 percent , that is a huge leap relative to other wines. Maybe biodynamic farming will help. Certainly the growth in sustainable farming is producing healthier, more stable vineyards, that give us better fruit. We need more impassioned growers: the more the better. Santa Rita Hills has done a great job of picking Chardonnay and Pinot as their grapes of choice. Interestingly, that appellation is also a stellar place to grow Syrah. I hope we don’t miss out on producing great Syrah at the expense of producing great Pinot there.

DS: You source from every appellation here; are the present appellation boundaries too broad?
Do identifiable sub-regions exist within the appellation(s)?

CJ: Because of the nature of what we do, I am really more interested in vineyards. That they lie inside an appellation is nice, but the vineyard is the thing – aspect to the sun, soil, management, surrounding area (trees, hills,…) spacing, clones, etc. Call it terroir if you like. Funny, I think the management and the management/owner’s vibe is really important. If they are truly impassioned to work their site correctly, they’ll produce great fruit. Look at Peter and Rebecca Work at Ampelos Vineyard. It’s true. That they are in Santa Rita Hills is just icing on the cake. So, the vineyard is the ultimate appellation.

DS: Finally, how do you feel the Santa Barbara County appellation is perceived by the consumer? Do you think the consumer is aware of a "Santa Maria Valley" wine or "Santa Ynez Valley" wine...and do they connect that with a certain level or quality?

CJ: Others may disagree with this, but Santa Barbara County is the brand. Santa Rita Hills has done a great job at branding itself too. Bien Nacido Vineyard is a brand too. I don’t think Santa Maria Valley and Santa Ynez Valley have a lot of consumer recognition and I do not put those words on my labels. As an aside, I think Bien Nacido Vineyard is synonymous with Santa Maria Valley. The Bien Nacido Vineyard name is recognized in the marketplace, but folks don’t know where it is, other than in Santa Barbara County or “Central California.”

All photos courtesy of Jaffurs Winery