Talley Vineyards

First, we had it at Gramercy Tavern, then later in the week at Daniel Boulud’s incomparable Bar Boulud on Broadway at 63rd Street. Bar Boulud’s wine director, Michael Madrigal, probably said it best. There’s a reason why the rich, bright, magnificently balanced 2006 Talley Estate-Bottled Pinot Noir was featured for so long at Daniel’s place. The food at Bar Boulud is less about elaborate ‘cuisine’ than it is about freshness and purity; the fish, the vegetables, the herbs — subtle combinations of flavors, each of which tastes like it was harvested that morning. So when we asked Michael why he had chosen the Talley Pinot and why the wine was such a hit at the restaurant, he said: “The Talley wine just speaks of what Bar Boulud is all about. You don’t need overblown cuisine when you have that much purity and precision.”

But our history with Talley Pinot Noir goes back 16 years. The first time we tasted a Talley Pinot, it hadn’t even been made by Brian Talley’s winemaking crew. We were at The Wine Cask in Santa Barbara in 1993, when proprietor Doug Margerum directed us to a new release from his friend, Jim Clendenen, at Au Bon Climat. The wine was the legendary 1991 Au Bon Climat Pinot Noir Talley Rosemary’s Vineyard, an amazing California Pinot with a rare sort of penetrating wholesomeness. A few days later, almost 16 years ago today, we made a beeline for Talley Vineyards.

That’s when we learned the whole story of this brilliant vineyard development. The Talleys had long been one of the Central Coast’s premier vegetable farming families. When “the flag is up” on the farm, demand exceeds supply for the pepper crop — and business is good. The flag must have been up in 1983, when almost on a whim, Don Talley decided to try his hand at grape growing, going out one day in a D4 Caterpillar, turning ground for the first vineyard planting. He was doing mostly everything wrong — spacing was too wide (to accommodate the Caterpillar), clones weren’t the best — but somehow it almost didn’t matter. This land that they had purchased for no more than the cost of vegetable farmland, turned out to be a miraculous spot for both Pinot Noir and Chardonnay. The Pacific was just 8 miles away. The ocean breezes were cool and steady. Sunshine was plentiful. Just 8 years later, Talley grapes were featured in a half dozen trailblazing wineries including Brian Babcock’s Babcock Vineyards, Adam Tolmach’s Ojai, and of course, Clendenon’s Au Bon Climat.

When we called Brian Talley, Don’s son, a couple of months ago just to tell him we were drinking his Pinot at Bar Boulud, we asked him how he accounts for the astonishing progress at Talley over the last 20 years. He explained: “When Dad started planting grapes, he thought Pinot Noir would be like peppers. The biggest pepper crops produce the biggest peppers. People want big peppers, so more is just better. With grapes, it’s the opposite. It drove Dad crazy when I told him we had to reduce crop, produce tighter bunches, smaller berries. Initially, he thought we were leaving profits on the ground.” Then Brian smiled. “But Clendenon’s 1991 Rosemary’s changed the tide. When Dad tasted that one, he changed his mind.”

Tasting Notes from the WineAccess Travel Log

Light bright red. Sharply focused and red berry and spice aromas are impressively pure and fresh. Taut, finely etched redcurrant and wild strawberry flavors are seamless and clean, with slow-mounting minerality contributing energy. Finishes with gentle sweetness and a jolt of dusty minerals. This will need a bit more time than Edna Valley bottling.
90 points – Stephen Tanzer’s International Wine Cellar

“Brilliant ruby in color. Wonderfully clean and pure nose of red fruit and underbrush. Rich and precise on the palate with a gorgeous sweet kernel of red fruit in the center, opening up into multi-layered complexity. Chiseled in the finish, with excellent vibrancy and persistence, speaking of those cool Pacific breezes. Drinking beautifully now, but will continue to age gracefully until 2012.”
– WineAccess Travel Log