Hollister
– Frank Leal, owner of Leal Vineyards in Hollister, made it his
goal from the winery’s inception in 1998 to help build the San
Benito American Viticultural Area and make a name for the county’s
winemakers.
Hollister – Frank Leal, owner of Leal Vineyards in Hollister, made it his goal from the winery’s inception in 1998 to help build the San Benito American Viticultural Area and make a name for the county’s winemakers.
And after the 2006 California State Fair Wine Competition presented Leal Vineyards with Single Vineyard Grape Grower and Estate Vineyard Manager awards and a gold medal for his 2004 Estate Merlot, some in the San Benito County wine industry believe he is helping to do just that. Dan Payne, assistant winemaker and sales manager of Leal Vineyards, said the shift in focus from producing large-volume wines for supermarkets before the 1990s to smaller, hand-picked boutique wines of recent years has San Benito gaining national attention.
“I think (the awards) really prove there’s a renaissance going on,” Payne said.
Payne said Leal is harvesting fewer tons per acre and thinning vines down to two clusters per shoot to create higher quality, hand-picked wines.
San Benito’s wine production was not always focused on quality. Josh Jensen, owner and founder of the Calera Wine Company, planted vineyards in the limestone-rich Gavilan mountains in 1975. At that time San Benito County was known only for high-volume generic wines.
“There was this one 800-pound gorilla and there were these two little ants,” Jensen said of Calera and Enz Winery, both still going strong after 31 and 24 years respectively.
Jensen knew the only way a small winery could survive against larger competition was to do the exact opposite – produce small vintages of high-quality wine. In 1990, Calera, which means limekiln in Spanish, obtained its own appellation designation as the Mount Harlan AVA. Since then, Jensen has made Calera into a highly respected name.
Jensen and Calera have an entire chapter focused on their story and wines in “Great Wines of America: The Top Forty Vintners, Vineyards, and Vintages,” by Paul Lukacs.
Robert Parker, whom many consider the world’s foremost and most influential wine critic, has reviewed Calera’s Pinot Noirs extensively and has called Calera and Jensen “one of the most compelling Pinot Noir specialists not only of the New World, but of Planet Earth.”
Jensen came to the hills of San Benito County looking for specific limestone-rich soil in which to grow grapes for his Pinot Noirs. But wine was made in San Benito before Jensen.
In fact, Almaden, which began making wine in 1953, bought the then 100-year-old vineyards.
San Benito County’s wine making history stretches back to French immigrant Theophile Vache, who planted the first vineyards in 1854. German immigrant William Palmtag bought the property in 1880 and won silver medals at the 1900 World Exposition in Paris for the wine he produced, according to Kathleen Smith, president of the San Benito County Wine Growers Association.
After Almaden closed its doors in the 1980s, grape wine production dropped significantly before new wineries opened on the old estates in the 1990s.
Grape wine production has increased from 2,975 acres in 2001, valued at $15.8 million, to 3,672 acres bringing in $20 million in 2005.
The nine members of the San Benito County Wine Growers Association have gained national attention.
The March 2006 issue of Sunset Magazine featured a tour of San Benito County including stops at Calera, DeRose Vineyards and Pietra Santa Winery.
Donati Family Vineyard, Leal, Pietra Santa and DeRose have won award after award at international, national, state and regional competitions in the past half-decade. The accolades only further each other’s reputation and firmly establish San Benito as a booming, quality wine region. The more the merrier, Jensen said.
In Jensen’s 30 years in San Benito, winemaking has progressed considerably. He encourages the growth.
“It’s not this cutthroat, Bill Gates, ‘I want to kill my competition’ type of mentality,” Jensen said.
Michael Van Cassell covers public safety and agriculture for the Free Lance. He can be reached at 831-637-5566 ext. 335.
