Buellton — ON the website for Wes Hagen's vineyard and winery, you'll find the usual pictures of family members and pets. But you'll also find a bonus -- full-color photographs of dirt.
Not just any dirt, but the soil (actually, soils -- there are a couple types) that are found at his family's respected Clos Pepe Vineyards in the Santa Rita Hills west of Buellton.
Though the vineyard has been planted for just a decade, its fruit has already been made into wine by many of the area's leading stars, including Bryan Babcock, Greg Brewer and Steve Clifton, Adam Tolmach, Ken Brown and Rick Longoria. In addition, about a quarter of the vineyard's fruit is reserved for the Clos Pepe Estate label, made by Hagen.
Certainly, there are other vineyards in the red-hot winegrowing area that are at least as well-known -- the legendary Sanford & Benedict, for one -- and others that are just as promising -- Ashley's, Sea Smoke and Cargasacchi, for example. But Clos Pepe, a 28-acre spread just north of Highway 246, about midway between Buellton and Lompoc, has already carved out a substantial reputation for itself.
"Clos Pepe is the ultimate expression of Santa Rita Hills," says winemaker Brown, who helped pioneer Central Coast Pinot at Zaca Mesa and Byron wineries before recently opening his own Ken Brown Wines in Lompoc.
"There is a darker fruit expression than you find in Santa Maria. And there is more of a pure fruit expression and more of a tannin structure. I hate to use Burgundian comparisons, but it is more Cote de Nuits than Cote de Beaune."
That purity of fruit has attracted a fascinating range of talent. This includes brash young guys such as Brewer and Clifton, Brian Loring and Ryan Carr, who craft the kinds of fruit-forward powerful wines so well-loved at wine tastings and by some important critics. But it also includes more traditional Burgundy-influenced winemakers such as Brown and Tolmach, who aim more for grace and delicacy.
But no matter in which style the wine is made, Clos Pepe fruit seems to shine through. Wines from the vineyard routinely score into the 90s from the Wine Spectator magazine and critic Robert Parker. PinotReport newsletter ("For People Passionate about Western Pinot Noir") ranks Clos Pepe the second-most reliable vineyard for the varietal in the state, behind only Cargasacchi and ahead of such big names as Sonoma's Dutton Ranch and Hirsch.
