Santa Maria, Calif. — IMAGINE marrying a famous Central Coast winemaker, and when you meet your extended family, it includes not only your spouse's parents and siblings, but his winery partner, who is himself a famous winemaker, and members of his staff, who are also successful winemakers, and a group of cellar rats who have winemaking aspirations of their own.
Imagine that in that cellar, not one but 11 wineries are housed, some the most celebrated in the region. And imagine you have the bad fortune to want to make wine yourself.
For The Record
Los Angeles Times Saturday April 08, 2006 Home Edition Main News Part A Page 2 National Desk 0 inches; 35 words Type of Material: Correction
Spanish wine in California: An article in the March 29 Food section stated that Verdad winery is the only one devoted solely to Spanish varieties. In fact, there is another -- Bokisch Winery in Lodi.
For The Record
Los Angeles Times Wednesday April 12, 2006 Home Edition Food Part F Page 2 Features Desk 1 inches; 37 words Type of Material: Correction
Spanish wine in California -- An article on wine in the March 29 Food section stated that Verdad winery is the only winery solely devoted to Spanish varieties. In fact, there is another: Bokisch Winery in Lodi.
No pressure, of course. None at all.
This scenario has played out not once but twice at the intertwined wineries Au Bon Climat and Qupe in Santa Maria. In 1996, Au Bon Climat winemaker Jim Clendenen's wife, Morgan, founded Cold Heaven Cellars, an entity devoted mostly to Viognier. Three years later, Qupe winemaker Bob Lindquist's wife, Louisa Sawyer Lindquist, founded Verdad, an entity devoted entirely to Spanish-style wines.
Not only are these two women making wines distinct from their spouses', but their efforts are so good that they've managed to steal a little limelight for themselves.
Morgan Clendenen grew up in the six-pack world of Asheville, N.C., the sort of place where any abiding interest in wine got you noticed. "The guys at the liquor store would see me come in and shout, 'Hey, Lambrusco!' " she says with a laugh. It didn't take her long to exhaust her wine options, so after a brief stint selling wine locally, she headed to the Napa Valley to be closer to the action, and spent the next 18 months at Robert Sinskey Vineyards in Napa. With long blond hair, bright blue eyes and a healthy penchant for stirring the pot, Clendenen is used to getting noticed. But when she met Jim Clendenen, proprietor of Au Bon Climat, "sparks flew fast," she says. They were married in 1998.
Morgan's husband is not exactly a retiring personality. Six foot two, with piercing blue eyes and long blond hair (for many years he sported what was arguably the wine world's most famous mullet), Jim is voluble, opinionated, loud-shirted, and as a winemaker, extremely talented. His oenological curiosity and appetites are so incessant and voluminous that he has founded six labels in which to contain them.
Setting aside the broad shoulders and mullet, Morgan Clendenen measures up, with curiosity and drive equal to her husband's, as well as a touch of unabashed wildness that he can't quite match. When she started to think about making wine, she felt the need to sidestep her husband's many interests. But where did that leave her a place to stake a claim?
