Byron Wine Tasting at Wine Watch

Vito Corleone: I like to drink wine more than I used to.
Michael: It’s good for ya, Pop.
Vito Corleone: Anyway I’m drinkin’ more.
The Godfather

Byron Winery has made some of the best Chardonnay and Pinot Noir in the state of California over the years and although the owners have changed the song remains the same here. 

We have been following the winery from the very beginning here at Wine Watch and many of these wines have been featured in our "Best of" selections over the years in our custom gift boxes.

I remember when constellation Brands took over Robert Mondavi Winery and they decided that they no longer wanted to keep Byron and close out all of the remaining inventory for a few dollars a bottle.  It was the biggest purchase of a single item at one time that I have ever made still to this day- 175 cases of their 2001 vintage Santa Barbera Chardonnay.  This wine was already a few years old and it took me almost 3 years to sell the last bottle but we would open one every six months or so to check and see how it was doing and the wine seemed to just get better and better!! It was their entry level chardonnay and it lasted 10 years!!

Byron went through some tough times as the company that bought it from Constellation went bankrupt.  The future was a bit uncertain for this landmark winery of Southern California but we knew that things would be looking up soon for Byron when we heard that the Jackson Family had purchased the winery.

It has been a few years since they have purchased the winery so it will be interesting to see how they have improved the wines and if they are close to achieving the heights that Byron winery knew in its past.

Join us as we welcome the winemaker for Byron Winery Jonathan Nagey to the Wine Watch for a sit down tasting of these new releases paired to a few small courses prepared by Wine Watch Caterings Toni Lampasone.  The fee for this tasting is $55 + tax, for reservations call 954-523-9463.

Byron Tasting at Wine Watch with winemaker
Jonathan Nagey

Tuesday, January 27th
7pm

Tasting Line-Up:

Byron Santa Barbara Chardonnay 2013
Price: $15.00       Sale $13.20          Case $153

You are here. That's the beautiful thing about wine - it can transport you halfway around the globe. In this case, here is Santa Barbara, a region that Byron helped pioneer decades ago. This Chardonnay is lush with notes of citrus, honey and brown rice.

Byron Santa Maria Chardonnay 2012
Price: $22.50       Sale $19.80          Case $230

Our 2012 Santa Maria Valley Chardonnay displays fruit-forward citrus aromas, accented by hints of mineral and brown spice. On the palate, it is richly textured with stone fruit, fig, honey, spice and minerals. The wine is styled to highlight the vivid aromas and flavors of our cool climate fruit. The wine is 100% barrel fermented with 100% malolactic fermentation. Additional layers of complexity are achieved through sur lie aging and weekly hand stirring of the barrels, known as batonnage. Native yeasts, which contribute silkiness and depth to the wine, are used on selected lots to round out the final blend.

Byron Chardonnay Nielson Vineyard Santa Maria Valley 2012
Price: $29.00       Sale $25.52          Case $359

Our new vintage of the Nielson Chardonnay is made from a block whose vines were "cuttings" from the original 1964 block of Chardonnay planted at Nielson Vineyard. This wine has the typical rich and creamy entry, while the flavors are more crème brûlée and stone fruit with brown spice and a smoky finish.

Byron Santa Barbara Pinot Noir 2013
Price: $16.50       Sale $14.52          Case $169

The 2013 vintage was an overall dry year with a moderate winter and spring. These conditions led to an abundance of extremely high quality fruit with flavors of dark berry, cherry, hints of floral and mineral. This is an approachable wine that displays the beautiful floral and mineral character typical of Santa Barbara Pinot Noir.

Byron Santa Maria Pinot Noir  2012
Price: $25.25       Sale $22.22          Case $258

The 2012 Santa Maria Valley Pinot Noir displays aromas of dark berry and cherry accented by hints of floral and mineral. The flavor profile has a core of dark berry and dark cherry with hints of earth and brown spices, backed by a smooth, silky and long finish. The wine is styled to highlight the vivid aromas and flavors of the cool-climate fruit, enhanced by careful winemaking.

During fermentation, a combination of punch-downs and pump-overs was used to circulate the skins and juice, ensuring maximum extraction. The wine was transferred to small French oak barrels, where it aged for 10 months in temperature and humidity-controlled barrel rooms.

Byron Nielson Pinot Noir 2012
Price: $33.75       Sale $29.70          Case $345

The Pinot Noir displays aromas of dark plum, blueberry, cinnamon, clove, and hints of floral and smoke. The flavor profile has a core of dark cherry and dark plum, with hints of brown sugar and allspice. With big, rich tannins, structure and velvety texture, this wine is backed by a long, lingering finish. The fruit for this Pinot Noir came from selected high-density blocks planted to various clones. After harvest, the clusters were hand-sorted and cold-soaked for three to five days to intensify fruit character, color and body. Small batches were processed in 2 -6 ton tanks. Lots were kept separate until blending to maximize the quality of the blend.

Byron Monument Hill Pinot Noir 2012
Price: $73.50       Sale $64.68          Case $750

Every winery has their "monument" barrels-those rare casks that possess more intensity, complexity, personality, balance and grace than their surrounding cellar dwellers. Our Monument Pinot Noir is a blend of the best barrels from the paramount blocks at our Nielson estate on the Santa Maria Bench; it is the finest red wine we produce each year.

Menu

Selection of Cheese: Goat Cheese, Epoisses, Brie

Salmon Tartar with Lemon Zest, dill and chive on Cucumber Chip

Pulled Pork Slider with Cherry Compote and Brie  Cheese

Chicken Quesadilla with avocado aioli

The cost of this tasting is $55 + tax, for reservations call 954-523-9463.

A bit about our Winemaker:

Santa Maria gets in your blood, Jonathan Nagy can attest to that. His first 13 years were spent in Santa Maria before moving to San Jose. In 1997, he attended the University of California, Davis where he earned his Bachelor of Science in chemistry. Following graduation, Jonathan returned home for good taking a part-time position in the tasting room at Cambria Winery. With his expertise in chemistry, he was named full-time lab director in 1998. The following year he was promoted to enologist.

In March 2001, Jonathan joined Byron as assistant winemaker. A few years later, he became our head winemaker. Describing Santa Maria Valley as one of California's top regions for Pinot Noir, Jonathan devotes a great deal of time to exploring and understanding the interplay between the vineyards and winemaking practices.

A bit about Byron Winery:

Byron is located in the Santa Maria Valley in northern Santa Barbara County, twelve miles southeast of the town of Santa Maria.  The estate consists of 641 acres of vineyard land directly adjacent to the winery.  The largest block, located in the northeast portion of the estate, is the former Nielson Vineyard that Byron acquired in 1989; planted in 1964, it is Santa Barbara County's oldest commercial vineyard.  Varietals grown in Byron's Estate Vineyard include chardonnay, pinot noir, pinot blanc, pinot gris, marsanne, viognier, syrah, mourvèdre, and grenache.  The original winery was built in 1984; and a second structure was added in 1988, increasing its size from 5,000 to 10,000 square feet.  Construction of a new 32,000 square foot winery was completed nearby the old facility in 1996; it will ensure the most gentle care of the fruit and offers uncompromising winemaking quality with multi-level, gravity flow design, four cave-like barrel chais, and state-of-the-art technology.  Strikingly futuristic, while at the same time respectful of the land, it features a sweeping, curved roof reminiscent of the rolling hills surrounding the site.  The architects are no small peanuts; other projects include Napa Valley's Opus One and San Francisco's Transamerica Pyramid.  The new winery allowed Byron to grow from 32,000 cases to 70,000 cases annually by the year 2001.  The old winery would be used in the production of Rhône varietals, which were thought to loom large in Byron's future. 

Byron "Ken" Brown was the founder, winemaker, general manager, and the driving force behind Byron.  Brown obtained a bachelor's degree in business administration from Linfield College in 1966 and then pursued a career in sales for the office products division of IBM in his home-town of Sacramento.  In 1969 he went into business with his father as a real estate developer.  During these first career years, Brown became intrigued with wine as a consumer and spent many weekends in the nearby Napa Valley.  After serious reflection Brown switched gears and embarked on a career change; he enrolled in the graduate enology program at California State University at Fresno in 1974.  He gained a broad range of experience by spending much time in the vineyard and operating the university winery. In 1975, a research project brought him to Santa Barbara County to make wines for local growers including Marshall Ream of the Zaca Mesa Ranch.  Ream decided to build his own Zaca Mesa Winery in 1978, and Ken Brown was named winemaker.  Zaca Mesa's first wines (released in 1980) were instant hits and sensational values; however, within three years Brown and vineyard consultant, Dale Hampton, began to make plans for Byron Winery.  They chose the Tepusquet Canyon area of Santa Maria as the site because of its rustic beauty and proximity to the 6,000 acres of vineyard found in the cool Santa Maria Valley.  Construction began in the summer of 1984, also the year of the first harvest.

By 1989 the Byron partnership was coming apart (health problems were cited), and Ken Brown began looking for another investor.  According to Brown: "The Mondavi family had been our neighbor here in the Santa Maria Valley since 1988, and I had always had a great amount of respect for their dedication to quality and their complete understanding of the wine business."  In early 1990 the deal was sealed, and it allowed Brown to retain full control over the winemaking and general operation of the winery.  Mondavi was to provide the capital to take Byron to a new level of quality.  Perhaps the most exciting development to coincide with the Mondavi acquisition was a 60-acre experimental plot planted in the spring of 1991.  This vineyard represents a philosophy where grape quality, not convenience, dictates the design.  It has been completely replanted in high-density patterns in keeping with those used in Burgundy, and it will also allow Byron to take advantage of newly-introduced pinot noir and chardonnay clones and to plant on phylloxera-resistant root stock.  Although a minimum of seven to ten years will be required to fully evaluate the results of this experiment, the Pinot Noir from 1994 and 1995 is said to be very promising.

The winery enjoyed early success and gained national recognition for quality Pinot Noir and Chardonnay and to a lesser extent, Sauvignon Blanc. Connoisseurs' Guide to California Wine has praised the Sauvignon Blanc, and the 1992 Byron Sauvignon Blanc scored (90) and was selected as one of the TOP 100 wines of 1993 in The Wine Spectator.  It was one of only three wines in that prestigious list that retailed for under $10/bottle. The main focus at Byron, however, remains on the Burgundian varietals, chardonnay and pinot noir.  The winery offers three different styles of Chardonnay.  The Sierra Madre Vineyard Chardonnay is handcrafted using the gentlest winemaking techniques possible using Byron’s multi-level, gravity-flow winery. Native yeast fermentation is employed to promote vineyard expression and add dimension to the wine.  The wine underwent 100% malo-lactic fermentation during which time the barrels are hand-stirred once a week to enhance its texture, complexity and longevity. The wine is aged sur lie for 9 months in French oak, including 30% new oak barrels.  The Santa Barbara County Chardonnay, always among California's top values every vintage, is the embodiment of the distinctive aromas and flavors of coastal fruit enhanced by careful winemaking. The wine was 100% barrel fermented with 100% malo-lactic fermentation. Additional layers of complexity were achieved through sur lie (on the solids) aging and weekly batonage (hand-stirring of the barrels), as well as the use of native yeasts on selected lots. The wine aged eight months in 60-gallon French oak barrels, which included 20% new oak. In the 1991 vintage the winery introduced what Ken Brown now regards as his top wine - the Byron Estate Chardonnay, now simply entitled “Neillson Vineyard”.  Most of the fruit for this estate-grown wine comes from the heart of the original Nielson Vineyard, Santa Barbara County’s oldest commercial vineyard, planted in 1964. The venerable old vines of this property consistently produce low yields of small, intensely flavored berries. The lean, low-vigor soils and cool, coastal climate of the Nielson Vineyard make it ideal for growing world-class Chardonnay. 

Pinot Noir is produced according to the traditional Burgundian technique in small open top fermentors.  Although in the past this had been the least exciting wine in the line-up for us, today this is one of Byron’s top wines and the last few years on our list for- “Best of the Vintage”.  Byron also produces small lots of an excellent Pinot Gris and Pinot Blanc (the recent 1999 was loaded with bright, tasty fruit), and there is a very limited amount of a sparkling wine that is sold mainly from the tasting room of the old winery.  Approximately 55% of the total output is Chardonnay, while Pinot Noir represents about 30%.  In both 1993 and 1994 Byron was named the top U.S. Regional Winery by Wine & Spirits (This publication also selected Byron as one of eight top regional wineries in 1996).  The Wine Spectator also named Byron one of the "Top 23 California Chardonnay All-Stars" in the summer of 1994.  We would go one step further than that.  Based on tasting the ever-improving Chardonnays from this winery over the past eight years (particularly from 1990 onward), we would classify Byron as one of the FIVE BEST Chardonnay producers in the State of California.   In 1999 the Reserve Chardonnay was our pick for greatest wines of the 1997 vintage.  In 2000, the Pinot Noir caught the spotlight and the 1997 Serra Madre Pinot Noir won top honors, it was crowed Pinot Noir of the vintage, only because the first real first place winner, the Byron vineyard Pinot Noir was sold out.  The Nielson Vineyard is the cradle of Santa Maria Valley viticulture. Chosen for its cool climate and lean soils, the site was planted by pioneer, Uriel Nielson in 1964 and became the region’s first commercial vineyard. It was acquired by Byron in 1989 and in 1991 an extensive experimental vineyard program covering almost 100 acres was launched. Nearly a decade later, the viticulturists at Byron have been able to pinpoint the ideal clones, rootstocks and planting density to produce the highest quality Pinot Noir. Many of the vineyard blocks have been replanted to these specific, high performance clones in tighter vine spacing and comprise more than 75% of the blend for this wine—a tribute to the great success of the experimental program.  Crafting Pinot Noir at Byron is an integration of old-world tradition and modern technology.