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| Delmore Syrah San Luis Obispo Coast 2024 Delmore “Creature” Humboldt County Pinot Noir 2024 Delmore “Deer Ridge Trail” Pinot Noir Santa Cruz Mountains 2023 Delmore “Deer Ridge Trail” Pinot Noir Santa Cruz Mountains 2024 |
| We have winemaker and wine raconteur Darren Delmore in the shop this week, presenting four of his wines. Darren attaches the moniker “ocean influenced” to his wines, and you’ll see this at work in all of the wines. We’re pouring three of Darren’s pinots: one from Humboldt County, and two from the Santa Cruz Mountains. In our warm California climate, proximity to the cooling Pacific Ocean breeze, combined with altitude, is essential for honoring pinot noir. This grape can overripen quicker than you can say Jack Robinson, and turn into something resembling an inert, thicc, child’s grape drink (not that there’s anything wrong with grape drink, but sometimes, if you let it happen, painted wings and giant’s rings make way for other toys). This was David Hirsch’s insight regarding the “true” Sonoma coast, and it’s no coincidence that Hirsch remains a touchstone for Darren. Santa Cruz Mountain, only a few miles from the coast, is blessed with coastal breezes and altitude, and the two Santa Cruz Mountain pinots we’re pouring are from the coolest vineyard site on the mountain, Deer Ridge Trail. In addition to the three pinots, we’re pouring a vivacious, light-bodied syrah grown on seashell fossil-rich vineyard, a wine that hews to a northern Rhône sensibility—only 12.5% ABV, aged in older barrel, with a dab of viognier blended in, just like they do back in the grape’s homeland.
A seasoned cellar hand, Darren is brimming with stories and anecdotes about life in the trade. Darren has had, and continues to have, a richly storied life in wine and beyond, with many chapters, mostly in coastal and Northern California but also abroad. Raised on the Central Coast, his folks were/are restaurateurs (his mom, Bernadette, founded Del’s Pizza in Pismo Beach in the early 70s). In his early 20s, Darren attended his first wine trade tasting, and everything changed. After a couple of years working at a winery in Humboldt County, where the main agricultural product was and is cannabis (ow is it possible to farm organically there, given the intense humidity? Darren will explain it all to us), and later with Randall Grahm at Bonny Doon, he followed his pinot-inflamed heart and was able, seemingly serendipitously, to connect with true Sonoma Coast pioneer and fellow pinot obsessive David Hirsch, of Hirsch Vineyards. His day job now is at Rhône-variety specialist Tablas Creek, yet his own winemaking soul remains centered on the Burgundian red variety, pinot noir. |