Rocking out with Rhones at Tercero Wines!

In this issue we discuss how music, the underdogs, and thinking outside the box have all inspired winemaker, Larry Schaffer, at Tercero Wines. We also share with you a Chenin Blanc that will have Chardonnay lovers rejoicing!

Interview with Tercero Wines

Larry Schaffer of Tercero Wines has a plain to see passion for sharing the wine he makes. When we met him at his tasting room in Los Olivos he asked us, “So, how do you take your coffee?” Not to make us a cup of Joe, but rather to pour us a glass of wine. He uses this question with the aim of guiding his guests towards discovering which wines they like and which they do not. Larry made us, and will make you too, feel like the expert of your own wine experience and has plenty of compelling stories to share. We hope you enjoy getting to know him as much as we did!

Q: Let’s start with your background and how Tercero came to be.

A: I’m Larry Schaffer of Tercero wines and I started making wine about 20 years ago. Wine was not my first love. I grew up in a family that didn't really drink any wine. My dad was an elementary school teacher and my mom was busy raising five boys. Wine just wasn't part of my culture growing up.

Despite going to UC Davis as an undergrad, I still had no interest in wine. I didn't take any wine courses and had no desire to work in wine. I was pre-business, but one of the only business majors they had was Agriculture Econ so I ended up transferring to UC Berkeley. I did my last two years of undergrad there and got my BS in marketing and finance.

My first love really is music. In high school I grew up in the South Bay and took pictures of punk bands. When I was in Hollywood I was going to The Whiskey and the Roxy every weekend. I loved it.

My first job out of Berkeley ended up being with a record company on the finance side, not on a side that I actually dealt face to face with people. I use the comparison of getting a job at Ben and Jerry's, and loving ice cream and never being able to taste any of the ice cream. So theoretically, it was good, but it was soul sucking. I did that for a couple of years before leaving to work in publishing and then finally getting into wine. I would eventually end up getting my masters in Viticulture and Enology from UC Davis.

After I started having kids, I wanted to show them you better enjoy what you do on a daily basis. Wine had always intrigued me. It was something my dad and I began to explore together, but I knew I didn't know much about it. My first thought was, “Oh, get into wine sales without having any kind of chemistry background.” But my wife at the time had said, “You know, maybe you should explore wine making,” and that would mean me going up to UC Davis. So I reached out to the student development person at UC Davis and the first thing she said was, “Great, you want to get in the wine business? Get a harvest job.” She goes, “You know how many people call us after going to a winemaker dinner or going to a wine event? They go that must be the coolest job in the world. Please understand, it's not what you envision.”

So the next day I drove down to Temecula, knocked on doors, and got a part time job at a winery there called Maurice Car’rie. I got into the cellar, and started to understand the process a little bit more. And the dirtier I got, the happier I got. I took classes at community colleges down in Orange County with kids who literally could have been my kids, taking all the science courses that I'd never ever, ever had any desire to take prior.

Q: So how did you end up in Santa Barbara?

A: When I graduated, we decided to move up here and I worked at Fess Parker Winery for about a decade. I like to explain that if you go to school to be a teacher you're not actually a teacher yet, you have the theoretical understanding of it, but you need to do it. You need to be in front of people in the classroom and understand that every year, it's going to be different. So it's a matter of applying the theory you learned in a classroom to the real world. Wine making is that way too, and I felt that at Fess Parker.

So I was at Fess Parker and after my divorce I kind of reevaluated my life. I actually started my brand the year after I started at Fess Parker. And the main reason I started my brand is because I wanted to control the entire process.

Being a winemaker at another winery was great, but I didn't get involved in the marketing aspect of it. I followed directions from somebody else rather than having the risk and reward of doing it my way.

For the first couple of years the risk and reward was pretty minimal because I kind of saw the pattern that other winemakers did and thought, “Well, that's what I must be doing.” It took about five years for me to say, “You know, what am I talking about? I know that this is what we've done in the past, but why am I doing it this way?” So I really took a step back and said, “Do I need to do all these steps or can I do different steps? And my winemaking has continued to evolve in that respect, and hopefully will continue to evolve. I have a methodology that I use, but I have an open mindedness to understand that when things happen, you change your methods.

Q: You’re an instructor for the UC Davis winemaking course. What excites you about teaching the next generation of winemakers?

A: There’s 35 students in my classes, and they come from all walks of life and all ages as well. You have people that are transitioning careers or people that are really just curious about the subject matter. There's a woman, who is probably in her 50s, who is going back starting in September for the master's program at Davis and is completely switching careers. So that's what I enjoy is the multitude of people.

My hope is to create a more realistic viewpoint of what winemaking is and to open people's minds. People that take this class will oftentimes talk about fermentation, secondary fermentation, and additives. Everybody looks at me like, “Wait a second, you add all these things to wine?” But you don't have to add these things to wine. Wine doesn't care about perfection. You’re not going to get perfect grapes that will sit back and make wine itself. No, you have to make the wine. And these are just tools that will allow you to make that wine. It's up to you to decide what you do. It's not up to me or anyone else. So I'm focused on providing them with tools.

I equate it to going to music school. If you go to Berkley School of Music, it's not going to make you a better musician, per se. It's going to give you the tools. It's a matter of how you apply them. I want people to wonder. I want people to ask questions. And that's my goal in teaching this class is just to say, here's the theory.

Q: How much of your success would you attribute to schooling vs hands on experience?

A: Because I didn't have any kind of formal science background and I had no idea of what winemaking really was, I would say my formal schooling gave me the base for what I'm doing. So I would say, for the first five years of winemaking, 90% was attributed to schooling. It allowed me to understand why certain things happen.

But since then, maybe 25% of school has mattered. I've become less scientific in my winemaking. I do less rather than more now compared to before because of experience, knowledge, and experimentation. Also because I am not willing or wanting to necessarily do things the way I'm supposed to all the time and I am trying to push boundaries.

The greatest thing about the scientific method is that it makes you wonder “what if” and makes sure that if you're going to test something, you test it. For example, if you're going to do a co-ferment with Viognier, you don't do 1% or 2% because that's a rounding error. You do 10% or 15% to really see what that actually did to the wine. And that has stuck with me.

Q: Your focus tends to be on Rhone varietals. How did you come to fall in love with Rhone varietals and what goes into your decision making on which varietals you produce?

A: Rhone varieties are truly at the core of who I am and what I do here at Tercero. I'm Vice President of the National Board of Directors at the Rhone Rangers in my spare time.

From an educational standpoint, Rhone varieties are not really well known. Santa Barbara County is typically known for Pinot Noir and Chardonnay. And around the country, most people that drink wine are going to drink five or six core varieties. What we work with are the outliers. And I love the opportunity and the challenge of working with the underdog.

The fact that Santa Barbara County wasn’t known for Rhone varietals was one of the reasons I chose to get into Rhones. I could have done Pinot or Chardonnay, but they didn't really excite me that much.

There's 22 Rhone varieties, and I've now made about 12 of them. Not all Rhone varietals are available in Santa Barbara County, and I only work with grapes from Santa Barbara County. I'm not going to say I'm never going to work elsewhere, but I have no desire to because I love this area. I want to continue to promote Santa Barbara County. I'm very much a homer.

Q: Stem inclusion plays a big role stylistically in your wines. Can you touch on why you prefer to make stem inclusion wines?

A: For the most part, most of my wines are stem inclusion. To me, stems create a wine that's more like old school vinyl. It creates imperfections. It creates scratches. I love that. I don't like perfect wines. I don't like wines to just be fruit and when stems are brought into play, they're going to add bitter compounds. They are going to add tannins. They're going to change the aromatic focus. Now the challenge is, you don't know how they're going to do it and every year is going to be different. But that's kind of the beauty of stem inclusion.

Q: You’re a very vocal proponent of promoting Santa Barbara County wines and the region in general. How do you think we could do a better job of creating awareness of the region and its wines?

A: When people only reference the Central Coast, it doesn't really mean anything. The Central Coast stretches from Ventura to the San Pablo Bay. Monterey, San Luis Obispo, Paso Robles, Santa Barbara and Ventura all get locked together. So if you say a Central Coast wine, what does that mean?

Santa Barbara County gets combined with all these other regions all the time. And I have these discussions with wine writers and travel writers all the time of how to help us create an identity. The problem is, we as an industry do a bad job at creating our own unique identity.

Look how close we are to LA, but LA doesn't drink Santa Barbara County wines as often as they should. Many people just don't consider this wine country, which sounds weird. But if you're in LA, Santa Barbara means the beach and the university. It doesn't necessarily mean wine.

So it goes back to creating relevance, and to storytelling. The overall goal should be, the more people that drink our wine, the better off we all are. The more you try to tell people that this wine is good and this wine is bad, the less people are going to want to drink wine.

I see the term wine educator all the time and I think that’s a problem for consumers. When you go to a brewery, do you have to sit with a beer educator to drink beer? When you go to a cocktail bar, do you sit with a cocktail educator? When someone hears “educator” they naturally tend to stiffen up a little bit and think I gotta go to school to understand this. We just need people to enjoy the process.

Q: As it relates to the upcoming harvest, what challenges are you expecting to face and what excites you about the current vintage?

A: I think the answer to both of those questions is mother nature. Mother nature brings uncertainty and that uncertainty is unnerving, but it's also exciting.

This will also be the second year I'm working with Chenin Blanc, so I'm excited to work with it again. Last year was scary, in that respect. This year will be scary in that respect, because even though it's the second time, I’m working with 45 year old, own rooted vines that kind of have a life of their own at the Jurassic vineyard. The vines there are gnarly and nasty on this hill. As you go up the hill, the grapes on the top are much brighter than the grapes below, but they're much less plentiful. So sampling is really challenging to get right.

Q: Who are some other local winemakers that are inspiring to you?

A: I would say those who came before me and allow me to do what I do: Bob Lindquist, the late Jim Clendenon, Ken Brown, Richard Sanford, the Foxen boys, Andrew Murray, Bryan Babcock, Kris Curran and Bruno D'Alfonso. They're continuing to hone their craft and evolve and they're nowhere near done.

I would also say the later breed of winemakers who are taking this region to another level: Tyler Thomas, Brandon Sparks-Gillet, Justin Willet, Matt Dees, and so many more. I would add Tablas Creek as a winery that truly leads by education and example.

There's a lot of people that are really committed to their craft around here. I don't necessarily know everyone personally, but I respect their focus.

Q: What’s the best way for people to support you?

A: Come and try my wines! Come up to our tasting room in Los Olivos and be a part of what I’m making!

We want to send a huge thank you to Larry for taking the time to give such an awesome interview. If you enjoyed the interview and feel inclined we’d appreciate some love on social. If you’d like to meet Larry yourself head to the link below to schedule a tasting or order some of his wines. He’s also doing a tasting at Goodland Wine Shop on Tuesday, September 19th (more details in the “What’s Happening” section below!).

Uncorked

Star Lane Chenin Blanc

If you can’t tell we’ve been on a Chenin Blanc kick lately and that’s for good reason. The varietal is extremely versatile and has a wide, dynamic range of flavor profiles, which can make it almost unrecognizable from one region to the next. This week we tried the Star Lane Chenin Blanc from Happy Canyon. This is a fuller bodied Chenin Blanc that will appeal to any white wine lover but especially those who prefer Chardonnay.

Nose: grapefruit, honeysuckle, lemon

Palette: cream, green apple

Pairs well with: spicy shrimp dishes

Available at: Dierberg & Star Lane tasting room in Sta. Rita Hills

What’s happening?

• Summer Grand Tasting with Meritage Wine Market: Looking for weekend plans? Here’s where we’ll be. Over 60 wines are being poured at SoHo in downtown Santa Barbara featuring Jonata, Dreamcôte, Alma Rosa, and so many more. Tickets are $75 with the event taking place Saturday, September 16th from 12PM - 3PM.

• Tri Tip Cookoff at Presqu’ile Winery: “This all-you-can-eat event features multiple food trucks preparing Tri Tip, sides curated by Chef Julie, and wine by the glass and bottle. Attendees will vote on their favorite Tri Tip throughout the afternoon and award one incredible preparation with the Santa Maria People’s Choice Tri Tip Winner.” Tickets are $40 and the event starts at noon on Sunday, September 16th in Santa Maria.

• Tasting with Tercero Wines: Are you jumping to taste Tercero Wines after that interview? Then head over to Goodland Wine Shop in Goleta on Tuesday, September 19th at 5PM.

• Pizza and Wine Party at Bodega: Check out Bodega in Los Alamos for a slice of pizza courtesy of Nice! Pizza! and a flight of wine courtesy of Stolpman So Fresh. Food and wine is included in the ticket price, in addition to a limited edition hat made just for the event on Tuesday, September 19th at 6PM.

Cheers!

Issue #17