I dreamed of being a wine maker since 1980 or 1981.  For my 18th birthday (which was the last year 18 was the drinking age in New Jersey) I bought a bottle of Robert Mondavi Reserve Cabernet Sauvignon to share with my best high school girlfriend, Isabelle Sobczak.  I remember sitting together in my parents den drinking this really tannic wine thinking ‘I know this is good, but I wish it wasn’t so mouth puckering . . .

After high school I worked in Yosemite National Park for a year before I started college.  There my friends (many of whom I am still close to) and I enjoyed sitting around the campfire (for real!), drinking wine, and enjoying the incredible beauty of Yosemite Valley together.  Wine enhanced the experience and will forever be a part of that magic.  It was then that I decided to explore the possibility of wine making as a career.

Returning home to start college at Long Island University, Southampton’s Campus, my family thought I was a real dreamer, or maybe just crazy.  Coincidentally, a wine industry had started on the East End of Long Island led by Louisa and Alec Hargrave. 

Shortly after I turned 21, in my Junior year of college I arranged an internship in collaboration with the college, at Hargrave Vineyard, in Cutchogue, LI.  This was my first job in the wine business.  The romance quickly evaporated while pruning grape vines 8 hours a day, 5 days a week,in the bitter cold of February.  It seemed like years, though it was only for a couple of months.  It was cold, bone chilling, body numbing,freezing cold!

This was followed by a couple years (seasonally) working for Walter Channing’s experimental vineyard, which is now known as Channing Daughters Winery in Bridgehapton, LI.  I cringe when I think about how little I knew.  Luckily, the fledgling wine community, especially Rich Olsen-Harbich, the winemaker at Bridgehampton Winery lent a helping hand!  In between these follies I worked at local restaurants and wine shops learning more about different aspects of the business.  It was in retail where I had the opportunity to taste lots of different wines from all over the world.  My palate and overall wine knowledge really began to develop at this time.

While working at Amagansett Wines and Spirits I began enjoying many Spanish wines in particular Albariño, and Tempranillo based Rioja and Ribuera del Duero wines as well as Rosé wines from all over the world, though mostly Europe, of course.  At one point at the Amagansett Wines and Spirits store, we had 11 Albariño wines on the shelf which sounds totally crazy but along with Rosé,  it’s the  perfect Summer wine!

In 1990 I started working for Lauber Imports, which was a great experience on many levels.  in every aspect of wine knowledge, sales and professionalism Lauber Imports excelled.  Also at Lauber I worked with and sold the Classical Wines of Spain portfolio and really got to know those wines quite well.  When I started selling for Lauber there were 12 sales reps.  Lauber quickly grew and became more successful. 

In late 1992 I decided that California was where I needed to be.  I had a job offer selling imported wine with a large (now defunct) distributor called Julliard Apha Wines and Spirits where I had great opportunities to meet (mostly European) wine makers and taste new wines.I also got to live in San Francisco, yippee!  At JALCO we represented the (Seagram’s) Chateau & Estates book which was great fun, and good for my palate and overall wine education.

When I first started spending time in California, I always wondered why there weren’t Spanish grape varietal wines grown in California given the Spanish history and Mediterranean topography.  All the street and place names were Spanish, where was the wine??  In the back of my mind I thought what if some day I had a chance to make wine here . . .

I started dating Bob Lindquist in 1994.  While at the Aspen Food and Wine Classic I had the unique opportunity to taste with Bob his first Albariño, which he loved.  We started drinking all the different ones we could find.  Coincidentally, a year or so later we heard that Brian Babcock had brought over some Albarino bud wood which he got from Bodegas Morgadio in Rias Biaxes while he was visiting José Antonio Lopez who was the wine maker there at the time.  He planted a little for an experiment, but wasn’t convinced this was the direction he wanted to go in.

We talked to Brian and in 1996 got 150 sticks of budwood from him and grafted it to root stock which we then planted and eventually propagated this into 2 acres of vines at Ibarra-Young Vineyard in Los Olivos and 2 ½  acres at Sawyer Lindquist Vineyard in Edna Valley. 

In 1999 we planted a bit less than one acre of Tempranillo from a Rioja clone at Ibarra-Young Vineyard and in 2000 planted 1 ½ acres of Tempranillo we got from Steve Ventrillo of Parador Vineyards from a clone he brought over from Bodegas Pesquera, with Alejandro Fernandez’s blessing.  The clone is great!

 I visited RiasBiaxes first in 1999 with Bob and then returned to Spain for 6 weeks by myself in 2000 to do research and visit as many Spanish wineries in Rioja and Ribera del Duero as possible.  It was during this time in Spain that I heard the Spaniards constantly saying ‘esverdad, es la verdad’ in almost every conversation.  And that is how the name came about.

The first releases from Verdad was a Rosé and Albariño in 2000.  The same vintage Haven’s released their first Albariño.  Albariño was not recognized as a grape by the BATF (now TTB) and Haven’s got around it by using “Albariño” as a proprietary name, while we had to label the Verdad as the romantic sounding “WHITE TABLE WINE”  which enchanted everyone I’m sure.

The first vintage of Verdad Tempranillo was 2001.  Tempranillo represented a HUGE learning curve.  No winemaker at our winery had EVER seen the numbers (ph/Total Acidity in relation to sugar) with that combination from a relatively cool climate before.  We are talking high pH – low acidity with a moderate sugar level . . . and how about those tannins.  Yes, as it turns out Tempranillo is the most tannic grape in the world.  Which is perhaps why the Spanish wine makers have historically aged it so extensively in barrel and bottle.  It quickly became apparent that this was a tannic monster that needed to be tamed. 

After the 2001 vintage, instead of punching down 2 times a day I started pumping over as soon as the cap starts to soften to extract less tannin.We blended it with high acid Syrah for balance and a little Grenache for aromatics.The Syrah was in my mind the perfect foil for these early Tempranillo’s especially since Bodegas Mauro, one of my very favorite properties uses it in one of their wines.  Interestingly enough as the I-Y Vineyard becomes more mature, the grapes show better flavors and more depth.

Bob and I are partners in Verdad.  It was originally my dream, concept and vision to create wines using Spanish grape varietals grown in California. Bob has shared this vision with me and has helped every step of the way to make it happen.  He taught and guided me on how to make the wines I hoped for.  He gave me the tools to allow my dream become reality.  2009 was Verdad’s 10th vintage and over the years I have acquired the confidence and experience and skill to make the wines.  Bob, is an  instinctively brilliant winemaker and I’m lucky to have him.  Verdad wines are an expression of our vineyards and life.  It has been a joyful experience as well as a humbling one.

At the Ibarra-Young Vineyard, in 2009, I grafted over ½ acre of Tempranillo to Graciano, a high acid grape typically grown in Rioja and blended with Tempranillo for balance.  2010 will be the first small harvest of Graciano, which should be interesting.I like the idea of using a traditional blending grape in the Santa Ynez Valley Tempranillo. 

In 2005 we planted 40 acres of vines on an 80 acre parcel we purchased in 2002.  It has rolling hills and gravelly clay loam soils with lots of mudstone.  At this time we planted 2 acres ofTempranillo (along with Albariño, Syrah, Grenache, Pinot Noir and Marsanne) which is a cooler vineyard site (cool region 2) than Ibarra-Young Vineyard and also has lower pH soils.  The first vintage of Tempranillo from 2008 shows great balance and promise!

We decided to farm the vineyard using biodynamic farming techniques from the beginning, after talking to our friends and colleagues both here and in Europe that were loving the results.  Although we started with blind faith, it has evolved into something that feels right and the vineyard is teaming with life and the grapes have been incredible.  The Sawyer Lindquist Vineyard was Demeter certified Biodynamic in 2009 as was the wine making.

As for the future of Verdad, well it is still evolving.  Although it is very young the S L vineyard is showing great potential.  Establishing a vineyard has been more difficult than I could ever imagine, but also incredibly rewarding.  I compare it to having a child.  When you are pregnant you think about how cute the little baby will be and how much fun it will be to play with it.  Then the Blessed Event happens and it is amazing, but along with all that joy comes sleepless nights, more stress than ever imagined and lots of worry . . . but  . . . when all is said and done it is an incredible journey.