Vintners Establishing Roots in Ventura County

In many ways, Leeward Winery embodies the essence of Ventura County winemaking.

Squeezed into an office park on the east end of Ventura, the boutique operation has been pumping out premium vintages for a quarter of a century, although it grows no grapes and produces on average a scant 7,000 cases a year.

The winery is unassuming. Co-owners Chuck Gardner and Chuck Brigham eagerly open their warehouse tasting room each morning to provide tours or pour a few glasses, no appointment necessary.

“We’re at a size where we can still have fun,” said Brigham, who began making wine with Gardner decades ago, hoping they would have something to keep them busy when they retired. “Basically, we try to take a personal approach with everyone who comes through the door, and we never wanted to get so big that we would lose that.”

Leeward belongs to a small, obscure fraternity of Ventura County wineries thriving in a farm belt better known for its lemons and strawberries than its syrahs and sauvignon blancs.

Setting up in strip malls and business parks, local vintners have carved a niche in California’s wine industry, squeezing out superior vintages in the shadow of more well-known wine regions such as Sonoma and Santa Ynez.

The emergence of such artisan winemakers reflects the enormous interest in wine production and consumption during the last 25 years.

According to the San Francisco-based Wine Institute, there are more wineries in California and across the nation now than at any time since Prohibition. It is a trend that started with baby boomers drinking jug wine and continues with their children sipping premium vintages at restaurants and wine bars.

“The industry has always promoted wine with food, and I think wine is just part of this whole movement of people trying to have good things in life,” said Gladys Horiuchi, communications manager for the Wine Institute. “It is more a part of the fabric of American culture.”

Ventura County has only seven wineries -- not exactly a boom since Leeward first planted the flag 25 years ago. In that time, California wineries have increased from 500 to more than 1,200.

But there has been a flurry of activity in recent years, from the reopening in 2002 of the landmark Old Creek Ranch Winery in the Ojai Valley to a groundbreaking last week in Oxnard by Royal Wine Corp. for what will be the largest kosher winery on the West Coast.

“There has always been a little wine scene, with everybody focused on a particular niche and pursuing different goals,” said Ojai vintner Adam Tolmach, among the best-known and most-celebrated of the county’s winemakers.

The UC Davis-trained viticulturist and founding member of the renowned Au Bon Climat winery in Santa Barbara County launched his Ojai Vineyard winery in 1983 and has been making a name for it ever since.

From a picture-book setting under gnarled oaks, Tolmach has produced several wines that have won high marks from world-renowned wine critic Robert Parker. And the winemaker’s 2000 Roll Ranch Syrah -- one of the few varietals made with local grapes -- landed it on Wine Spectator’s Top 100 list of the world’s best wines for 2003.

Tolmach is flattered by the notoriety but says he is uncomfortable with self-promotion. In fact, he said he has kept his operation small and out of the public eye to concentrate on his craft. He produces only 6,000 cases a year and provides no tours or public tastings.

“You have to do these things for yourself, not for the honors,” he said. “You can’t take it to industrial proportions, because then it’s no longer a craft. I still enjoy trying to make that perfect wine.”

With its coastal breezes and rich soil, Ventura County would seem the perfect place to pursue the perfect wine.

It is one of California’s top agricultural counties, a place that grows hundreds of crops and generates $1 billion a year in farm sales. But it doesn’t grow many wine grapes.

In fact, Ventura County has a mere 57 acres of vineyards, nearly double the acreage of five years ago but still a blip on the screen compared with other grape-growing regions.

Agricultural officials say part of the reason for limited grape production is that local conditions are better suited to producing more profitable fruits and vegetables. But the biggest factor has been the emergence in local vineyards of Pierce’s disease, a bacterium carried by a bug known as the sharpshooter. The disease has devastated wine grapes throughout the state.