In the Sextant Wines tasting room in San Luis Obispo are winemaker Kevin Riley, left, and owners Nancy and Craig Stoller. Their three labels are just beginning to appear on store shelves and in restaurants.
C raig Stoller and Kevin Riley both grew up surrounded by wine.
Stoller’s father has a nursery business in the Central Valley where he propagates grapevine cuttings and developing rootstocks.
Riley’s father owns a wine shop in the upscale suburb of Westport, Conn., selling wines from around the world and sharing them with his family nightly over dinner.
So even growing up on opposite coasts, it seems no accident that Stoller and Riley are working together growing grapes that no one else in the nation yet has access to, and making wines that are already being recognized by prominent reviewer Robert Parker and his independent consumer guide to wines.
Their three labels — Sextant Wines, 10 Knots and Windemere—are just beginning to appear on store shelves and in restaurants. And their new tasting room in San Luis Obispo is introducing their wines to new fans.
Stoller is a third generation farmer. His father convinced his grandfather over 30 years ago to replace his struggling olive trees with grapevines—not to sell the fruit, but to sell the vines. “Our harvest was the cuttings,” he explains.
Growing up working in the greenhouses and in the vineyards, Stoller, now 40, said he knew he wanted to work in wine early on.
So after graduation from Cal Poly, he said his father sent him on a field trip. “My dad handed me a stack of wine country maps and customer lists, and said, ‘Go learn the country, go meet the people,’ ” Stoller recalls. “And I had an absolute blast and just fell in love with the industry.”
With knowledge, experience and his family’s business, Sunridge Nurseries, behind him, Stoller found a 114-acre vineyard in Templeton in 2002, where he and his wife had a plan.
“Nancy and I thought, wouldn’t it be great if we could have acreage, or a certified “mother block,” that we could use the cuttings from the nursery, but also have some grapes to sell and have some grapes to make wine from.”
A mother block is an area where new vine clones are grown to test their health and their fruit.
The Stollers reached an agreement in the late 1990s with ENTAV, the French government authority responsible for the selection and preservation of French wine grape clones, to distribute them in the United States.
Beginning in 2003, Stoller started planting what is now 74 acres of vineyard, with two goals in mind: first to show other wine growers the potential from the new clones, and second, to make those wines themselves.
“It works out pretty nice,” Riley said, “we get to be at the head of the whole thing. We’re the first to work with some of these clones.”
More than a dozen varietals are planted on the property, including zinfandel, viognier, grenache, roussanne, pinot gris, marsanne, mourvedre, cabernet, cabernet franc, mer-lot and syrah.
The Sextant label is reserved for the zinfandel wines, and the 10 Knots label is dedicated to Rhônes.
In 2005, Stoller acquired a 25-acre property in Edna Valley, giving him access to cooler- climate fruit such as chardonnay and pinot noir.
Owned previously by Cathy McGregor, the vineyard sale also included the wine label Windemere Winery, and a small winemaking facility on South Higuera Street in San Luis Obispo.
Next to that small back-room space was a bait and tackle shop, which the Stollers took over last year and converted into an open, contemporary tasting room with seating and even a place for kids to keep busy while their parents taste.
Riley has been working for Stoller since the inception of the project. Admitting he is “totally obsessive and compulsive about winemaking,” Riley worked for Opolo Vineyards before joining Sextant, and he also has his own winery on the west side of Paso Robles, on vineyard property that belongs to his in-laws.
He plans to open his own tasting room there in a couple of years. Also a Cal Poly viticulture grad, Riley just turned 30.
Of Riley and others on his small staff, Stoller said, “We have a young, energetic team that’s as passionate about wine as I am, and we’re fortunate our winemaker has such incredible talent.”
Stoller has just started entering his wines into competitions and for review, so far with glowing results. The first three zinfandels offered to Robert Parker received scores of 89, 90 and 91.
As for the future, Stoller said he and wife Nancy are discussing plans for a new winery, new distribution and their overall brand strategy — something that is complicated with three brands, and possibly more in the future.
“We have a lot of options,” Nancy said, “You just need to sit back and see where it all takes you.”
Print
E-Mail
