Wine

Thursday, Jun. 25, 2009

Wine Notes: Caliza Winery

Gamble pays off for winemaking latecomer

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It is a Cinderella story a winemaker can only dream about. In November, Carl Bowker opened the tasting room for his new Caliza Winery.

One month later, he submitted four of his first release wines in the 2009 San Francisco Chronicle Wine Competition — mostly on a whim.

“I asked my wife, ‘What are the chances of us winning anything?’ ”

In January he got his answer: Caliza’s 2006 Syrah was awarded best of class in the syrah category, and an astonishing best red wine overall, in the country’s largest and most prestigious wine competition. The other three wines he entered also medaled, with two silvers and one bronze. It was the wine industry equivalent of a trifecta.

“We never in our wildest imaginations expected this,” Bowker, Caliza’s owner and winemaker, said. “I was literally blown away.”

What makes it even more impressive is that Bowker, 51, is a latecomer to winemaking. A native of Hawaii, he spent the first 25 years of his career in the trade show and conventions industry, supplying plants and flowers from his own greenhouses and nurseries.

“That’s a business that has taken a pretty big beating in the last number of years,” he said. It’s also where he met his wife Pam, who still works full time in the industry, in addition to helping Carl with the winery operation.

On a trip to Italian and French wine regions in 2001, his interest in wine was sparked. When the couple returned they started researching wine-making areas in California, and settled on Paso Robles, both for its proximity to the Bay Area — their home at the time — and the types of wines being produced by local wineries such as L’Aventure and Justin.

The couple bought a property on Peachy Canyon Road that same year, but they soon realized that it was in the Templeton Gap where they wanted to base their future vineyard and winery. Fortunately a property on Anderson Road that had fallen out of a previous sale landed in their lap in 2003, and they founded Caliza — the Spanish word for “limestone,” which is the foundation of the Templeton Gap hills.

It wasn’t a smooth road from there, however. Although the property was planted with chardonnay, pinot noir and zinfandel, the grapes were struggling. In 2006 they ripped them all out and started from scratch, replanting the 20-acre vineyard with syrah and other Rhone varieties.

“It was a big undertaking, both financially and work-wise,” Bowker explained.

That same year they started making wine with fruit purchased from their neighbors. Using red Rhone grapes from Scott Hawley at Torrin, syrah from the Russell family and white grapes from nearby Halter Ranch, Bowker made his first 800 cases next door at Booker Winery.

“The philosophy was that we were going to buy from our neighbors within a mile or so radius from here,” Bowker said. “It was important that we weren’t veering too far out of the area.”

Bowker learned winemaking during a two-year program in viticulture and enology at a junior college in Napa. But he credits his friends and neighbors for really honing his skills.

“I have a lot of friends that will bend over backwards to help me,” he said. “We all try to feed off one another.” In fact, Bowker and Hawley share the tiny Booker winery with its owner, Eric Jensen. Bowker compares the place to one of the incubators of innovative design in the high-tech industry.

The attention Bowker has drawn since receiving the Chronicle awards has surprised him. On Paso Robles Wine Festival weekend in May, he and Pam had six volunteers working the small tasting room, and they were still shorthanded.

“It certainly has benefited us amazingly,” Bowker said. He has even received offers for his 2007 futures, something he has declined to accept.

A difficulty for the couple is that they are both working seven days a week to keep up with the winemaking and the sales. They also have plans to add two production facilities to the property next year.

“But you know, it’s a labor of love,” Bowker said.

Caliza Winery

2570 Anderson Road, Paso Robles; 237-1480

www.calizawinery.com

Owner/winemaker: Carl Bowker

Cases produced: 1,000 in 2008

Varietals: Syrah and Rhone blends

Tasting room hours: Friday to Sunday, 11 a.m. to 4:30 p.m., and by appointment.

Janis Switzer can be reached at 434-5394 or via e-mail at janisswitzer@yahoo.com.