Angela Osborne
“I don’t think that big, muscular, firm style necessarily lets a graceful expression speak. What got me from the beginning was a very delicate pleasure. And to do that, you have to be very delicate with every part of making it.”
Age: 36
What she does: Makes some of the best examples of California Grenache.
Backstory: Osborne speaks in nearly spiritual terms about her winemaking, but she is nothing if not focused. A New Zealand native, she worked in the London wine trade before returning to San Diego, where she had spent time growing up. While working in a wine shop, she became entranced by Grenache and discovered a remote vineyard high in the desert north of Santa Barbara where it thrived. In 2007, while working cellar and assistant winemaking jobs in Santa Barbara and Sonoma, she launched her own label, A Tribute to Grace, with a single wine from that vineyard, Santa Barbara Highlands. Five years later she dropped the other jobs to focus on Grace, which may have been wise since her repertoire has expanded to seven Grenaches, plus a bit of rosé, using vineyards everywhere from Dry Creek Valley to Rancho Cucamonga (San Bernardino County). Her work in the cellar is both precise and defined by a light touch, one reminiscent of the approach at the Rhone’s legendary Grenache source, Chateau Rayas. The resulting Grace wines show a rare purity and subtlety of flavor, which might explain how they also attracted an influential fan base, faring well not only in these pages but on wine lists around the world, from New York’s Eleven Madison Park to Stockholm’s Ekstedt.
Harvest fuel: “Long blacks (coffee) and the best English muffins I have ever had, from Bob’s Well Bread in Los Alamos.”
Dream project: “To find a virgin valley close to the coast — Santa Barbara or Hawkes Bay (New Zealand) — with hillsides perfect for Grenache. Planting would be conscious, with more than a nod to Rudolf Steiner’s teachings. And there would be other crops, of course, produce and animals.”
From the notebook: Osborne’s Santa Barbara Highlands Grenache ($45) remains the most nuanced of her offerings, while the fruitier, more immediate Santa Barbara County Grenache ($30) is a great introduction to her style.