Why sommeliers are excited about Albatross Ridge
When the right alchemy of soil, climate and grape clone come together, a wise winemaker gets out of the way, and the results evoke terroir, and something deeper. Something like destiny.
Destiny’s a familiar feeling with small, family-run Albatross Ridge in Carmel Valley. And that’s not because the warm days and cool nights coax complexity and minerality from Pinot and Chardonnay given long hang times by the Pacific 7 miles away — and buzz among soulful sommeliers and wine lovers seeking out grape juice different from the big, fruity, traditional California style.
Destiny first visited before anything was put in a barrel or a glass, and before the winery had a name.
Vineyard operations chief Brad Bowlus and his son, winemaker Garrett Bowlus, had been searching for four years across much of Oregon and California for a site with the soils and setting to do cool-climate Pinot.
Garrett calls it “a place where we could grow the type of wine we like to drink.”
But it wasn’t until after they had given up and Garrett had moved to Carmel with his wife, Cassia, whom he met while harvest-interning at an Oregon winery, that they discovered the vineyard property, with views of — and direct breezes from — the ocean, and heights reaching 1,250 feet. After they had painstakingly planted the vineyard in 2008, hand-digging holes in the estate’s tough diatomaceous, limestone and shale ground, they started searching local lore for inspiration on what to name it.
It wasn’t until they went to Costco and cracked open a history book of Carmel Valley that they learned that a famous pilot named William Hawley Bowlus used this very area to lift off — Bowlus, as in Brad’s dad and Garrett’s granddad.
The elder Bowlus was known for designing Airstream trailers and leading construction on Charles Lindbergh’s Spirit of St. Louis, but he loved tinkering with experimental gliders, or sailplanes, and became the first American to break an Orville Wright record for time aloft. The namesake Albatross was a glider made mostly of paper.
Suddenly they had a name, and deeper meaning.
“Everything fell into place,” Garrett says.
Albatross Ridge occupies heights on the north side of Carmel Valley Road, west of Los Laureles Grade, at the end of a twisting and rising 1½mile road. Other avians share air space — California quail,
wild turkeys, turkey vultures and red-tailed hawks among them.
Garrett gets geeky as we ride around the estate’s 244 acres, 18 of which are planted, with glasses of beautiful 2012 Estate Pinot ($55/bottle) blended from the top 12 barrels of the vintage. This comes after we sample the unfiltered, unfined 2012 Chardonnay, which enjoys the same complexion of the horizon’s sky as a marine layer moves in to cool the grapes and preserve the dynamic minerals of place. He explains how the juice is a product of the rocky earth, cool nights and nice clones — Chard 96 and 15, and Pinot clones 828, 777, Pommard and 115 — grafted on 1103 Paulsen root that does well with very limited water and tough soils.
“I want my hand to be involved in the wine as little as possible,” he says.
He and Cassia are hands-on in everything else, including the year-and-a-half-old tasting room in the same courtyard as Anton & Michel restaurant’s fountain patio in Carmel-bythe-Sea, with hand-hewn barn wood, a sexy Albatross signature along the wall and heavy iron swivel stools along a stone-and-wood tasting bar.
Some of the town’s most progressive sommeliers are among those who savor the lean Pinots and Chardonnays over bigger, oakier alternatives.
Restaurant director and lead sommelier Nathaniel Muñoz of triple James Beard finalist Aubergine is among them.
“Garrett has a great eye for where to plant,” he says. “Those wines are all about the soil — rocky, calcareous mountain ridge with direct line of sight to the bay, so you get a direct coastal influence, long ripening season and low yields.”
Sierra Mar manager and sommelier Sarah Kabat-Marcy elaborates.
“The Chardonnays are driven beautifully with clean minerals and aromatics,” she says. “The Pinots are elegant and complex. Both are refreshing expressions of our local terroir. The plus is knowing Garrett and his wife, Cassia, are truly devoted to their craft.”
The other plus: That craft honors an adventurous family aircraft with a picture on the label and a daring wine in the glass. Which all contributes to that rare and delicious flavor of destiny.