Steve Fennell’s connection to wine is rooted in, of all locations, the balmy flatlands of Florida.
The state’s tropical warmth and humidity isn’t ideally suited for rising fantastic wine vines, however that’s what bought his grandfather, Joseph E. Fennell, questioning why native grape species thrived in so many areas of the world, whereas Europe’s coveted Vitis vinifera required extra temperate climes. A plant breeder by occupation, Fennell started hybridizing indigenous North American vines with European ones, experimenting with groundbreaking combos in Florida, Puerto Rico, and Costa Rica from the Thirties till his loss of life in 1990.
“He was not the primary to place ahead the thought of utilizing native wild varieties as the premise for a cultivated grape suited to Florida and the tropics,” wrote his son, and Steve’s dad, Lee Fennell in a paper introduced throughout the Florida Grape Growers Convention in 1991. “However the proof clearly means that Fennell was certainly first — and for some time alone — in actively pursuing this method to grape breeding in a scientific manner on a comparatively giant scale. And to this present day, he seems to face alone within the depth and scope of his seek for promising wild varieties.”
Grandpa’s work was eye-opening to a younger Steve, who was raised in Stockton, the place his dad taught on the College of the Pacific. “I at all times thought it was actually fascinating,” recalled Fennell just lately. “It bought me desirous about vines.”
Whereas finding out geology and geography at UCSB, Fennell labored for Heinz in the summertime, researching tomato breeding for the ketchup king, and began tasting wine within the nascent Santa Ynez Valley. “It hit me as an epiphany someday that wine manufacturing and grape rising encapsulates all of my areas of curiosity, from agriculture to the aesthetics of winemaking to the bodily labor,” he defined. “After which the truth that all of the premium wine-growing areas of the world are usually in lovely locations with lovely climates, I assumed there may very well be one thing to this.”
The grandson earned a grasp’s in wine from UC Davis, labored for years in Napa and Australia, and returned to Santa Barbara County in 2006 to run Sanford Vineyard, when the Terlato household took over from founder and regional pioneer Richard Sanford. He was there till 4 years in the past, when he took a job as GM of Rancho Sisquoc within the Santa Maria Valley, the place winemaking lore goes again even deeper than the enduring Sanford & Benedict Winery.
“It’s been an absolute deal with to go from one historic place to an much more historic place,” mentioned Fennell, who oversees a variety of considerations on the large, 58-square-mile Rancho Sisquoc, from vineyards and winemaking to cattle and land administration. “It’s such a various operation.”
However he’s not the hands-on winemaker at Sisquoc — that’s Steven Smith’s job — so Fennell determined in 2019 to lastly make his personal line of eponymous wines. “It was the chance to do one thing on a small scale in order that I may have a really artistic outlet and make wines that I personally prefer to drink,” he mentioned. “Hopefully there are other people on the market who respect them as properly.”
The early outcomes impress, displaying wealthy fruit with spice on the pinot noir, intensely contemporary violet on the syrah, and brisk, rocky goodness on the chardonnay. “It has a pleasant texture, an acid spine, and a particular mineral high quality,” defined Fennell of the white. “That’s a reasonably simple wine to pair.”
Dim sum just isn’t the speedy inkling for wine, however that chard is a star on the weekend wine listing at China Pavilion, the place it decisively enhances lots of the three dozen or so picks. “I actually prefer it with their dim sum,” mentioned Fennell. “There are such a lot of great little dishes.”
The objective is to develop as demand calls for, which proper now could be round 500 instances per classic, sourced principally from Peake Ranch, Bien Nacido, and Watch Hill. However he stays targeted on his job at Rancho Sisquoc and his life on the Mesa in Santa Barbara, the place he and his spouse — who’s retiring this 12 months as a trainer at San Marcos Excessive — handle an intensive backyard of fruits, greens, and decorative flowers.
It’s a house he’s proud to return house to, even after driving from the distant reaches of Rancho Sisquoc. “Being across the nook from Elings Park is very nice,” he mentioned. “It’s a reasonably nice place.”
See fennellwines.com.
