2009 Stolpman La Croce

Stolpman Vineyards was founded in 1990 when Tom and Marilyn Stolpman bought 220 acres on the Central Coast above Santa Barbara. Tom Stolpman is an attorney with a practice in Long Beach, California, but he and Marilyn were long time wine collectors who wanted to be involved in the wine industry. For several years the couple grew grapes which were sold to Sine Qua Non, Ojai Vineyards and other area producers. But in 1997 the Stoplmans started producing their own wines and today about 90% of the grapes grown on their 152-acre vineyard goes to make their own Stolpman wines. Stolpman produces Syrah, Roussane, Sangiovese and Sauvignon Blanc. It also has limited plantings of Grenache, Viognier, Petite Sirah and Chardonnay. Stolpman’s Rhone-style blends earn ratings in the low- to mid-90s. Robert M. Parker Jr. has called Stolpman “one of the up-and-coming estates in the Santa Ynez Valley…Stolpman should be a name to reckon with for many decades to come.”

Central Coast AVA is a huge wine producing area that extends from Santa Barbara County in the south to San Francisco in the north. With more than 100,000 vineyard acres, it includes parts of six counties near the Pacific Ocean. Nearly 20 smaller AVAs lie within the Central Coast AVA. Central Coast earned appellation status in 1985. Included in the appellation are parts of the counties of Contra Costa, Monterey, San Luis Obispo, Santa Barbara, Santa Clara and Santa Cruz. Nearly every grape varietal grown in California is grown somewhere in the Central Coast AVA, though Chardonnay accounts for nearly 50% of the entire wine grape crop.