“Summertime, and the livin’ is easy.” The wines are chilling and the grapevines are high. Bands will be playing and new releases will be flowing at Laetitia Vineyard and Winery all summer long.
The winery, located along U.S. Highway 101 between Nipomo and Arroyo Grande, is celebrating its 30th anniversary this year with lots of festive events at the tasting room.
The estate vineyards were planted in 1982, and the first wines were released in 1984. Formerly known as Maison Deutz, the French-owned winery once produced 30,000 cases of sparkling wine annually.
When a new owner took over in 1997, he changed the winery’s name to Laetitia, after his daughter.
The winery’s current proprietor, Selim Zilkha, is still dedicated to sparkling wine and pinot noir and chardonnay under the Laetitia label, in addition to NADIA Wines, named after Zilkha’s daughter, Nadia, now a co-owner.
Winemaker Eric Hickey was 16 years old when he started working harvests at Maison Deutz with his winemaker father, Dave Hickey. That was more than 20 years ago.
Today, Dave makes the bubbly; his son makes the still.
“Our paths don’t pass that much when it comes to the winemaking,” Eric said. “It’s great! He’s got his space, and I’ve got mine. We get along really well.”
Laetitia produces seven sparkling wines and about 8,000 cases a year using gentle Coquard presses—the only two European wooden basket presses of their kind in North America.
During a recent visit to the winery, Eric opened some Laetitia sparklers for me to taste. I really liked the bright and refreshing non-vintage Laetitia brut cuvée ($25)-—a blend of pinot noir, pinot blanc, and chardonnay, the three base grapes that Laetitia uses for its sparkling wine program.
Laetitia’s cool climate estate chardonnay ($18), with its fresh notes of citrus and green apple, is also popular during this warmer time of year.
“We see our chardonnay sales spike up in the spring and summer, same with sauvignon blanc,” Eric said.
Another wine that pairs very well with the warmer seasons is a chilled NADIA grenache rosé ($22), “which we made just for the summer so it was a small production—about 50 cases,” he said.
“Rosés are becoming much more popular and much more understood by the public,” Eric explained. “One of the problems with rosés is [people] see it and they go, ‘pink and sweet: white zin.’ They previously would associate it with that. So now we’re seeing a lot more popularity of dry rosés, certainly sparkling, and people understanding them and looking for them. We didn’t see that in years past.”
Laetitia’s sister label, NADIA, produces 12,000 cases annually of Rhône and Bordeaux wines made from grapes grown in their Santa Barbara Highlands Vineyard in the hills above Cuyama.
This month, NADIA is releasing a new wine, the 2012 Quattro ($35), a blend of four red wines: 40 percent cabernet sauvignon, 25 percent tempranillo, 20 percent grenache, and 15 percent petite sirah.
Proceeds from the sale of Quattro will benefit two local causes.
“We’re going to donate a dollar from the sale of each bottle to two local charities each year, and we’ll rotate every year,” said Jackie Leopold, the winery’s sales and marketing administrator.
This year, the beneficiaries are Woods Humane Society in SLO County and the Family Care Network, which serves families and children across the Central Coast.
The Quattro release party is on Father’s Day, Sunday, June 15, from noon to 3 p.m. There will be samples of Quattro paired with locally made chocolates, as well as food truck cuisine for purchase and live music.
Another unique event this month at Laetitia is a wine blending seminar on Friday, June 13, from 6:30 to 8:30 p.m. Eric will lead guests through the blending process, teaching the craft of making pinot noir.
“Blending is fun when you can share it with people. We have 400-plus acres of pinot noir, so any given year I’ve got 70 different batches of pinot noir in barrel, so it’s fun to pull 10 of them, different types of pinot, different clones,” Eric said. “People get a kick out of it because they don’t really realize how different each site or each clone can be. I call it the winemaker spice rack; that allows you to make the blends.”
After a demonstration, attendees will practice their new blending and label-design knowledge. There will be a contest for best blend and best-designed label. The cost is $50 per person. Call 474-7641 to reserve a spot.
Laetitia is also participating in the 24th annual Roll Out the Barrels weekend June 19 through 22. On June 19, Laetitia will pair up with a local chef to do side-by-side tastings in SLO’s Mission Plaza.
The afternoon of June 21, Laetitia will offer gondola rides through the vineyard with light snacks and live music, and another band will play on June 22 while visitors taste barrel samples.
Go to slowine.com for complete event information.
Check the winery’s website, laetitiawines.com, for happenings all year long, like its annual grape stomp in August.
The tasting room is open daily from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. There are picnic tables and outdoor seating with ocean vistas, as well bocce ball courts and a walking trail adjacent to the vineyard, where you can take in the view and ocean breeze while holding a glass of wine in your hand.
Plus, there’s no need to leave Fido at home during the “dog days of summer” because Laetitia welcomes pets in its outdoor areas.
Sun wine and food columnist Wendy Thies Sell thinks pink. Contact her at wthies@santamariasun.com.
This article appears in Jun 5-12, 2014.
