The 200-plus wineries in Santa Barbara County have names as diverse as the wine and the people who make it.
There’s the winery that shares the name of a world-renowned tire company, the label founded by the beloved actor who portrayed American frontiersmen, and now a winery named after a British blues-rock band with multi-platinum success in the 1970s and legions of fans to this day.
Best known for the Top 40 hit, “Slow Ride,” Foghat is still recording and touring North America after four decades of entertaining in front of sold-out, head-banging crowds.
The band’s drummer and founding member, Roger Earl, has reason to frequent the Santa Maria Valley these days: His winery, Foghat Cellars, is here.
“Wine, I’ve always enjoyed wine, ever since I can remember,” Earl said. “It’s always been my beverage of choice. I don’t drink before we play. None of us do in the band—but afterwards!”
Born in London 65 years ago, Earl still loves to boldly beat the drums almost any chance he gets. Foghat is so busy, the band turns down work. They book about 70 dates a year playing rock festivals, county fairs, biker conventions, and casinos. The band is releasing a concert DVD within the year, and they’ll be recording a new album this winter. He counts himself as “one of those fortunate few.”
“I mean, come on. I love my job. People love you. They come and cheer and shout and scream. I play drums in a rock ‘n’ roll band. I mean, people will give an appendage to do that,” Earl cackled.
One of his many long-time fans is respected Central Coast winemaker Steve Rasmussen, formerly of Talley Vineyards in Arroyo Grande and now with Sierra Madre Vineyard in Santa Maria.
“It all started Aug. 1, 2007, at the Mid-State Fair,” Rasmussen recalled.
That fateful night in Paso Robles, Rasmussen went to Foghat’s concert and got the band manager’s e-mail address to pitch the idea of teaming up to make wine. It was the name of the band that sparked the notion.
“Every evening the fog comes and cools off the valleys [of the Central Coast]. It’s like having a hat, a covering of fog,” Rasmussen explained. “It might be a bit of a stretch to call it a ‘fog hat,’ but it’s close enough for me because I’m a Foghat fan from way back.”
That Pacific Ocean fog that funnels into the Santa Maria Valley keeps the grapes cool, creating long ripening periods—known as “hang time”—on the vine.
“It allows a lot of the flavor components and aromatics to build up in the berries,” Rasmussen said.
There was a Santa Maria-style British Invasion a few weeks later when Roger Earl and his wife/manager Linda came for the harvest, picking grapes, helping in the winery, and learning a lot along the way. The Earls have been back for every harvest ever since.
With Rasmussen on board as Foghat Cellars’ winemaker, he insists on input from Earl, who divides his time between New York and Florida when not on tour.
“I don’t just use their brand,” Rasmussen said. “I demand that they participate in this project because that makes it organic and real, not like a lot of the celebrity wine labels out there nowadays.”
Not one to rest on his laurels, Earl isn’t afraid to get his hands dirty and is especially impressed with the people he’s met laboring among the vines in Santa Maria.
“Working with the pickers, the growers, the farmers—they’re wonderful people,” he said. “I love their attitude, the way they share the knowledge and help each other out. And it’s very refreshing, very refreshing.”
He said it’s quite different from the competitive music industry: “Guitar players turn around and go, ‘No! You can’t see what I’m doing,’” he said. “Drummers share the knowledge, though, so maybe that has something to do with it.”
Foghat Cellars bottled its first wines in 2008: 275 cases made from Sierra Madre Vineyard Chardonnay and 175 cases of Cabernet Sauvignon from the Santa Ynez Valley. In 2010, they produced 401 cases of Chardonnay and 245 cases of Pinot Noir sourced from Sierra Madre, to be released this November.
They hope the price of $19.99 a bottle appeals to the band’s followers during these tough economic times.
“Most people have not got a lot of money out there,” Rasmussen said. “We want to make these wines affordable. We’re really pitching them to the Foghat demographic, and there are millions of Foghat fans out there, all over the country.”
Foghat Cellars has a distributor selling its wine in New York and New Jersey. The only place it’s available locally is “Tastes of the Valleys” wine bar in Pismo Beach. It can be purchased online from the San Francisco-based website goldengatewinecellars.com.
“We don’t make any money at it, but we certainly are having a lot of fun,” Earl said. “Basically we’re trying to build the brand. Steve is a brilliant winemaker. Every single wine that we’ve made has been absolutely world class, as far as I’m concerned.”
“The thing is, since winemakers and musicians are both artists, you know, the artist in Roger and the artist in me, we kind of speak the same language,” Rasmussen said. “So, we appeal to each other. It’s artists working together is what it boils down to, you know, and if I were a better musician, I’d be playing music, too. But as fate would have it, I suck!”
Still looking the rock star, the talented “time keeper’s” trademark walrus moustache from the ’70s is gone, but Earl still wears John Lennon-style hippie sunglasses and the occasional bandana around his long hair.
The father of three and new grandfather wears hearing aids now—not uncommon for a longtime rock drummer—but with his exercise routine (biking, walking, and hand and foot stretches designed for drummers) and his penchant for cooking fresh food in the kitchen, he plans to be pounding the drums and pressing the grapes for many years to come. As Earl loves to say, “I’m gonna roll till I’m old and rock till I drop!”
Contributor Wendy Thies Sell has no plans to stop rocking. Send comments to the arts editor at scone@santamariasun.com.
This article appears in Oct 13-20, 2011.