Fresh from a relaxing month-long visit to his native South Africa, Santa Ynez Valley winemaker Ernst Storm vividly recalls not only the sights but also specific scents that he encountered while hiking deep into lush forests along the country’s scenic Golden Route.
“There are layers of leaves that never see sun. It’s clean; it’s not moldy; you can dig your hand into it. It’s this dark, desiccating matter kind of smell, that’s what I like in this wine,” Storm mused while swirling a glass of his 2013 Storm John Sebastiano Vineyard pinot noir ($55). “I like the fact that there’s this forest floor, desiccating leaf element to the wine.”
When asked how he can detect in wine the aroma of leaves that he sauntered on weeks earlier on the other side of the world, Storm answered: “That’s the beauty of wine—you have the ability to relate it back to experiences.”
There’s a lesson here for all of us: Observing the little things around us can improve the enjoyment of wine. We mustn’t forget to take the time to stop and smell the proverbial roses.
“It’s important to spend a lot of time outside, and pay attention to how fruit smells, and when you go for a hike, there’s rain, there’s soil, and there are different smells,” he added. “I think you have to pay attention to that, and that’s what’s nice about wine—it can bring you back to things that you’ve already experienced.”
The 35-year-old Storm studied winemaking at Elsenburg Agricultural School in the Western Cape before coming to California to continue his winemaking career.
He worked at Firestone and Curtis wineries for several years and in 2006 launched Storm Wines, his own label that focuses on two varieties—pinot noir and sauvignon blanc. (Storm also produces cabernet sauvignon and chenin blanc under another label, Notary Public.)
One of the region’s most talented winemakers, Storm has long-term contracts with vineyards in different corners of the county, Presqu’ile in the Santa Maria Valley, Duvarita in Lompoc, and John Sebastiano in the Sta. Rita Hills, to name a few.
He makes his small production wines in a modest winery behind Andrew Murray Vineyards’ new tasting room along Foxen Canyon Road, which is where Storm invited me to taste his 2014 wines still aging in the barrel, and his recently released 2013 wines.
He thoughtfully employs New World winemaking techniques, while his style is influenced by his South African education and European experiences.
Storm sauvignon blanc is a standout: “I always want freshness; I always want that grapefruit kind of core and then build around it, and I want texture, good structure, good acidity, juiciness,” Storm described.
“So, picking at different times, skin contact before pressing it; on some of the fruit—lees contact after fermentation, no oxygen,” he divulged about his winemaking practices. “Those are things that are important to me; that’s what captures so much of that juicy freshness.”
Storm is firm on his preferred style of pinot noir: “To me it’s more about elegance than power. I like low-alcohol wines because that’s what I believe in.”
In California, many wineries sell riper wines. Old school wine critics seem to prefer them and so does much of the wine-buying public.
“I get that people like bigger wines, and we all drive different cars, I’m cool with that, but vineyard site differences go away with ripeness,” Storm insisted.
He works with the same vineyard rows and blocks each vintage for consistency, with the goal of letting the site shine.
“Every year you try and figure out how to better express the vineyard that you work with,” he added.
For example, Presqu’ile Vineyard, on a special sandy site in the Solomon Hills, produces fruit that imparts distinct characteristics into the finished product.
“You can make wines that every year you know it’s Presqu’ile. I can pick this blind out of 50 wines,” Storm said while sipping a barrel sample of his exquisite 2014 Presqu’ile pinot noir.
“This is Presqu’ile. It’s got that grapefruit, perfume, that baking spice, that sandalwood,” he said.
Contrast that with Storm’s deliciously deeper, darker pinot noir from Duvarita Vineyard, a blend of three Dijon clones—115, 113, and 667.
In Storm’s extremely capable hands, one tastes more than grapes in the wine: A vineyard’s dirt, be it ancient sand dunes or loamy soil, is detectable, and so is the region, whether it’s the warmer Santa Ynez Valley or the cooler Sta. Rita Hills.
“Santa Barbara County is so diverse. I feel like the sites that I have really showcase Santa Barbara County and the diversity. The single wines are so different,” Storm said. “I’m excited about the ’14s!”
Storm blends his three single vineyard pinot noirs together in almost equal parts to create a gorgeous Santa Barbara County blend ($40).
“To me, this is Santa Barbara County,” Storm said about his Santa Barbara County pinot noir. “This is a lower alcohol wine, with three vineyards, all made in the same stylistic approach, but it’s a broader wine. There’s a fruit-sweetness on the nose. You have a wine that has a wide spectrum of fruit. It has the spice and the forest floor.”
Wine critics and the public alike can taste Storm’s outstanding 2013 pinot noirs at World of Pinot Noir (WOPN), March 6 and 7 at Bacara Resort and Spa in Goleta.
It will mark his first time pouring Storm Wines at this spectacular wine event. Joining Ernst will be his older brother, Hannes Storm, a respected winemaker in South Africa, who just debuted his own wine label, also eponymously named Storm Wines.
“It’s gonna be good, cause we’re gonna be right next to each other,” Storm said about pouring pinot noir with his brother at the upcoming WOPN. “To me, my brother and I have a similar philosophy; it’s about making site-specific wines. I talk to him every day about winemaking. To me, I think it’s a great story; two brothers, different continents, making wine, same label.”
To buy Storm Wines and learn more, click on stormwines.com.
Sun wine and food columnist Wendy Thies Sell can be contacted at wthies@santamariasun.com.
This article appears in Feb 19-26, 2015.
