Quick Take
With Dr. Wells Shoemaker, owner/winemaker at Salamandre Wine Cellars, set to retire from the business, he sits down for a Q&A with Lookout's wine expert. Laurie Love's biweekly column also includes a rare tasting opportunity on the Westside and a rundown of Santa Cruz County wine events not to miss.
Welcome to Laurie Love on Wine! I am Laurie Love, a professional wine writer and educator based in Santa Cruz. In this column, I share my wine passion, knowledge and experience with Lookout readers. Follow me on my wine blog, Laurie Loves Wine, and on Instagram at LaurieLoveOnWine. I love email from readers! Stay in touch: Email me at laurie@lookoutlocal.com. Join me as we journey together through the wonderful world of wine.
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WINE NEWS
Winemaker Q&A with Salamandre’s Wells Shoemaker
We are fortunate to have many fascinating, passionate, hard-working people in the wine industry here in the Santa Cruz Mountains. Winemakers, winegrowers, promoters and many others all work “behind the scenes” to bring us great wine. In this new occasional Q&A segment, I pull back the curtain to offer a glimpse of one of these local wine industry insiders and what makes them tick.
This week, Dr. Wells Shoemaker, owner/winemaker at Salamandre Wine Cellars in Aptos, gets the Laurie Love Q&A treatment. As I reported in my previous column, Wells and his wife, Sandie Shoemaker, along with their business partners Dave and Mary South, have been making wine in Aptos for 46 years (39 commercially). The focus is on “old world” style red wines (bold but not high alcohol), and their malbec bottlings have always been some of my favorites. Wells Shoemaker, a retired pediatrician, was the co-author of the best-selling book, “The French Paradox and Beyond” (Renaissance Press, 1992), in which he and his co-authors presented scientific research showing that as part of a Mediterranean diet, red wine in moderation is good for your health.
Wells and Sandie are retiring from the business. I have known them for many years, both through their wonderful wines and through a shared experience as Gateway School and Kirby School parents. In honor of their many contributions to the local wine industry, especially their excellent wines, I raise my glass to them.
Lookout: What do you do in the wine business?
Wells Shoemaker: For a mom-and-pop winery like ours, everything from start to finish. Drive the trucks and get down on your knees with clippers. Load, crush, ferment, punch down and press … then shovel the pomace to compost. Sterilize the equipment, tubing and tanks. Rack and top [up barrels] regularly in the cellar, measure chemistries, taste for troubles, fiddle with blends, design labels, bottle, stack … and then try to sell it. Take courses and constantly seek feedback for improvement. Experiment. Fill out many forms.
Lookout: How long have you had this job, and what did you do before?
Shoemaker: We made amateur wine as a small group of docs for seven years, starting in the late 1970s. I harbored aspirations for better grapes, barrels and quantity that went beyond what amateurs can practically do. Sandie and I went commercial in 1985, and Dave and Mary South joined us for the next 39. I was practicing and teaching pediatrics full time at the beginning. Halfway through those 46 years, I moved into full-time health care reform work. Wine has always been a second occupation, but no matter what, grapes came every fall.
Lookout: Why did you decide to become a winemaker?
Shoemaker: When I was 19, I studied in Florence, Italy, for six months. I had a tiny red Fiat which took me regularly into the hill country of Tuscany. This was just 20 years after World War II, and the country people were grateful for the sacrifice of Americans of my father’s generation. The people I met freely shared their love of the land, the grapes, the olives, the wine, their culture and their magnificent cuisine.
At the end of a long dirt road one day, an old man was pressing grapes. He asked: “Who are you? How did you get here? Are you hungry?” He looked out over a hillside of vines, then looked at his 2-year-old grandson playing in the dirt, and said: “We have to protect this land for his grandchildren.” Standing on soil once farmed by the Etruscans, that made perfect sense.
I thought, “These people are smarter than we are.” On the San Francisco Peninsula at that time, developers were relentlessly bulldozing orchards to make room for condos and strip malls in a rush to bury the most fertile plain in the world under asphalt and concrete. I realized that the Italians actually cared about their future generations instead of their own, ephemeral self-aggrandizement. It was a pipe dream then, but I imagined doing that in California.
Lookout: What was the first wine you made, and do you still have a bottle of it?
Shoemaker: A 1978 Amador County zinfandel was unfair … way too good for a novice. It’s all gone, but not forgotten. Beginner’s luck improves when the beginner is willing to ask for help.
Lookout: In your opinion, what is the single most important factor to produce good quality wine?
Shoemaker: Good grapes, of course, but beyond that: humility. People have been doing this for 8,000 years, maybe more. It’s not rocket science, but details are exquisitely important, and there is no quarter for laziness. Sometimes a winemaker might get lucky, but most of the time, it’s diligence and objectivity that raise the ordinary to the exceptional. Ego stands in the way if you persuade yourself that something mediocre you made is actually good.
Lookout: What or who inspires you most in your work?
Shoemaker: People.
People planted these grapes in new territory. I got to see those pioneers real time in the 1970’s in Monterey and Santa Cruz Counties.
Talented, generous, family-centered farm workers.
People who bend the old-school rules … it’s Santa Cruz!
I especially honor Val and Dex Ahlgren, Ken Burnap, and Eric Strayer.
Salamandre’s partners, Dave and Mary South, special human beings.
The Bargetto Family pioneered winemaking in our county 90 years ago, then lent generous leadership to the efflorescence of Santa Cruz County winemaking in the 1980s. They constantly model insistence upon quality and respect for community.
The young guns of Santa Cruz in the 1980s — Jeff Emery, Pam and Steve Storrs paramount — contributed immensely to our quality standards and innovation, but also the regional identity and collegiality that dozens and dozens of newer wineries now use as standards. Thank you!
Lookout: As you retire from winemaking, what are you looking forward to most, and what will you miss the most?
Shoemaker: I will miss the people. I will miss the chilly sunrise over the vineyards and the smells of harvest. I will miss the warmth and murmur of a fermenter on a frosty October night. I will miss the first exultant taste of promise in a barrel.
I won’t miss the dozens of taxes, fees and obligatory reports.
Lookout: What is the best wine you ever had?
Shoemaker: I’ve had the privilege of a lot of lovely tastes over the last 50 years — Italian, French, New Zealand, Australian, Argentine, Oregon and many of California’s best.
My favorite of them all? 1996 Salamandre Alexandra sparkling wine.
Lookout: Anything else to share?
Shoemaker: Sandie ran the business. I made the wine. It would have been impossible without the teamwork.
It’s tricky … but essential … to insist upon moderation in wine and most other indulgences … except kindness.
It’s hard to make superior-quality wine. Luck helps with an exceptional harvest, but doing that consistently for decades is a matter of pride and perseverance.
Wine simply costs too much. Some of the inflation is grape costs, packaging, warehousing and marketing … of course. That’s unavoidable. However, there is some preposterous wine pricing out there. It’s not real. It’s billionaire ego indulgence and collector preening. It has nothing to do with a healthy meal with family and friends. It was the history, the earth, the culture and the biological marvel that attracted me 50 years ago, not the glitz.
Climate change is going to monkey-wrench both the grapes and the economics on the West Coast, but I have confidence that smart people will find their way.
Note: This is a condensed version of my Q&A with Wells Shoemaker. For the full version, visit my blog.
For more information on Salamandre Wine Cellars, visit its website here or contact newt@cruzio.com. Salamandre wines are available for purchase at Corralitos Market.
Grand Cru Tasting at Santa Cruz Mountain Vineyard
Santa Cruz Mountain Vineyard is currently offering its “Grand Cru Tasting” at its Westside tasting room. For a limited time, this is a rare opportunity to taste three limited-production wines from historic, top “grand cru” vineyards planted in the 1970s in the Santa Cruz Mountains. The lineup includes 2017 Staiger Vineyard Cabernet Sauvignon, 2017 Bates Ranch Vineyard Cabernet Sauvignon and 2017 Bates Ranch Vineyard Cabernet Franc. The Staiger cabernet was my Wine of the Week on Dec. 1, 2023, and continues to be one of the best cabs I’ve ever tasted. For more information on the tasting and Santa Cruz Mountain Vineyard’s Grand Cru project, click here.
UPCOMING WINE EVENTS
This weekend brings a bevy of wine events. Friday evening is the next Vine to View dinner at Chaminade Resort, featuring Byington Winery. Enjoy a four-course dinner paired with Byington wines while overlooking the twinkling lights of Santa Cruz and Monterey Bay. Tickets and info here.
On Saturday and Sunday is the 35th annual Art & Wine Festival at Bargetto Winery in Soquel. The event is free; wine tasting is $20 and includes a festival glass. Bargetto also hosts live music every Thursday from 6 to 8 p.m. Check its website for details.
Then on Sunday from 1:30 to 4 p.m., head up to the Summit at Silver Mountain Vineyards for a barbecue and live jazz by the Jenny O’Leary Jazz Quartet, featuring singer Jenny O’Leary. Aptos Street BBQ will provide the food while you sip on wines, enjoy the music and take in the views from 2,100 feet. $35 ticket includes a meal, glass of wine, music and a reserved seat. Details here.
Tickets are nearly sold out for the “Chaine d’Or Wine Tasting Experience,” the next Wines of Santa Cruz Mountains’ Taste of Terroir summer wine event on July 25. Held at Ridge Vineyards on Montebello Road, take in the spectacular view while you enjoy a walk-around tasting featuring many historic wineries and appetizers from Oak & Rye. Tickets and info here.
Until next time!
Cheers,
Laurie
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