As an avid outdoorsman, cyclist, triathlete (sprint distance), and mountain biker, it was a great surprise and honor when the Clif Family Winery approached me to take a look at some of the new wines they were releasing.  Disclosure: I received free samples of the wine I review in this post from the winery, and the opinions are entirely my own.  For those who don’t know, Gary Erickson, a well-known cyclist, triathlete and overall extreme sports guy, started the Clif Barcompany in 1992 in his search for a better tasting and natural energy bar and has been very successful with that venture.  So, today we’ll see how Gary and his wife, Kit, fared with one of their latest ventures, Clif Family Winery, which was started in 2004.  It’s important to note that, like their focus on natural ingredients for their Clif Bar products, the winery is dedicated to Sustainability practices in the vineyard, sourcing fruit from organic farms when possible and trying to offset CO2 emissions via aggressive energy-saving practices.

I was also lucky enough to have a few moments to chat with their winemaking consultant, Sarah Gott, for her take on this venture and about the wines she helps them make.  Sarah has been a friend to the Erickson’s through cycling, gym and their childrens’ school activities in the Napa area.  Eventually their conversations would come back around to wine and even though Sarah was not looking for another engagement (she currently consults for Joel Gott, Blackbird, Aaron Pott and Oakville East as well), she was evantually asked to join the Clif team and she obliged.  She is also a believer in sustainability and has experience with natural and biodynamic techniques while at Joseph Phelps and Quintessa earlier in her career, and she wants to focus on trying to make the world a better place and develop good habits for the support of mother nature.  However, she readily admits that winegrowing/winemaking still ultimately come down to quality and if there is an issue where a man-made solution that may or may-not be considered “natural” will help, she would readily make that call.

The Clif Family winery is “still trying to figure it out,” according to Gott.  There are so many little parts to building the business and great wines, including mother nature, up-front costs, etc., it’s not like following a recipe in your mother’s kitchen that’s repeatable and controlled very easily.  Add to that their goals of sourcing organic while keeping costs low in order to be a profitable business, it can prove quite challenging.  As a consulting winemaker, I asked Sarah about the level of control she has.  She agrees it certainly depends on the winery and what they are looking for and in this situation, Gary and Kit have given her insight as to what they like and what they’d like to achieve, and Sarah has a lot of control to make that happen.  In the case of the The Climber Red Wine, Gary wanted something in line with Orin Swift’s The Prisoner (which got a very good write-up from Vinography.com).  This idea aligns well with Sarah’s strengths as her “specialty” of creating super blends as she demonstrated uniquely and superbly while at Joseph Phelps with Le Mistral, a wine she says would be one of her top items to have with her if deserted on an island.

Now for my tasting notes of the wines:

2008 The Climber White Wine (88% Sauvignon Blanc, 4% Muscat, 3% Riesling, 3% Chardonnay, 2% Chenin Blanc) – $14 SRP –  Screw cap closure.  Very light straw color with medium to high reflectivity meaning fairly high acid.  There was even a bit of effervesence in ths glass.  Nose produced grapefruit, apricot and honeysuckle.  The taste was a little toned down from the aromatics of the nose, yet brought out some lemon/citrus, grapefruit, minerality and a little petulence on the finish (light spice).  My wife felt this could compare to Conundrum and it was very refreshing for this time of year, as it expects to hit 98 degrees here in the ATL today!

2006 The Climber Red Wine(32% Zinfandel, 28% Syrah, 25% Cabernet Sauvignon, 11% Merlot, 4% Petite Sirah) – $17 SRP – Real cork closure. The color was medium to dark ruby and produced black fruit, slight vanilla and green/vegetal/celery? on the nose.  Got the expected blackberries and black cherries on the taste, but was a little disappointing overall.  The wine did open up a bit more after another 15-20 minutes displaying some currant and possibly anise and there was a little spice on the end, but fairly average, in my opinion.  With Zin, Syrah and Cab as the leading varieties in this blend, I expected bigger bang for my buck in the ways of fruit forwardness and boldness and I just didn’t get it.

Overall, the white was the winner to me in that it was refreshing and had all the aromatic and citrus/floral  characteristics I would expect and really enjoyed.  But, as Sarah shared with me, Clif is still trying to figure it out and I’m sure with Sarah, Gary and Kit’s historical track records it won’t be long before they do, so I will be looking forward to much success from them in the very near future!!  Isn’t the joy mostly about the journey anyway?