2009, which has been called a great vintage by many in the wine business has brought us some very good reviews across the board. A selection of those reviews is listed here for your mental tasting pleasure!

International Wine Cellar (Tanzer)

2009 La Fenetre Chardonnay Bien Nacido Vineyard Block 11 Santa Maria Valley - 92 Points
Green-gold. Sexy, oak-spiced aromas of pear, melon, passion fruit and tangerine. Rich and expansive but surprisingly lithe, with excellent clarity to its ripe orchard fruit flavors. Smoky lees and vanilla bean notes add depth to the long, sappy, penetrating finish. There's a pretty suave interplay of richness and vivacity here.

2009 La Fenetre Chardonnay Bien Nacido Vineyard Santa Maria Valley - 91 Points
Bright gold. Oak-spiced aromas of nectarine, pear and white flowers. Lush and creamy on the palate, offering plump orchard and pit fruit flavors and a gentle dose of vanillin oak. Finishes smooth and sweet, with excellent tenacity and a resonating floral quality. I really like the blend of richness and vivacity here.

2008 La Fenetre Chardonnay Bien Nacido Vineyard Santa Maria Valley - 90 Points
Bright gold. Complex nose hints at poached pear, toasted bread, smoke, floral honey and minerals. At once generous and lively, with very good breadth to its honeyed orchard fruit and tangerine flavors. Floral and smoky qualities carry through to the long, sappy finish.

2009 La Fenetre Chardonnay Santa Maria Valley - 90 Points
Light, bright gold. Pungent, lees-accented aromas of lemon pith, pear and honey, with a hint of smoky minerals. Juicy and focused, offering dried orchard fruit flavors and a bracing note of bitter lemon. Shows an exotic iodine quality on the long, spicy finish. This opens up nicely with air.

2009 La Fenetre Pinot Noir Bien Nacido Old Vines Santa Maria Valley - 92 Points
Brilliant red. High-toned, alluringly perfumed bouquet combines strawberry, raspberry and Asian spices, with slow-building florality. Concentrated, energetic flavors of red berry preserves show impressive clarity and energy, and no rough edges. Finishes with silky, fine-grained tannins and lingering raspberry and rose qualities. This wine reminded me of a high-end Chambolle from a ripe year.

2009 La Fenetre Pinot Noir Le Bon Climat Vineyard Santa Maria Valley - 91 Points
Light, bright red. Perfumed, vibrant nose offers scents of raspberry and strawberry accented by fresh rose, rhubarb and vanilla. Silky and bright on the palate, with a sweet raspberry flavor deepened by a licorice nuance. Finishes smooth and long, with persistent red berry and cherry-cola flavors.

2009 La Fenetre Pinot Noir Santa Maria Valley - 90 Points
Bright medium red. Spicy, wild aromas of red berries, spicecake and flowers, plus a hint of smokiness. Silky, sweet and complex, offering a combination of zesty red fruit, smoke and spice tones. Focused and vibrant on the back end, finishing on a sappy raspberry note, with very good persistence.

The Wine Enthusiast (WE)

93 Points - La Fenêtre 2009 Los Alamos Vineyard Chardonnay (Santa Barbara County). Lots of fine structure in this Chardonnay, with crisp acidity, minerals and even some firm tannins giving a framework to the tangerine and smoky oak flavors. Feels tight and elegant in the mouth. Drink this upscale Chard with rich fare, like ahi tuna and steamed lobster with drawn butter. —S.H.

92 Points - La Fenêtre 2009 Bien Nacido Vineyard Chardonnay (Santa Maria Valley). The winery’s style is a leaner, more minerally and elegant Chardonnay, rather than the blowsy, ripe kind so popular these days. This ’09 is quite fine, with brisk acidity and a steely tang to the orange and apricot flavors. Drink over the next three years with shellfish in cream and butter sauces. —S.H.

91 Points - La Fenêtre 2009 Bien Nacido Vineyard Block Eleven Chardonnay (Santa Maria Valley). This is a very dry, acidic wine. It’s rather austere, not showing much richness now. With a minerally tang, It’s more like a French Chablis than an opulent California Chardonnay. Give it credit for elegance and finesse. —S.H.

90 Points - La Fenêtre 2009 Pinot Noir ( Santa Maria Valley ). A complex Pinot Noir, very dry and crisp in the Santa Maria style, with fl avors of crushed Indian spices, cola, orange zest and sandalwood. Shows lots of  elegance, a sophisticated wine that requires some understanding to appreciate. — S.H.

92 Points - La Fenêtre 2009 Bien Nacido Vineyard Old Vines Pinot Noir (Santa Maria Valley). So tight in acidity, tannins and primary fruit, this light, silky Pinot Noir begs for some time in the cellar. By 2015, it should begin to mellow, revealing sweet, ripe raspberry and cherry fruit, with a brace of minerals. Shows real finesse and concentration from this fine vineyard. Cellar Selection. —S.H.

92 Points - La Fenêtre 2009 Le Bon Climat Vineyard Pinot Noir (Santa Maria Valley). Stash this young Pinot in the cellar for at least four years. Right now, it’s tight and austere, with zippy acidity and unintegrated oak sweetness and tannins framing intensely ripe cherry and raspberry fruit flavors. Needs time to come together, but could provide interesting drinking after 2015. Cellar Selection. —S.H.

Wine & Spirits (W&S)

2009 La Fenetre Chardonnay Bien Nacido Vineyard Block 11, Santa Maria Valley - 91 Points (Tasting Notes Pending)

2009 La Fenêtre Bien Nacido Vineyard Old Vines Pinot Noir, Santa Maria Valley - 91 Points (Tasting Notes Pending)

Classically styled is how I typically start a conversation about La Fenêtre. No other Pinot Noir exemplifies this more than the 2008 Pinot from le Bon Climat. Organically farmed in the hears of the famed Santa Maria Valley AVA of Santa Barbara County, this wine made from a single clone (115) has power, yet elegance… a combination found in few California wines.

The vineyard is owned and farmed by one of the great Pinot Noir winemakers of our day, and my mentor, Jim Clendenen. Clone 115 originated from Burgundy, and is one of the increasingly popular ‘Dijon’ Clones. These clones tend to thrive in the cool climate area in California, especially in Santa Maria, classified as a zone 1 climate (as cool as grapes can grow) which is actually cooler on average than most parts of Burgundy. These clones, when grown in California tend to exhibit spice notes such as cinnamon and cloves, with a taught core of focused fruit- raspberry, strawberry, and in super concentrated wines, black cherry.

The 2008 le Bon Climat is now three years old. It has spent about a year in bottle which is when the wines start to show some of their more pleasing secondary characteristics. Behind the fruit and spice, an earthy character has emerged, almost truffley in character. It is said that when someone wants to fake Burgundy from the 60’s, they put fake labels on old bottles of Pinot from Santa Maria. The reason, clearly, is the ability for great Pinot noir from Santa Maria to age seamlessly. 

The vineyard, which is farmed organically, was planted between 1997 and 1999 to (In total Jim Clendenen Style) mostly Pinot Noir (around 37 acres) and a small amount of Chardonnay, Viognier, Aligote, and Teroldego. Naturally low yielding, the 2008 was farmed at a scant 1.5 tons per acre. The quality of both the terroir and farming in this wine is evident, as the wine is more concentrated, more complex, and more interesting than almost any other I have ever made. The acidity, minerality, fruit, and alcohol are in perfect balance, and the supple tannin makes for a deliciously silky textured wine, that still manages to pack a punch. The punch though, is in the form of a kiss from a prima ballerina as opposed to Iron Mike Tyson. 

The quality of the fruit in this wine, and all of the wines I try to make for that matter, is displayed by keeping production and intervention at a minimum. All the wines are made by hand, using traditional techniques, with little or no additions except the most basic such as minute sulfur additions. I usually build my wines to age for 10 years, but I think this exceptional wine is balanced for drinking early with food and can be cellared for 10-20 years.

In 2010, I asked my best friend Alex to help me with 'a few things'. 'A few things' turned into a partnership that will see La Fenetre grow into a leader in California's movement back to more balanced, food friendly, and terroir driven wines! Here is a Alex's short bio so you can get to know him!

Alex first met Joshua Klapper when they were both freshmen in New York’s Stuyvesant High School.  While Joshua traveled off the beaten path, Alex followed a more traditional route, earning a degree in Economics and Sociology from Cornell University.  It was during his college years that Alex’s interest in wine was first piqued when he took the famous “Wines” class offered by the Cornell School of Hotel Administration.

After working for 8 years in consulting and corporate finance, primarily in the magazine business, Alex agreed to help Joshua with some financial planning and analysis for his business.  What started as a moonlighting gig quickly ballooned into a fulltime position as the General Manager and Partner of La Fenêtre Wines.  In addition to handling the financial planning for the company, Alex serves as the company’s East Coast representative, as he lives and works in New York City.  In the fall, he also puts in his time as a harvest worker (read:slave), participating in all aspects of the winemaking process. 

 Welcome Alex!

2009 La Fenêtre À Côté Pre-Release
Spring 2011
 

Dear Friends,

Happy spring! For those of you who have forgotten my son Alexander was born on September 30th 2009. I was in the middle of harvesting Chardonnay; Pinot Noir was fermenting; Syrah was getting close to picking. Alex’s birth definitely set the stage for a crazy year and crazy it was! 2009 was a great vintage and by far the most interesting and exciting vintage of my career up until then. It started out as perfect as one could ask for: good yields, balanced fruit, and healthy fermentations. In barrel though, the wines proved to be different from anything I had experienced in the previous five years. They seemed to be on a different schedule than the other vintages I had made. The charms of 2009 just wouldn't emerge.

March, April, May, June… nothing. The wines were completely closed. I had planned on bottling the early release wines in July before the next harvest but the wines would not cooperate so I waited. Finally in December, after the 2010 vintage was put to bed, something happened. The wines started to come around and fast! Overnight, or so it seemed at the time, they went through an exciting transformation. First Chardonnay, and then Pinot Noir just three to four weeks later! The ugly ducklings had emerged from their long hibernation as beautiful swans, elegant and refined, subtle and classic, bold and delicious.

With that, La Fenêtre proudly presents to you 2009 La Fenêtre À Côté. The Santa Barbara County Chardonnay is again a blend of the Sierra Madre, Los Alamos, and Bien Nacido vineyards, and it is vibrant and mineral with a racy texture and a long clean finish. The Rosé, a blend of 85% Chardonnay and 15% Pinot Noir, is pale in color and quite stunning. It is classically structured like Rosé Champagne- delicate with balanced acidity and notes of rose petal and spice that only Pinot Noir can bring to the cuvée. The Central Coast Pinot Noir is like 'Bourgogne Rouge' to the ‘Premier Cru’ that is La Fenêtre single vineyard Pinot. As a good friend says often, and I concur, ‘drink your Burgogne (read: À Côté Pinot Noir) while you are waiting for your Premier and Grand Cru (read: single vineyard La Fenêtre) to be ready!’ It is a great expression of the entire 2009 vintage across the cool climate central coast and expresses the region's absolute charm in every bottle! Finally the red blend, and just one barrel of it by the way… 42% Syrah, 42% Pinot Noir, 8% Grenache, and 8% Mourvedre. Why Pinot Noir with the Rhône varietals? It’s like Chateauneuf-Du-Pape but with red fruit and it happens to be fantastic!

 ***Use the code SPRING2011LF to receive 15% off your order before April 21st 2011***

This offering is a wonderful precursor for what is to come, and the first of four unique releases in 2011. The newly scheduled summer release will see three new La Fenêtre bottlings… the first includes a Chardonnay and Pinot Noir with Santa Maria Valley designations. These are blends of barrels from different vineyards in the Santa Maria Valley that distinctly speak of the classic elegance and soft fruit of my chosen and, not coincidentally, favorite wine region. Also released then will be our first (drum roll please) Santa Ynez Riesling! The fall release will bring with it a return of old vineyard favorites in Pinot Noir from Bien Nacido and Chardonnay from Bien Nacido Block Eleven as well as another classic Le Bon Climat and other treats. Finally the newly added winter release will be home to Syrah from three unique single vineyard designations: Biodynamically farmed Sawyer-Lindquist, Bien Nacido 'Z' Block, and of course Alisos. After repeated tastings of the '05 and '06 reserve Syrah, they will once again receive extra aging in barrel and be ready just in time for cold weather and holiday celebrations!

Thank you for enjoying La Fenêtre, and for your continued support. Cheers!