It’s a cool, foggy morning in the mystical Santa Rita Hills.  Perfect for plucking the swollen clusters of Pinot Noir dangling as far as the eye can see.   Thanks to a record rainfall, harvest is starting early this year at the Clos Pepe Vineyard.  Winemaker Wes Hagen is leading his team of pickers down the row along with his wife Chanda and jovial owner Steve Pepe.  These are the two months Hagen builds up to all year, saving his stamina for 16 hour days and occasional restless nights.  There is zero margin for error in a small winery like this and he lives for the challenge. 

This was all just a dream spawned in the early 90’s by a few garage winemakers from Long Beach.  Whipping up batches of Cabernet and Merlot while hanging out in a walled backyard they nicknamed “Clos Pepe,” the quest for a better wine began.  After working a full crush at Babcock Vineyards, Hagen had what it took to fine tune his approach and begin establishing his own label. 

Clos Pepe is planted on, as Hagen puts it, “a pretty crazy hillside.”  Benefiting from phenomenal drainage, cool temperatures, high acidity and a bedrock of Calcarria Shale, this is heaven for Pinot Noir and Chardonnay.  Steve Pepe jumped on the property in 1994, transforming a horse farm into a highly-sustainable, family-oriented winery.  Planting their first crop in 1998, they emerged from a string of drought years with a reputation as one of the finest Pinot Noir producers in the county. 

Wes Hagen represents the present and future of California winemaking.  He’s a walking encyclopedia of scientific and viticultural knowledge inclined to occasional Pinot-praising outbursts like Miles from Sideways. His commitment to his farm and his employees is undying.  His top three crew members, Ramon, Cesar and Rogelio, have been there since the beginning.  The care everyone has for each other and the land seems to resonate through the grapes. 

Thinking back to last year’s weeks of extreme temperatures around this same time makes today’s harvest that much sweeter.  These grapes will already be crushed before the sun even hits them.  Thanks to the plentiful rain refreshing the vines 2005 is fixing to be a spectacular vintage for Clos Pepe.  “Pop a cork, put some wine in your glass,” says Hagen.  “Stick your nose in it and that’s the story of two years of my life.  I want that story to be luscious, delicious, enticing.”