2014 Paul Hobbs Pinot Noir, Russian River Valley, Calif.
$65
Two Thumbs Up
Aromas of red berries and dried strawberries with notes of cloves and cinnamon. Intense flavors of cherry brandy, black currant and black pepper.
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“Not everything that is man-made is bad,” said a not exactly annoyed but certainly adamant Paul Hobbs, as he addressed a room full of wine buyers during a swing through Atlanta in March.
The frenetic winemaker, well-known for his full-bodied California pinot noirs, chardonnays, cabernet sauvignons and Argentine malbecs, pointedly explained that his wines are neither biodymanic nor certified organic, and they likely never will be.
“Just because you are certified organic doesn’t mean you are practicing sound winemaking,” he told the group of 20. He estimated that his vineyards, located on three continents, are 90 percent organic. He prefers not to use chemical herbicides, pesticides and fungicides, but when they are called for, due to weather conditions or any variety of pest infestations, he uses them.
Many consumers are confused by certified organic and biodynamic labels. For example, he said, certified organic grape growers still spray to protect their crops, but they may apply their organic remedies four or five times more often than growers who use synthetic treatments. Often, the result of so many treatments is a less-healthy vineyard and marginal — but organic — fruit. And it’s all done in the name being certified.
“If you are a fundamentalist and go by whatever it says in a certification manual, your decisions are already made for you,” Hobbs said. “Is that really what it means to be a professional?”
Hobbs practices “sustainable winemaking.” Sustainable winemakers strive to keep their vineyards healthy and productive far into the future. That doesn’t mean turning vineyards and wineries into a Giedi Prime, a chemical wasteland, but sustainable vineyard and winery owners keep a keen eye on the overriding goal of passing on their operations to future generations. That may mean using chemicals from time to time.
He likened certified organic winemaking versus sustainable winemaking to homeopathic versus modern medicine.
“If your child is sick or dying and you know there is a simple treatment that modern medicine offers that can cure him or her, are you going to take it or are you going to lose your child just to be able to say: ‘Well, at least we were able to stay true to our principles.’?”
Hobbs has taken his sustainable winemaking practices to an unexpected place in recent years. After nearly a decade of planning, planting and growing grapes, sometime in 2017 we will see the release of Yacoubian-Hobbs Wines from Armenia.
At a time when most people are planning retirement (Hobbs is 62), he is taking on what he refers to as his biggest challenge. That’s saying a lot for the man who revolutionized winemaking in Argentina some 20 years ago.
Hobbs will use native Armenian grapes, along with international varieties, such as cabernet franc, chardonnay and pinot noir.
And, while Armenian wine may seem like a tough sell, Hobbs is unashamedly excited. “There are many naturally great vineyard sites,” he said of the steep, rocky terrain 25 miles northeast of Yerevan, the capital of Armenia. “I sense there are better sites in Armenia than in Argentina.”
The project started when two Armenian-American brothers, Vahe and Viken Yacoubian, approached Hobbs with a desire to revive the ancient winemaking heritage of their homeland. Hobbs was well aware that the origins of what we know today as European winemaking grapes lie in the valleys of the Caucasus region that includes Georgia, Azerbaijan and Armenia.
Encouraged by his mother, who had traveled the region, Hobbs decided to visit in 2008. (Hobbs comes from a family of farmers and was born on the family’s tree farm in upstate New York.) He immediately saw the potential, but also faced the reality that he’d have to start from scratch.
“There was absolutely no infrastructure. We had to ship everything in or build it ourselves,” Hobbs said of the former Soviet-bloc country.
In the spring of 2014, he planted 45 acres of vines, which are now producing usable grapes. Like a kid who got a new bike for Christmas, Hobbs was delighted to whip out his phone to show off pictures of the maturing vineyards perched 1,400 feet above the village of Aghavnadzor.
Whether or not this will be the last big adventure for the energetic Hobbs is hard to say, but age or trends won’t be a distraction for this single-minded winemaker.
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