Why it matters
The producer
Adam Tolmach is the winemaker and sole proprietor of The Ojai Vineyard. A regional wine industry profile reports about 6,000 cases each year across 15 bottlings, most of them vineyard designated. The winery works with vineyards across California's Central Coast, keeping named places central to the range.
Tolmach's cellar uses tiny quantities of sulfites and avoids fining and filtration. Fining removes suspended material, while filtration clarifies wine by removing particles. Ojai leaves both operations out of its stated approach.
Place and vineyards
Where the wines begin
Cool climate Santa Barbara County vineyards form the main sourcing area. Tolmach buys fruit by the acre, with Roll Ranch Vineyard in Ojai, Ventura County, as the sole exception to the Santa Barbara County search.
Fe Ciega Vineyard lies in the Sta. Rita Hills, where Tolmach made wine from the site from 2003 before purchasing it in 2020. The Home Ranch vineyard covers 1.2 acres with four varieties, two white and two red. New UC Davis bred varieties allow the vines to be farmed organically and resist Pierce's Disease.
Wines to know
The range in view
The 2023 Clima Frío Chardonnay is a white wine from Rancho Ontiveros in Santa Maria Valley and Yellow Foxtrot near Lompoc. The fruit comes in a 56% and 44% division, and the wine is barrel fermented and aged nine months in French oak, with 5% of that oak new. Clima Frío is the new name for Ojai's former Santa Barbara County bottling.
The 2023 Ojai Santa Barbara Pinot Noir is the named Pinot Noir bottle. It brings ripe strawberry, wild raspberry and pomegranate, followed by cinnamon, nutmeg and cardamom seed, with persistent energy through the finish.