BC goes OC...
A Canadian makes a big move south to become the county's third vintner
By ANNE VALDESPINO
SPECIAL TO THE REGISTER
Just back from a trip to the Napa Valley, Canadian vintner Marlowe Huber lights up like a kid with a new pair of ice skates as he recalls a visit to Robert Mondavi's palatial winery. "Have you been to Opus?" he asks, his eyes dancing.
Well, yes, we've been. More than once. That's what it's like to live in California. It's big-league wine country, a heady atmosphere in which Huber suddenly finds himself after 10 years making wine in British Columbia. Not in the Okanagan Valley wine country, mind you, but in his own small shops in the suburbs of Vancouver.
In 1994, Huber and his brother Darren bought a winemaking store in Coquitlam, British Columbia. It was a "u-vin," a popular make-it-yourself operation for customers who didn't want to buy wine from government liquor stores that charged hefty taxes. (In 1999, more than half the bumper crop Ontario harvest went to u-vins and wine-making hobbyists, according to Wine Access magazine.)
Marlowe wanted to buy into the franchise but the owner was ready to call it quits. He offered Huber the whole store, so Mar lowe and Darren went in together and seized the opportunity to make and market their own wine. Once they began pushing the product in a premium direction, sales turned right around, increasing fourfold in 18 months.
Marlowe left the Coquitlam store to his brother and branched out with a shop in Abbotsford, but he had even bigger ambitions. Eventually he brought his father, Norman, out of retirement to run that place, while he began, a couple years ago, to set up his new baby, Laguna Canyon Winery, on Highway 133 across the parking lot from Wyland Gallery.
He gutted a 3,000-square-foot building and redesigned the space himself with computer software he bought at Costco. In his new shop he will do everything but grow the grapes. He's got tanks, a press, oak barrels, a bottling station and a spacious tasting room. Dad built all the cabinets and the counter, which Marlowe topped with sleek, chocolate-caramel granite. The tasting room opened Sunday (Nov. 7) and Huber plans to make it more than a simple sip and go. He'll host private parties and corporate events, and will offer monthly barrel tastings and a wine club. And he'll act as proprietor and winemaker, with the help of his adviser, Gianni Seminari, a vintner with a master's degree from Italy who has worked as a wine-tasting judge in Canada.
Raised on a ranch in Lipton, Saskatchewan, Huber is already showing signs of going native, living in Irvine and sporting a California tan. He's mastered that fit, youthful, guess-my-age, O.C. look. (He's in his 40s, for anyone who's counting.) And he's got entrepreneurish hobbies like flying planes and playing golf. He's gone so Southern Cal he's even neglecting his hockey skills. "There's one rink in Mission Viejo. In Canada there's one on every second block, with leagues and tournaments everywhere. This isn't a good place to be for ice hockey," he says.
But it is a good place for crafting wine, and the intrepid Huber doesn't find the California market daunting. "It's not just about geography and appellations," he said. "It's about marketing and sales. There are three wineries in Orange County, and I'm the only one with a public tasting room."
If his wines suit our picky, big-league tastes, he can expect to be busier than Wayne Gretzky coaching Team Canada through the Winter Olympics. So, let's spend a few minutes getting to know this plucky new upstart.
Q. Before we talk wine, whom did you root for during the Stanley Cup Finals?
A. I pulled for the Calgary Flames. But 12 of the Tampa Bay players were Canadian. So, it's like the Canadians won anyway.
Q. What's your target market?
A. In British Columbia, it was local. Here with federal and state licensing, I an sell to anyone in the world.
Q. Why Laguna Beach?
A. I was in San Diego looking to put something together there, and while doing my research I ended up meeting a girl from Orange County and we got married. I started looking around and I saw this location. With the art culture so strong here, I thought the wine would fit in well.
Q. Is Orange County ready for its own tasting-room scene?
A. People might not want to drive all the way to Temecula or Santa Barbara to sample wines. And so far the response in the community has been overwhelming. Getting a unanimous vote of approval from the city of Laguna Beach was a big start.
Q. Orange County is a jewel market in many ways. Will your wines suit our fabulous lifestyle?
A. I think high-end wines fit with the demographics in Orange County. Many corporations are headquartered right here in Irvine and businesspeople like to support other businesspeople.
Q. Give us a preview of your wines' styling.
A. I believe people like a lot of fruit and flavor. Twenty-five years ago Cabernet outsold Merlot two to one, and now it's almost neck and neck. People are starting to get away from astringent, dry, tannic wines and I think Merlot coming on strong is a testimony to that. My red wines will be styled that way. They are fruit-forward with a soft tannin finish, nothing overpowering. The whites will be soft, silky, aromatic, easy on the palate, very drinkable.
Q. Your place is tiny compared with some of the giants in Napa and Sonoma. How much wine will you be making?
A. Year One, I'll do 100 barrels - that's 2,500 cases - and go up from there.
Q. How many people will be working here?
A. Myself and one or two others. I'm trying to design the facility so that my overhead is low and I'll do as much work as I can. I love to work and I love the industry. And I keep tight control on every single thing that goes on. That's how I run my company in Canada. I can't do it any other way. I'm meticulous by nature.
Q. You're the only O.C. winery not growing your own grapes. How do you quality control the fruit and juice?
A. I have suppliers who bring me the fruit. I know what I'm getting. I know the products they sell. You don't necessarily have to own a vineyard to be successful. There are a lot of companies buying grapes and keeping their overhead down and doing a really good job on marketing and sales. I literally knew the names of all the customers who walked through the door (at my other winery). We had a 90 percent repeat business in Canada.
Q. Where did you get your grapes for this vintage?
A. California and Italy.
Q. Synthetic or natural corks?
A. Synthetic. They seal better.
Q. British Columbia is internationally famous for ice wine. Will you bring that tradition to sunny O.C.?
A. I have a late-harvest wine, a Sauvignon Blanc blended with Orange Muscat and Gewürztraminer. People who have tasted it compare it with some of the great Canadian ice wines, so I was really pleased with the way it turned out. When it's frozen, the fruit gets caramelized and that brings out a lot of interesting characteristics, especially on the nose.
Q. What will you sell in the tasting room?
A. Most wineries keep and save their best wines for the tasting rooms. I'm going to offer everything on the market. I want to make sure I offer quality, no matter what the volume.
Q. How much will we pay to taste?
A. Ten dollars to taste any five wines and you get to keep the glass with the winery's name and logo. If you buy any wines the cost of the tasting will be refunded.
Q. How much will we pay for bottles of Laguna Canyon wines?
A. $22-$24 for whites and $20-$28 for the reds. Dessert wine, $38.
Q. How do you predict this vintage will age?
A . I don't load my wines with chemicals. Some vintners put potassium sulfites in their wine and that's fine if you plan to age it. Most of those red wines will be fantastic 10 years from now, but people drink them way too early. The typical consumer wants to drink their wine now, or six months to a year from now. My wines are built to age a good five years but they'll be best in the first three. When we release the 2003 wines they will already have been on oak for a year.
Q. What kind of oak?
A . I've got new oak barrels from Budapest, Hungary; new oak, three years dried, from the Kentucky region; and all of my used barrels are French. The Hungarian is an interesting one, unique and different. The blend of the three types will be good. I don't want to over-oak the wines. So, it'll be one-third new oak and two-thirds seasoned oak.
Q. The California wine market is the most competitive in the New World. Doesn't it scare you to jump right into the land of Mondavi and other giants?
A. If someone had said to me five or 10 years ago, 'How would you like to have your own winery in Laguna Beach?' of course I would have jumped at the chance. Ninety percent of North American wine comes from California, so for me it's like a dream manifested. And I'm not scared. I've always believed in what I do and I've never failed at anything. I make sure things are done right.
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