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TECHNICAL REVIEW WINEMAKING The Winemaker's Cave Dwelling Traditional wines with a high-tech twist in the Santa Cruz Mountains By Kate Lavin Paul Sakuma Photography The barrel cave at Clos de la Tech is set 80 inches below the fermentation cave, allowing for gravity flow from the wine press into French oak barrels from François Frères. T J Rodgers was already six years and three properties into his winemaking hobby when he began designing the hillside structure that would eventually become a state-of-the-art production facility for his Pinot Noir label, Clos de la Tech. By the time he finished the design three years later, it's safe to say the venture was no longer a hobby. The Santa Cruz Mountains winemaker has been a force of innovation since he launched Cypress Semiconductor in 1982; still, he refers to building the winery as "the biggest project I've ever undertaken." Along the way, Rodgers has drawn upon his engineering background to develop equipment that combines time-saving technology with time-honored winemaking traditions. Some of these designs have patents pending with the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office, and others are currently in use at the University of California, Davis, teaching winery. The evolution Rodgers planted his first vineyard, a 1-acre hobby site at his home in Woodside, Calif., 28 W in e s & V i ne s Nov e m b e r 20 13 in 1994, dubbing it Domaine du Docteur Rodgers. Within a few years his friends' and colleagues' demand for the wine outpaced the 100 cases his small vineyard could produce, so he purchased a second property: a 4-acre parcel at 2,350 feet elevation, and planted it to Pinot Noir. The vineyard, Domaine Valeta, is named after TJ's wife, Clos de la Tech co-owner and assistant winemaker Valeta Rodgers. Finally, in 2000, the couple purchased a 163-acre property and named it Domaine Lois Louise, after TJ's mother. The three vineyards are located directly west of Silicon Valley, all within about 20 miles of each other, with Domaine du Docteur Rodgers the farthest north and Domaine Valeta the farthest south and facing the San Francisco Bay (see map at right). Two vineyard blocks at Domaine Lois Louise are harvested separately to create vineyard designate wines: Cote Sud and Twisty Ridge. Eventually Rodgers wants to have 80 acres of the site under vine. Domaine Lois Louise produced its first vintage in 2004, but Rodgers says candidly, "2006 was the first vintage that looked good; 2008 was the first that tasted good." Vineyard development Clos de la Tech's wines are all Pinot Noir. Domaine Lois Louise is planted with phylloxera-resistant French rootstocks grafted to seven different Pinot Noir clones certified by the French agency ENTAV-INRA. Unlike Domaine du Docteur Rodgers, where it is a challenge to keep sugars in check, "This vineyard is right on the edge for producing ripe grapes—even for Pinot Noir," Rodgers tells Wines & Vines of Domaine Lois Louise, where it is not Napa uncommon for the valley area to be CALIFORNIA San Francisco Domaine du Docteur Rodgers Palo Alto San Jose Domaine Domaine Lois Louise Valeta Pacific Ocean Monterey Sac