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TECHNICAL SPOTLIGHT WINEMAKING May 2018 WINES&VINES 57 still is used for custom-crush winemaking. Baggett, with a few other investors, bought out some of the other shares of Tolosa and wanted Hoefliger to revitalize the cellar. Expressing Edna Valley The focus would be to produce Pinot Noir and Chardonnay wines that would express the true potential of the Edna Valley. "I saw that not only do we have a diversity of soil that is out- standing but also probably one of the best ter- roirs in California for Pinot," Hoefliger said of his initial impressions of the estate. The Edna Valley AVA is one of California's true coastal appellations. The northwestern boundary of the appellation is a few miles from Morro Bay and the Pacific Ocean, and that pronounced marine influence creates one of the longest ripening seasons in the state. Bud break at the Tolosa vineyard can start in mid- to late February but picking for red Rhône variet- ies may not finish until the end of October. After agreeing to work on Tolosa, Hoefliger said, he walked the vineyard, dug soil points and reviewed NDVI maps to gain a better sense of the vineyard. Nearly all of the estate's grapes are sold to other wineries, and Hoefliger took a hard look at the 100 acres that would remain for the Tolosa brand. "At the same time, we injected a lot of capital to redo the cellar," he said. That all took place over six months, but Hoefliger was able to oversee the 2015 vintage, his first working on-site at Tolosa. The 2015 vintage was one of the hottest on record in the Edna Valley. "But even in such an exceptional vintage as far as heat is concerned, the terroir is that the air circulation between the Arroyo Grande (valley) and Morro Bay, you have an ocean flow of air that cools down the air and it protects really well the integrity of Pinot," he said. Hoefliger splits his time among Tolosa, Alpha Omega and Baggett's latest investment, Perinet winery in the Priorat region of Spain. Those three wineries now make up what's called the Alpha Omega Collective. Many of the initial improvements at Tolosa took place under the watch of winemaker Jim Kress, who joined the winery in 2015 after working at Vine Cliff Winery in Napa Valley. Kress and Hoefliger had gotten to know each other when Kress was winemaker at Domaine Chandon and had to take red wine production to custom-crush facilities that included Alpha Omega. Day-to-day winemaking at Tolosa is now managed by Frederic Delivert, who joined the winery in time for the 2017 vintage. Hoefliger and Delivert met when both were consulting for Clark-Claudon Vineyards in the Howell Mountain appellation of Napa Valley. Delivert is a native of France and remained in California in 1997 after an internship at Newton Vine- yard. He previously worked at Tamber Bey, a Napa Valley winery that was the subject of a Technical Spotlight article in the June 2017 edition of Wines & Vines. One of the first changes Hoefliger made was to pick in FYBs (fine yellow bins), which was a major departure for how the estate had previ- ously been managed. Hand picking is the exception in much of the Central Coast, where growers of highly profitable crops like berries can pay a premium Frederic Delivert (left) and Jean Hoefliger previously worked together at wineries in Napa Valley and manage winemaking at Tolosa Estate. One of the first changes to enhance wine quality was to begin picking into smaller, FYBs.