Brave & Maiden Estate

Brave & Maiden Estate is one of the newest wineries to emerge in the Santa Ynez Valley.  Vines were planted on the property in the 1990’s, but the grapes had never been used to make single vineyard wines.  The current owners acquired the property in 2010, named their winery Brave & Maiden, and released their first wines in 2011.  Their name comes from a Romeo and Juliet like legend about a native American brave and maiden from different tribes who fell in love and chose to jump from the nearby Nojoqui Falls rather than be separated.

Brave & Maiden specializes in cabernet sauvignon, merlot, cabernet franc, and syrah.  They are also producing rosé, sauvignon blanc, grenache, and a Rhône blend.  Production is tiny – typically eight to twelve barrels of each variety, with a barrel yielding about 25 cases of wine.  With such limited production, this is truly a labor of love from a winemaking group that includes Joshua Klapper, the talented wine maker, and Victor Robaglia of Provence, France, as assistant wine maker and rosé specialist.  In addition, Paul Hobbs of Napa/Sonoma fame provided consulting during the first seven years of the new operation.

Brave & Maiden offers an elevated experience and as such, tasting appointments are required.  The property is gated and upon arrival your party is admitted and escorted to the tasting area by your private tasting host.  Four wines are pre-poured and the host remains with you for the duration of the tasting, answering questions and offering tastes of additional wines.  This format is great for someone like me because the hosts are extremely knowledgeable and able to answer all of my many questions.

Baby Cabernet Sauvignon Grapes

During Hilary’s and my first two visits, we acquired two “library” wines, 2013 and 2014 Limited Merlot.  I challenge anyone who thinks they don’t like merlot to try the limited release or reserve merlots from this area of the Central Coast – they are stellar.  For perpective, only two barrels of the 2013 Merlot were produced and just one of the 2014.  We count ourselves very fortunate to have been able to purchase one of each.

We’d been looking for an opportunity to enjoy these amazing wines.  My birthday was earlier this month, so we held a four person wine tasting dinner featuring the 2013 and 2014 merlots, side by side.  The menu included pork tenderloin marinated in a parsley and lemon mixture and served with a cherry and port wine sauce.  The 2013 Merlot was the winner, but just barely.  We all judged it to be a bit smoother and perfectly balanced.  I expect the 2014 just needs an extra year to be every bit as spectacular.

My brother, Douglas, was in town earlier this month and we enjoyed two days of winery visits, including Brave & Maiden.  The video he created, shown below, is a far better expression of our experience than words.

Cheers!