These roots are from L.A. however this L.A. is just 17 miles from the Louisiana line.
I do know you’ve got guessed it by now: it is El Dorado.
That proper, however not solely is that this a California vineyard, it is an award profitable one. It was picked as one of many prime ten wineries within the nation for 2 years in a row by USA TODAY, and in addition was just lately picked as a prime ten vineyard by Conde’ Nast.
Sure, I am writing concerning the Presqu’ile Vineyard positioned within the Santa Maria Valley space of California, owned by Madison and Suzanne Murphy, El Dorado residents.
Now let’s take a more in-depth take a look at this award profitable vineyard. Presqu’ile (‘press-keel’) is a family-owned vineyard devoted to crafting distinctive, cool-climate Pinot Noir, Chardonnay and Syrah wine.
The identify of the vineyard, Presqu’ile, is a French/Creole phrase that means peninsula, or actually “virtually an Island.” It was the identify of the Murphy household’s gathering place on the Mississippi Gulf Coast. For many years, it was a spot to calm down and revel in household and associates.
In August of 2005, Hurricane Katrina made landfall, ending an period. The vineyard was named in honor of that lovely place and a lifestyle.
Vertis and I spent a weekend there quite a few years again with associates. The property’s beautiful setting among the many big stay oaks was actually magical. When Hurricane Katrina destroyed the homes, together with most of the large stay oaks, a bit of historical past and sweetness was misplaced eternally, and as associates of the household, we additionally felt a way of loss.
The creation of the Presqu’ile Vineyard by Madison and Suzanne Murphy is a pure extension of the Murphy household agriculture roots, which lengthen again 4 generations.
After all, Madison Murphy is well-known in Arkansas, having served in a number of management roles in Murphy Oil Company, Murphy USA and The Murphy Basis, the place he helped create the Murphy Arts District in El Dorado. He served a decade on the Arkansas Freeway Fee, led a number of cultural and enterprise boards and was a longtime member of the Board of Trustees of Hendrix Faculty, the place he was awarded an honorary doctorate in 2014. He was awarded the 2006 Arkansas Cultural Enrichment Award, the 2004 U. S. Fish and Wildlife Service Nationwide Wetlands Conservation Award, and the 2018 Arkansas Tourism Particular person of the Yr.
The household nonetheless lives in El Dorado, and though they journey backwards and forwards to the vineyard, Madison’s involvement in El Dorado’s new leisure district is continuous, and his hands-on enter is clear within the high quality of the MAD working program.
Within the mid-2000s, Madison and Suzanne determined to show their ardour for wine into the household’s subsequent chapter in agriculture. They started researching doable vineyard websites in California’s Santa Barbara Valley, Sonoma County and Oregon’s Willamette Valley. As they delved deeper into the wine world, shared this information and fervour with their grownup kids Matt, Anna and Jonathan, the entire household joined within the seek for an appropriate web site for rising cool-climate Pinot Noir and Chardonnay wine grapes, which had been the Murphy home favorites.
Their son Matt Murphy was working within the Santa Maria Valley in northern Santa Barbara County alongside one among California’s most celebrated winemakers, the late Jim Clendenen of Au Bon Climat vineyard, and in 2007, the Murphy household acquired their preliminary 200 acres within the Santa Maria Valley. They instantly started constructing their property winery and vineyard.
The Presqu’ile Winery is 16 miles from the Pacific Ocean, and it started with 73 acres of Pinot Noir, Chardonnay, Sauvignon Blanc, Syrah, Gamay, Nebbiolo and Aligoté grape vines. The ensuing wines are produced utilizing each property fruit and top quality fruit from choose winery websites throughout the Santa Maria Valley and Santa Rita Hills. Presqu’ile’s targets are to seize the true essence of its vineyards, vintages and distinctive senses of place.
Though Presqu’ile’s main focus is making scrumptious, cool-climate wines from California, their Southern Hospitality blended with their advantageous wines make a go to to the vineyard an unforgettable expertise
Lately, they added 595 acres to the unique property of 73 acres, including their whole grape acres to 130. In 2022, they branched out and planted 12 acres of avocados, and have plans so as to add 10 to 12 acres in 2023.
With a purpose to produce to high quality wines, they’ve collaborated with Jeremy Seysses, the proprietor of Domaine Dujac in Burgundy. Jeremy is acknowledged as the most effective wine makers on the earth, and his involvement is among the causes Presqu’ile’s wines have high quality within the winery and winemaking.
I really like their Pinot Noir, and I consider it’ll match up with one of the best of its selection, and is an equal to the extremely regarded Pinot Noirs from Oregon’s Willamette Valley. Vertis loves their Chardonnay, and she or he will not go it up if it is accessible.
However Madison and Suzanne have greater than making nice wines as their aim. They’re ensuring the vineyard is a beacon of sustainability, which is built-in into every thing at Presqu’ile, from the soil to the cellar. Their conservation efforts additionally guarantee they proceed to be good neighbors by defending the neighborhood’s pure assets for generations to come back.
Presqu’ile has been SIP Licensed since 2014. SIP stands for Sustainability in Observe. Whereas Presqu’ile’ s vineyards have been Licensed Natural for years, SIP goes past natural and takes a 360-degree take a look at a vineyard’s total operation, from the vineyards and vineyard, to power use and advantages for workers. Incomes and sustaining SIP requires third-party audits of key standards together with water and power conservation, social fairness and pest administration, amongst many others.
Buildings are constructed to LEED Specs, which incorporates Presqu’ile’s predominant constructing homes, the tasting room, barrel room, caves and vineyard. It was designed by President Matt Murphy, winemaker Dieter Cronje and San Francisco-based Taylor Lombardo Architects.
To match their minimalist strategy within the winery, the cellar is a gravity-flow vineyard, which reduces power use considerably. The vineyard is constructed right into a hillside to maintain temperatures cool and it boasts strategically positioned insulated home windows to permit for pure mild all day lengthy.
Presqu’ile’s photo voltaic discipline has 774 panels and produces 493,112 kwh per 12 months. Its annual emissions discount is 404 metric tons of carbon dioxide, or the equal annual electrical energy use of 47 common properties and practically 100 fuel automobiles. The Presqu’ile Vineyard and property buildings are a mannequin of power conservation.
The unique targets of 2007 stay right this moment: A relentless pursuit of high quality in rising and crafting wines that purely specific the property and area, whereas offering an unparalleled visitor expertise that displays the Murphy’s inherent heat and welcoming Southern hospitality. Madison and Suzanne spend a big period of time every year on the vineyard, and so they have introduced on board the experience it takes to create superior wines.
Clearly, Madison and his workers contributed closely to this column, and his ultimate notation concerning the household involvement tells us that the Presqu’ile Vineyard is a household affair. “Having our three grownup kids (Matt, Jonathan and Anna) , concerned and working Presqu’ile is fairly particular.”
Richard Mason is an creator and speaker. He might be reached at [email protected]
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