Wine Tasting Notes
Whalebone Vineyards.
Whalebone Vineyard and Winery is located in the Adelaida area of west Paso Robles. Its history begins like that of many others in the Central Coast. The 128 acre property was purchased by Gynecologist Bob Simpson and his wife Janalyn from the estate of Hollywood director King Vidor in 1986. Their new property was only a portion of the larger King Vidor estate. The original intention was to use their newly acquired property as a cattle and horse ranch. They also planned to do some farming on the land. They do raise horses and cattle on the ranch, but they probably never anticipated growing wine grapes.
In 1989, the Simpsons planted a small Cabernet sauvignon vineyard on their property. The area designated to be vineyard was ripped to a depth of four feet, bringing up calcareous rocks and fossilized bones of whales and other marine mammals in the process. The Vineyard and Winery get their name from these discoveries. The winery’s hallmark image is that of an actual rock containing the fossilized thorax (rib cage, including vertebrae) of an infant whale unearthed at a neighboring ranch.
The ten acre Whalebone vineyard is situated at an elevation of 1,800 feet on a southern-facing slope at the foot of the Santa Lucia Mountains. The name and geology of the site can be traced back to over six million years ago when the area (like many wine growing valleys in the Central Coast) was an estuary of the Pacific Ocean. Shale and calcareous rocks abundant in fossils characterize the soils. The combination of elevation and proximity to the ocean of the vineyard give a microclimate consisting of hot days and cool evening with a 50°F diurnal temperature variation. The vineyard is one of the last to ripen in the region, yielding two to two and half tons of fruit to the acre.
The Simpsons originally sold all of their fruit to area producers for over ten years. Starting in 1994, Bob Simpson would retain a ton of fruit for his own personal wine. Winemaker Mike DeBellis made the home wine which Bob would take on hunting and fishing trips. Family friends began to ask for the wine affectionately called “Bob Wine” and decorated with a duct tape label. In winemaking circles, “Bob Wine” is an acronym for “bottom of the barrel wine”. This wine was anything but that. It was receiving serious recognition at California State Fair competitions. Successive years saw increasing amount of the vineyard’s fruit being reserved for Bob Wine.
In 2000, the friendship between Bob Simpson and winemaker Jeff Branco led to some improvements in growing practices. In particular, more attentive canopy management techniques were instituted. Whalebone released its first self-named commercial bottling of 250 cases of 2001 Cabernet sauvignon.
With winemaker Stephen Kroener (also at Silver Horse Winery) in the cellar, and producing only estate Cabernet sauvignon, Bob Wine and a Paso Robles Syrah, the Whalebone label distinguishes itself with freshness, vibrancy and a high fidelity of varietal typicity which easily outshines some of the established brands in the surrounding area. In particular, the Cabernet sauvignon – either as varietal or in the Bob Wine blend – avoids the black hole of “extended hang time” and excessive new oak revered to levels of fanatical zeal by some producers in the area.
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