Chewing the fat with Gary Erickson and Kit Crawford of Clif Bar Family Winery

Last Thursday night at the Wine 2.0 Spring Fling at Crushpad in San Francisco (photoessay here), I chanced to meet Linzi Gay, Marketing Director of Clif Bar Family Winery. I was glad to meet her and get an advance taste of the Clif Bar wines she was about to pour. After all, I had just days before received four bottles of wine from this winery, plus an invitation to schedule an interview with Gary Erickson and Kit Crawford, the husband-and-wife team who own Clif Bar Family Winery.

A quartet of true California adventure from Clif Bar Family Winery

I wrote a post last summer about Clif Bar Family Winery. But perhaps you didn’t read that post and are wondering about the winery’s unique name. Indeed, before Kit and Gary ventured down the winemaking path, they achieved great success making the Clif bars that many outdoor enthusiasts enjoy.

And how does the word Clif fit in? It’s the name of Gary’s father.

While I enjoyed the wines Linzi poured me last week, the crowded and lively atmosphere of the cavernous Crushpad warehouse didn’t lend itself quite well enough to focused study. I’ve now, however, tasted from those four bottles, and you’ll find my tasting notes below. But before you scurry down to the bottom of this post, you might enjoy taking a moment getting there: what follows is my interview with Gary Erickon and Kit Crawford.

WH: You are the folks that make Clif bars and Luna bars. Tell us the story behind your passion for the outdoors.

Gary: When I was young, my dad took the family from Fresno, and later San Francisco, to the Sierras to go camping, hiking, and skiing. I promptly fell in love with those mountains, and as I grew up it didn’t matter to me if I was on a bike, on skis, or on a climbing rope.

Kit: My parents were into camping and the outdoors, too. We took a lot of camping trips! My family is Canadian, so we often camped all over the Great Northwest. After I graduated from high school, I worked in Yosemite at a concessionaire. I did a lot of hiking, climbed a glacier, and enjoyed some great rock climbing, which I even did in high school. Mainly I went hiking and swimming in the streams. I even hiked recently with my sister in Scotland on the West Highland trail. The outdoors is so much a part of me that it’s second nature for me to work with the animals on our farm, tend the plants, and enjoy the fruits of our garden.

Gary: These days our kid joins us backpacking and climbing, and she’s on a ski team. We both still get out there a lot; in fact we’re climbing Mt. Shasta tomorrow.

WH: Imagine how much I’d love to climb that mountain with you! So how did your outdoor pursuits result in producing Clif bars?

Gary: It was a cocktail of several things occurring at the same time. It came in the form of an epiphany, an idea born on a 175-mile “accidental” bike ride! A friend and I had climbed our bikes to the top of Mt. Hamilton, which we reached at about the 125-mile mark. But somewhere along the way we realized my friend had got the mileage wrong, and we discovered we still had 50 miles to go! All I had to eat was six Power Bars, but as the evening got darker, it also got colder and I ended up vomiting; I just couldn’t eat that last Power Bar. Finally, after a long, dark and terrible descent into San Jose, we stopped at a mini-mart where I bought a six-pack of powdered donuts. I remember thinking at the time, “If I’m ever in a situation like this again, I want something I can eat.”

I decided I wanted to make a better-tasting energy bar. I owned a bakery at the time and I also worked in the bicycle industry, so I took notice of how Power Bars were being distributed. Sixteen months later, in February 1992, I launched Clif Bar & Company. Chocolate, Apricot, and Date Oatmeal were the first three bars we made; the Date Oatmeal later evolved into Oatmeal Raisin Walnut. Today we have 130 different SKUs, including sports drinks, Luna bars, and Shot Bloks.

WH: You’ve come a long way since that accidental bike ride. How did you gravitate to making wine and olive oil?

Gary: We bought property in Napa County over ten years ago. The property reminded us of the East Bay town of Fremont in the old days, with its agriculture and its beautiful scenery. We finally moved there permanently five years ago. In the time since, we have met the parents of our children’s friends, many of whom are growers and winemakers. We became intrigued by their passion for wine, and because we enjoyed wine, too, we began to explore that age-old What If? question. We rationalized that we can’t eat energy bars all day long, so let’s learn how to create wine! It was another “cocktail” of being in the right place and meeting the right people.

Kit: We have about fifteen mature olive trees on our property. Early on, I had gotten to thinking about how to pick and press them to make olive oil. I figured to learn how, and quickly realized that it was more complicated than I thought! But I rounded up the family and, for a few years, we picked and home-pressed those olives every Thanksgiving. It was labor-intensive but fun, and the oil was fabulous! Olives do really well in Napa Valley. But I had to stop asking the family to help pick every Thanksgiving because though it was fun for me, it became evident that it wasn’t particularly fun for them.

Today we still make olive oil from those trees, but we blend our olives with olives that we purchase from other local growers. Meanwhile, we practice sustainable farming methods to produce our certified extra virgin olive oil, and we’re transitioning to organic.

WH: Tell us about your relationship with Sarah Gott.

Kit: We love her! We first met her in 2005 at a health club in St. Helena. She was training for the IronMan Triathlon, and our friend and fellow triathlete Cathy Chesky introduced us. A few years later, we were looking for a winemaker. Joel Gott heard about that and contacted us via email, mentioning his wife Sarah.

It quickly became a perfect fit: we were all three into sustainability and competitive athleticism. Sarah didn’t really want to take on new business, but she was intrigued just the same; like many athletes, she was already knowledgeable about Clif Bars. It wasn’t long before she decided to become part of our journey.

I’ve really admired how Sarah managed to balance raising three small children while training for triathlons, making wine, and doing interviews with Runner’s World and Inside Triathlon magazines.

WH: You produce about 10,000 cases and just last month released your wines nationwide. Are you satisfied with your wine sales thus far?

Gary: We’re very happy with our sales thus far. As newbies in the beverage business, we are getting good response to our wines on both style and price range. It’s hard work, but it’s going really well. We’re hoping to sell all 10,000 cases in one year. Not that we’re trying to grow our business - we just want to focus on quality and sustainability. We certainly don’t want to put the brakes on Clif Bar & Company; in fact, we’re very mindful of our growth. It’s all quite exciting, even if it is time-consuming.

WH: Where do you source your grapes, and why?

Gary: Sarah takes the lead on where we get our grapes. Right now we bottle four wines. Kit’s Killer Cab and Gary’s Improv are committed to being made from Napa grapes, and the grapes for our white Climber are sourced from the Northern California appellations of Lodi, Napa, Sonoma and Mendocino. In the future, we may also source grapes from Paso Robles.

WH: Let’s hear more about that Paso Robles idea. Will there be a Rhone-style blend in the near future from Clif Bar Family Winery?

Kit (chuckling): We’ve actually gotten good leads from sustainable vineyards in Paso Robles. In fact we became fascinated by Rhone wines last summer on an trip through the Rhone Valley in France. Gary rode his bike all over the French alps.

Gary: We loved Chateauneuf du Pape, and we were impressed with the area’s wines in general. We began to ask ourselves, “could we do a Rhone wine?” So we’re toying with the idea of planting Grenache and Syrah on our own acreage on Howell Mountain.

Kit: Sarah, meanwhile, is very proactive about collaborating with us about sourcing and blending.

WH: Let’s talk more about your Howell Mountain land and its potential for producing estate wines.

Gary: Our property is technically on Howell Mountain but is not in the Howell Mountain AVA; it’s on the east side of the mountain. It’s 130 acres, most of which will remain fallow. We may only develop a total of five acres, agriculturally, with only two acres devoted to grapes. That five acres includes fruit and olive orchards. Meanwhile, there is lots of wildlife: cougars, bobcats, fox, rattlesnakes, and raptors. Because we don’t use pesticides, Kit feels good about preserving the land for its many species of birds. When replenishing the farm’s soils, we use manure from our goats, chickens, and horses.

There was an old pond on the property that was used to irrigate a 50-tree orchard. It’s since been filled in, and we use it for our vegetable garden. 2007 was the first year for the garden, and we rotated potatoes, tomatoes and melons. We actively want to see what the land produces, and we could sell seasonally at farmer’s markets. It’s a future possibility.

Kit: We are preparing for planting grapes, and we may also collaborate for storefront sales downtown. We liked that about our visit to Chateauneuf du Pape: neighborhood wineries selling their wares downtown. Why drive when one can walk around and taste twenty different wines? Perhaps you’ll someday be able to taste our wines at Sunshine Market in St. Helena.

WH: Any plans to integrate your clifbar.com website with the Clif Bar Winery & Farm website?

Gary: We would like to integrate them and be more seamless. We’ll test that next year, but first we want to get momentum with our wines.

WH: Gary, Kit, what do you both consider important?

Gary: Balance! Trying to keep balance in business and in life. Wine is a good symbol of balance. It is good to take time to relax with family and friends and have a glass of wine. We may be swamped with a lot of projects, but we have no complaints, because we feel that balancing our aspirations for our businesses is important.

Kit: Everybody’s busy. It’s easy to get sucked into running from one thing to another. It’s important that people get out to Nature! In other words, spend moments to be in the moment.

WH: That’s certainly music to my ears. And now, lastly, what would you like the readers of Winehiker Witiculture to know?

Kit & Gary: I bet we’re preaching to the choir when we say that we all have to make time to slow down. We created Clif Bar Family Winery with that in mind. Hopefully you will continue to enjoy our Clif Bar products on your hikes, bike rides and even on a busy day at the office. After those adventures, be they work or play, we look forward to introducing you to Clif Bar Family wines. Clif Bar Family Winery strives to overdeliver quality in the bottle as we continue to challenge ourselves to leave a smaller footprint environmentally.

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The following four wines were created by winemaker Sarah Gott for Clif Bar Family Winery.

The Climber California White Wine (2007): 16.5 Winehiker Points*
This unique blend of 81% Sauvignon Blanc, 12% Pinot Blanc, 4% Chenin Blanc and 3% Muscat pours a clear, pale yellow into your glass, offering a bouquet of honeysuckle and guava blossoms that is impossible not to love. Pear and gravel follow, along with a fine balance, supple body, and lovely finish.
13.5% alcohol, 5371 cases made, screwcap closure, $12.50 per bottle.

The Climber California Red Wine (2005): 14.517.5 Winehiker Points*
An intriguing blend of 42% Zinfandel, 31% Cabernet Sauvignon, 11% Petite Sirah, 9% Syrah and 7% Merlot, the Climber Red shows a deep garnet color in the glass, tapering to rose at the edges. Jammy black currants are underlaid by a dusty pot pourri with hints of fig to round out the mid-palate. Drink now.
14.3% alcohol, 4900 cases made, natural cork closure, $15.00 per bottle.

Kit’s Killer Cab (2005, Napa Valley): 17.5 Winehiker Points*
Deep red color with violet edges. A voluptuous fruit basket of ripe blackberries, raspberries and currants with secondary notes of caramel and cedar resins. A little tannic but holding a pleasing mouthfeel and finish, suggesting an aging potential of 5-10 years or more.
14.7% alcohol, 450 cases made, natural cork closure, $35.00 per bottle.

Gary’s Improv Zinfandel (2005, Napa Valley): 18 Winehiker Points*
Similar in color to the Kit’s Killer Cab but with more rust color toward the edges. Red roses, juniper, licorice and a touch of white pepper on the nose yield to cranberries, cigars, bramble and almond on the palate. Not your typical Zinfandel, and definitely open to interpretation - hence its name. A very food-friendly wine, as a zinfandel should be - only this zin would pair best with pork roast served with a cranberry glaze; or perhaps you’ll be more inclined to pairing it with a fennel-sausage lasagna. Age potential: 3-7 years.
15.5% alcohol, 260 cases made, natural cork closure, $32.00 per bottle.

Update: Over the weekend, I sampled the three red wines again, and am happy to say that all of them, most especially the Climber Red, had improved. The Climber Red had softened noticeably, developing a much more broadly-appealing flavor and texture. As a result, I was compelled to revise my score for the Climber Red upward to 17.5.

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I first tried Power Bars when they were handed out free prior to the start of the 1986 Markleeville Death Ride. For years they were the only energy bar available in any quantity. I found Power Bars hard to swallow without also gulping down most of my water; they were also too hard to chew in cold weather.

Therefore I can easily understand Gary’s desire to create a more palatable energy bar with the right amount of moistness for easy eating on the go, and I’ve been a fan ever since I switched to Clif bars in the mid-90s. I still buy them by the case at my local Trader Joe’s. But now we wine-loving adventurers can buy Clif Bar wines by the case, too.

Follow-up: As a result of this post, I got a delicious surprise.

~winehiker

*Wine scores based on the 20-point Davis scale; see my wine scoring sheet for details. Special thanks to Maggie Zeman, Managing Director of The Barn Group, for arranging wine shipment and my interview with Kit & Gary.

This entry was posted on Wednesday, April 30th, 2008 at 10:35 pm and is filed under grape squeezins, wine reviews. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.