Archium Cellars
Get the Dirt from winemaker / owner Zach Jarosz
“Each vintage is an archive of our efforts in winemaking. We take a lot of pride in our labels. We endeavor to tell a tale and allow consumers to become part of our story.”
We have always been passionate about wine. The initial spark for the company came a few years back when Schrader Cab was Wine Spectator's Wine Of The Year. When reading the cover story on Schrader I learned that he owned neither a winery nor a vineyard. That made us realize the barriers to creating our own brand weren't quite as daunting as we thought. (But they turned out to be quite daunting anyway, lol) We began by learning winemaking from an academic standpoint so when it came time to create our first vintage we knew exactly what choices we wanted to make. Our production facility is in Ventura, conveniently between home and the Santa Ynez Valley.
1. What was your first vintage year? 2011
2. How many cases do you make per vintage? About 250 cases
3. Do you have a Tasting Room? Not at this time, we are mostly direct to consumer through our Website.
4. How did you get your start in the winemaking business? Following a passion, we studied, established mentors, drank about as much wine as humanly possible, and then initially worked with a Custom Crush Facility.
5. What wine made you want to become a winemaker/start your own winery? It would be impossible to pick a particular wine, but I will say that we were inspired by the wines of Chateauneuf-du-Pape… their complexity, the boldness for sure, but then also their ability to be refined. Not to mention the varietal characteristics and blending opportunities therein. We were then impressed (and further inspired) with what Tablas Creek created in Paso… a striking Californian style of these Southern French wines.
6. What varietals do you work with? Which varietal/wine is your favorite to make? Why? e work primarily with Rhone varietals, Syrah, Grenache, and Mourvedre. While we wouldn’t want to pick a favorite of ours, we believe that a wine can often be even greater than its parts and we take a lot of pride in our Rhone blend, Dissident. We also make a rose, (with fruit picked for that purpose) that we have been especially pleased with, and relish opportunities to share it with folks who often gain either an initial or a new appreciation for rose wines.
7. What vineyards do you source from? Why? If estate, why did you choose the spot you're in? Our vineyards are almost all in Santa Barbara County, most in Santa Ynez Valley. We get our Syrah and Grenache from Stolpman Vineyard, our Mourvedre from McGinley, and our Grenache for our rose from Watch Hill. We feel that Santa Barbara County offers some of the best fruit there is, especially the Rhone varietals we work with for the particular styles of our wines. The climate, the terroir, and the vineyard management may very well be unmatched. We also do an estate wine from Ventura County which allows us a venture into viticulture, which is truly where the backbone of good wine is formed, in the Site, Soil, and Vineyard.
8. What type of oak treatment do you use? Why? We use very little new oak, if any at all. We strive for our wines to still have structure, but at the same time to speak to the Central Coast of California… and showcase gorgeous fruit on both nose and palate.
9. What do you love about your winemaking region? What makes it different special? The climate for certain. Additionally there’s a lot of limestone in the soils around Santa Barbara County which offer great drainage. It is lesser known than Napa or Sonoma, but certainly rivals it in quality, and there is an ability to work with the many varietals that thrive here. There’s just so much potential in the region.
10. What's the story behind your name/label? Archium is latin for “archive”. Each vintage is an archive of our efforts in winemaking. We take a lot of pride in our labels. We endeavor to tell a tale and allow consumers to become part of our story.
11. What's the one thing you wish someone had told you about the wine business before you started your own winery? That despite all the challenges we’d face it would ultimately be wonderfully rewarding.
12. We're curious…do you even get tired of drinking your own wine? Is it considered bad form to dip into your inventory? No its good form! It’s important to know how your wines are aging. We drink our wines as often as we can. With different foods and with different folks.
13. Do you still have a day job? I have a career in another industry, yes. While this can be challenging from a time management perspective, it allows me the means to never have to cut corners or make sacrifices in our fruit or winemaking practices.
14. If you had the chance to work in another wine region, where would it be? I would love to make wine in Northern Italy or the Southern Rhone region of France.
To get more information about Archium Cellars wines, please visit their website or follow them on FACEBOOK.