News & Accolades

Casa Barranca Wines wins competition

Mar 16,2006

From Ventura County Star

Casa Barranca Wines, an Ojai winery, emerged from the San Francisco Chronicle Wine Competition, held in February, with an assortment of accolades including a Double Gold Medal for its 2004 Bungalow Red (Syrah/Grenache blend). The winery also earned honors for its 2004 Pinot Noir (Gold Medal), 2004 Cabernet/Merlot Blend (Silver Medal), and 2003 Syrah (Silver Medal).

Discover hidden gems and unknown wines of the world

Feb 23,2006
by Doug Margerum, NEWS-PRESS CORRESPONDENT

As I watched my children taking their fencing class, a fellow parent approached me with a wine observation. He told me that he was finding some very interesting wines that he had never heard of. I was floored. Not by a balestra orchestrated by the sword-fighting children, but because most folks do not buy wines that are unknown to them. People generally don't spend their hard-earned dollars on a bottle of wine that they have never heard of and subsequently might not like.

Good Libations, The Wine Show

Dec 2,2005

To listen, go to www.goodlibations.net and open the Archived Shows section of the website. The show airs at 1:00 PM (MST), or you can access the show anytime after its original airing. Previous shows available 24/7.

• "Simple Holiday Hors D'oeuvres to Pair with Wine "
• Review of Casa Barranca Santa Rita Hills Pinot Noir 2004.
• Karl explains Ways to Aerate Wine
• Chat with Bill Moses , Owner, Casa Barranca Winery, Oaji, CA on making contemporaryartisan wines using Old World traditions.
• Chef AndyBroder, AndyFood, A Culinary Studio, Scottsdale, AZ, provides ideas for simpleholiday horsd'oeuvres to pair with wine.
• NewSegment: WeeklyValue Wine Finds.
• Wine & FoodPairing: ZenatoAmarone Classico Della Valpolicella 2000 with ParmesanPalmiers.

Hosts Karl S. Von Senden and Debbie J. Elder.

For upcoming show topics, guests, recipes and wines reviewed, visit our website at www.goodlibations.net

If you missed this show, or want to listen to previous shows (available 24/7), visit the Archives section of www.goodlibations.net.

Cheers!
© 2005 Good Libations, the Wine Show

Through the Grapevine

Nov. 13, 2005

More Ventura County winemakers, especially those in Ojai Valley's grape-friendly climate, are choosing to grow their own
By Lisa McKinnon, lmckinnon@VenturaCountyStar.com

A long process

Bill Moses learned about making wine in the 1980s, when he was a student living in France.

Then he started doing it for himself, at one point using the same communal winemaking space in Santa Maria that housed Herzog Wine Cellars before the kosher winery moved to its custom-built, 77,000-square-foot facility in Oxnard.

Moses moved his winery to Ventura County, too, just on a much smaller scale.

The process started about 11 years ago, when Moses, a former investment banker, bought the Pratt House, an Ojai landmark built by Charles and Henry Greene, the sibling stars of Craftsman-era architecture.

Moses planted an organic, 2-acre vineyard of syrah, grenache and semillon just inside the estate's gate.

He converted the century-old water cistern into a cellar and hired a local craftsman to make a custom oak hopper -- a giant funnel to transfer grapes from picking bins into a barrel shaped stemmer-crusher -- in classic Greene & Greene style.

Thus was born Pratt Winery and its label, Casa Barranca, the name given to the estate by its original owners.

"The attention to detail in our winery translates to the attention to detail in our wines," said Moses, smiling as he spoke the potential slogan aloud.

A believer in sustainable energy and farming practices, Moses has dotted the estate's rooftops with solar panels, counts on the services of an on-site apiary and recycles pressed grape skins as fertilizer. His quest to make organic wines has inspired some of the vineyards from which he purchases grapes to start changing their farming methods, or to at least think about it.

For now, Moses is particularly proud of the organic wines he makes and bottles on site, without added sulfites, which have been known to cause allergic reactions in some people.

All wines contain some sulfites, but many winemakers add more to improve the longevity of their vintages.

Wines without added sulfites often don't fare well when shipped cross-country in trucks, Moses said. Rather, such wines are best when consumed as close to the vineyard as possible.

"All the more reason," he added, "to support your local winemakers."

Casa Barranca Wines

This is the label of winemaker Bill Moses, who makes his chardonnays, pinot noirs and syrahs from purchased and estate-grown grapes at Pratt Winery, located on the grounds of the Pratt House in Ojai. The historic, Craftsman-era Greene & Greene home was the inspiration for an early blend called Bungalow Red. Moses has since shifted his focus to making more varietal-specific organic wines.

By the bottle: Casa Barranca 2004 estate-bottled organic syrah is about $25 a bottle at the Attitude Adjustment Shop and Rainbow Bridge Natural Food Store in Ojai and Paradise Wines in Ventura. Check the wine lists at Azu and the Deer Lodge in Ojai and at Cafe Tierra and The SideCar Restaurant in Ventura.

In the cellar: Syrah, a red-wine varietal, was picked in late August and early September at the 2-acre Pratt Winery vineyard and is aging in French oak barrels. The estate vineyard also grows grenache, a red, and semillon, a white.

A Spiritual Craftsman

Experiencing the Magic of Casa Barranca
Nov 5,2005
By Sri Kesava, Yogi Times

If ever there were a place where people and nature live in harmony, it would be beautiful Casa Barranca in the Ojai valley. Historically a haven for architects and artisans, the estate was designed in reaction to nineteenth century Victorianism, when lifestyles of the wealthy often reflected a desire to control nature rather than living in harmony with it. The artists of Casa Barranca or “house of the ravine,” sought an aesthetic of integration, honoring simplicity and respecting the environment. Simplicity did not mean denial, rather it meant serene enjoyment through a return to physical, mental and spiritual wellbeing. One hundred years hence in 2005, the players may have changed, but the mood, the intention of Casa Barranca, remains the same.

An estate with historical Pratt House as its’ nexus, one can walk in any direction to find treasures to inspire the higher self. Charles and Henry Greene, the preeminent architects of the Arts and Crafts Movement, designed the house for Charles and Mary Pratt in 1909. The house is a perfect fusion of Japanese aesthetic and American practicality. Comprised of two wings unified by a central living room/entrance way, the house boasts five large bedrooms, six fireplaces, four bathrooms, three sleeping porches, an eat-in kitchen, a formal dining room, and front and rear upper patios. The rear patio looks out onto a Koi pond framed by breathtaking mountain ranges. The home is furnished with antique and period furniture accessories designed by the likes of Gustav Stickley and C. Mackintosh.

Interestingly, Casa Barranca seems to exist simultaneously in two parallel universes. It is both a vacation rental for hire and a “do not trespass” private residence. Bill Moses, an escapee from the corporate rat race, has owned the property since 1994. He holds his home and his heart open to just about anyone, with one, not so small caveat: A vintner and host like no other, Bill Moses insists on interviewing anyone wishing to stay at Casa Barranca, whether for two nights or twenty. It seems that for him, it isn’t “all about the Benjamin’s.” There must be intention. Wanting only the highest vibration in his home, Bill seeks guests who will use Casa Barranca as a favorable breeze on a journey to the self. He does, after all, move out to the guesthouse, leaving his guests the run of the mansion. It is his generous spirit, a desire to share the wealth, the experience that is Casa Barranca that is the motivating force behind his desire to open the doors to his home. Without intention, a Casa Barranca experience would be like licking the outside of a honey jar.

In the early 90s Bill was a venture capitalist and TV Network Founder/President of The Recovery Network, later absorbed by Liberty Media, the parent company of The Discovery Channel. In 1994, he had the foresight to purchase Casa Barranca where he resides today with his wife and family in a state of ‘active’ retirement. Very active in fact, as he has Casa Barranca is the first organic winery on the central Coast, a region that lends itself very favorably to the production of Pinot wine grapes. There is a tangible difference in the expressive taste of an organic wine, just as there is a difference with organic fruits and vegetables. Without interruption, the wine is an expression of the land from which it came. And yet it is not this fact alone that makes Casa Barranca wine special. There is a certain ceremony, a sanctity given to the grapes that are grown here by the workers who tend them. Casa Barranca’s wine is designed to be approached not as a mindless intoxicant, but rather grown, harvested and partaken of with reverence and again, intention. The cellar, holding voluminous barrels of wine aging in fine French Oak, evokes a sense of stillness where one can almost feel the history and energy of the past. Unlike the “Disney-esque” wineries portrayed in movies like the recent, Sideways, Casa Barranca is not open to the public, a decision made in seeming deference to the wine, lest the touching and gawking of transient onlookers rob it of its innocence. Bill, however, is thrilled at any opportunity to show his guests the facility, giving an in depth overview of the process.

It takes a village to raise a wine...and like its incarnation a century earlier, modern day Casa Barranca is a village or sorts. Peppered throughout the 54 acres are a handful of Kivas, shacks and Eco-domes that house the odd, semi-permanent artisan and spiritual aspirant, each adding his or her special talents to the potpourri. To suggest it is a utopia would be an over-simplification. Like any community, it takes management and cooperation. Over the years many a great soul has blessed the land and Stewart Canyon itself, is a sacred site according to Native Americans. In fact, the home displays various Chumash tribe artifacts recovered from the property dating back three to five thousand years. In the late 1960s His Divine Grace Krishna Murti inspired followers with a series of lectures given on the hillside at Casa Barranca. This tradition continues today as the “Who’s Who” of the California yoga, health and spiritual communities use Casa Barranca as a backdrop for their private sabbaticals or retreats including souls such as Bhagavan Das, Micheline Berry, Saul David Raye, Vinnie Marino, Steve Ross and the list goes on.

Casa Barranca is a manifestation of balance at play. It is spiritual without being religious, moderate, without being abstinent. Sometimes on a path we forgo one extreme for another, gross materialism for spiritual self-denial. Yet, at Casa Barranca, Bill and his extended family have found a way to blend the two worlds into a mellow cocktail. The home is semi-self-sustainable utilizing solar energy, water from artesian wells and much of the food, and of course wine, is organically grown on the property.

It’s not one thing that makes Casa Barranca special... it’s the historical Californian architecture, the edible plant life at every turn, the stunning Tibetan-inspired Sadhana Hall, the fire-pit and Kivas, the sprawling lawns, the numerous hiking trail. Whether one is seeking a spiritual sabbatical away from city vibrations or a romantic retreat of rediscovery, Casa Barranca affords an experience that is intensely personal, a palate from which to paint your highest intention.

The Ethos of Open Mind, Open Heart & Skilled Hands

Local Winery Takes Honors

Casa Barranca - Ahead of it's Time