Spotlight: Keith Saarloos

I know we are not meant to judge a book by its cover but I still buy books and cookbooks because I think the covers are pretty.

I do the same thing with wine.

I was honored that Keith agreed to allow me to feature him on Big Red Diary. I am a big fan of Saarloos & Sons and sent my parents there the following week. It truly is amazing wine. So it is with grape great pleasure that I invite you to share a few moments with the man behind the grapes… Keith Saarloos.

First thing you do in the morning…
I wake up around 5:30, take a shower, kiss everyone while they are still sleeping, and go drink coffee with 85 year old men, these guys are some of my best pals.

Did you grow up on the winery? And how did you get into winemaking…
No, far from it. I grew up in Bellflower California. Kind of a World away from this place.
I got into winemaking by farming as wine isn’t made, it’s grown.

What was the first bottle of wine you made…
a 2002 syrah, no label, no nothing, it was just for our family and friends.

What is your favorite kind of wine…
I really like traditional blends, Bordeaux in style, using new methods.
Basically I like dichotomy, old and new together and on purpose.

Dress code…
I’m lucky, some of my friends own a great clothing company, and they love me, so they keep me from being thread bear. I like to say I am their only sponsored farmer.
I pretty much wear the same thing every day, jeans, old collered shirt, black socks, vest with lots of pockets. I am pretty utility in nature. I’m glad I have people looking out for me.

Favorite color…
I have a five year old daughter, she tells me it’s black, I tend to agree.
but I like orange a lot for things I think are fun.

What are you currently reading…
I learned a long time ago that reading is not my gift, I can bareley spewll, I am an auditory learner.
I consume AUDIBLE.com books by the pound.
Since I am in the car a lot or doing things in the vineyard, having a book that makes going just a little further to hear another chapter is huge!

short answer: the Bible, read by Johnny Cash.

Signature scent…
Coffee, smoke, and sweat.

The most important step in the winemaking process is…
The micro decisions of farming. You perform a small decision like pruning one branch of a vine, 10 times per vine, over the course of acres of vines, makes a difference.
There is no whole, only 10,000 decisions, each of which makes a tendency, or a habit or a style.

What inspires you…
Taking to things that don’t belong together and placing together in a way that makes it effortless, purposeful and elegant.

If you weren’t a winemaker, what would you want to be…
A gameshow host, I would like to have a gameshow with hidden cameras that I just go around asking people questions througout my life and giving them money when it’s correct. They get to play without knowing they are playing.
Like I ask a waitress after dinner if she wants to play double or nothing, where we flip a coin and if she wins I will pay double whatever the check is, for her to keep. and if she loses I pay nothing…. me and my dad do this all the time, it’s really fun (we always pay even if they lose) but to see that spirit come out in what is sometimes a mundane job is awesome!

What’s your favorite part of the winemaking process…
Talking with my dad, about farming, and seeing how other people do it.
Sharing stories about my family with people who are tasting wines from grapes we grew 4 years ago.
Thinking about the future. Its kind of like being a parent, you birth the grapes at harvest, instruct them through the preocess, then bottle them and send them out in the world…

What are some of the challenges you face as a winemaker…
not being particularly bright, and being enthusiastic.

What type of wood do you use for your barrels…
french oak.

Dream guests at a dinner party…
My grandparents, my daughters future husband, my son’s future wife, my whole family by blood or by choice, Johnny Cash. But really I would like to just sit and talk to the 83 year old me, ask him when he looks back where did we go right and what should we avoid, hopefully he says he can’t tell me anything becasue it was the best life we could have and he doesn’t want to jinx anything. I hope he just winks and says, go get it!

What do you serve before dinner…
That’s my wife, I am kind of a dirtbag, and she is the elegant, beautiful, socially correct one. I married way WAY up…. I really never ask what it is she serves, I usually drink it and say I love it.

What are some of your favorite wine and food pairings…
Cupcakes and wine…. of course.
or animal we have raised on our property over a bbq pit full of wood from our property, with our wines.
that’s kind of a special feeling that never fades.

When you’re not drinking your own wines, what are you drinking…
7and7 – it was my grandfathers drink, my fathers drink, my drink.
not so much as I love the taste as I love the tradition.

Three things always in your refrigerator…
ICE. orange juice, tortillas.

Favorite neighborhood/local spots in Santa Barbara county…
I like Full of Life Flatbread in Los Alamos for a Sunday nite for supper.
The Mav – when I get a hall pass and friends are in town.
mostly its back yard bbq’s around here.

Top 3 favorite hotels…
the Parker Palm Springs.
anything Boutique nationally.
my friend’s couches, or guest rooms when my wife is with me.

Favorite place to holiday or what is your dream trip…
where ever the WHOLE family picks to go next year.
Every year ALL of the Saarloos’ go somewhere and rent a place for a week or so.
we never even really leave the house.
its pretty great.

What do you pack…
some general clothes, imac, wine, meat, and a car full of essentials for the kids.

Signature drink…
ice coffee, with 3 shots.

Once a day I…
pray for providence.

Top 3 favorite restaurants (anywhere in the world)…
Home (when we have company and my wife is going to go off!! nothing better on earth)
Full of life Flatbread, Los Alamos. (just good food locally)
Just for the Halibut, Rosarito, Mexico (some of the best meals of my youth in context)

What’s currently on your Ipod playlist…
I have 220 gigs of music. we now make playlists by mood/timeofday/dayofweek/
but as a staple…Blackkeys / Blakroc / fugazi / mashups

Iphone or blackberry or regular mobile…
ANDROID…. is the future. and I for one welcome our google overlords.

If you could go anywhere in the world with 4 of your best friends for 4 days, no budget – where would you go…
surfing….lefts….long….idontcarewhere….. the question was the answer

Coffee or tea…
coffee….

Three things one must do in Santa Barbara…
1. walk, it’s the only way to ingest a place. walk to La Superica, to walk State Street, walk to the mission, walk to the courthouse, walk to the beach.
2. go on a cloud climbers jeep tour from SB to the Valley to go wine tasting. (seriously)
3. drive around with your windows down from Montecito to Goleta on the back roads then drive over refugio (4×4) tool around the valley then drive out Foxen to Santa Maria and back to SB on 154… you will have seen all of CALIFORNIA in 3 hours.

You won’t leave home without…
phone, keys, kisses. knife.

Starbucks order…
Hate starbucks. only local indipendent coffee houses.
but 4 shots in a lage cup of ice.

Preferred method of communication…
hand shakes.

Greatest party/event you’ve ever been to…
anything my wife throws… always over the top.
example… our crush party. they wrote about it in Santa Barbara Magazine…
she is so much better than me.

Favorite quote…
[family creed] “We live to honor those that have come before us and to prepare the way for those yet to come” amen.

On the weekends, I live for…
People to come to the tasting room to make feel like it’s their home… people who are scared of wine, we take them behind the curtain and show them it’s not scary it’s fun, wine is about connecting people, not elitism.

we throw snobs out of the tasting room in dramatic fashion!

Every night I…
stem on all the things that have happened up to this point, obsess about what I want to happen, and sleep without dreaming.

How do you spend your Sundays or day of rest…
I go to work, it feels like sinning if I don’t.
then again my kids and wife are here all the time.
it’s not really work,
I just have the House everyone comes to, to hang out.
Try some wine and have a great day.
hopefully they buy some so I can keep doing it.

and thats what I do for a living.
I put my family’s soul in a bottle, and then sell it, one at a time, to people I like.

3 things you are grateful for..
My God.
My Family.
My Nieve enthusiasm.

Every one has their demons, do you know yours by name? If so, what are they…
Dicotamy is the one that runs my life.