Qupe

—The Qupe tasting room will be closed as they built out a new tasting room in Mattei’s Tavern. This promises to be an exciting new tasting room experience in the town of Los Olivos.—

Qupe Wine Cellars is located on the Bien Nacido Vineyard in Santa Maria, California. Qupe shares a production facility with Jim Clendenen from Au Bon Climat, and together they have a production and sales support staff.

Qupe is named after the Chumash word for poppy. This was selected as the winery name to honor the indigenous people of the California central coast and islands. The state flower of California since 1908, the poppy image also gives the buyers a Qupe wines a good sense of place.

To taste their wine visit their tasting room on tasting room row in the pleasant wine town of Los Olivos.

Jim Adelman is the General Manager and also shares winemaking duties. Once a year, during harvest, visiting winemakers and wine professionals with various backgrounds (many from different states and countries) in the wine business come to work with Bob and Jim at the winery to share techniques and ideas.

Focusing on fruit grown in the Central Coast Appellation of California, Qupé produces Rhone varietals and Chardonnay. A majority of Qupé’s wines (about 50%) are made from grapes grown on the Bien Nacido Vineyard, where the Syrah and Chardonnay are planted and grown to Bob’s specifications. In addition to Bien Nacido, Qupé also farms (using organic practices) a 14 acre vineyard in Los Olivos called “Ibarra-Young Vineyard.”

The balance of the Qupé wines are made from grapes grown at various vineyards in the Central Coast appellation of California. Bob and his wife Louisa purchased an 80 acre Sawyer Lundquist vineyard site in the Edna Valley. They began planting in the spring of 2005. This vineyard is farmed under the rigorous principles of Biodynamic Farming.