Bag End Cellars is named in honor of the home of Bilbo Baggins in the book The Hobbit, by J.R.R.Tolkien. Ever since the first time The Hobbit was read to me when I was just a small child, this place, Bag End, has been a symbol of everything imaginable. The story was so loved by our entire family that my parents even put up an ancient looking wooden sign at the front of our driveway that said Bag End. I imagined that our house was a hobbit's home and that beyond our driveway there were dragons, elves and dwarves just around the corner. The wine, of course, came about a bit later. Please check out the wines we have available as well as the history of Bag End Cellars. If you have any questions email us anytime. Thank you for coming!
Bag End Cellars was born in 1976, though no one knew it at the time. It came about when a young mother began reading to her children, one of the most imaginative epic stories of all time. The children would grow to love the idea of the cozy and comfortable hobbit's hole built into the side of a hill; an unexpected tea party for a group of dwarves that would soon become life long friends after their life altering journey. And upon the day that this young mother carved out a sign and put it up in front of their property, that read "Bag End", the fate of Bag End Cellars was sealed.
Bag End Cellars officially created their first wines in 2004 from fruit purchased from Camp 4 Vineyards and Rodney's Vineyard, of Fess Parker Winery and Vineyards. The entire winemaking process took place in Los Olivos, California at the Fess Parker Winery, by Dawnielle R. S. Burich, who at the time was the assistant winemaker there. This was where the Viognier, the Paradise Syrah, the Côte Rôtie Style Syrah and the Syrah Port came to be a part of Bag End Cellars' repertoire.
Bag End Cellars moved July 2007, from their Los Olivos facility to downtown Santa Barbara, where they were greeted graciously by everyone at Cellar 205; located at 205 Anacapa Street in downtown Santa Barbara. There at Cellar 205 Dawnielle will continue to create her wines from fruit grown in the Santa Ynez Valley. Be sure to drop by and check out her new digs! Tastings are by appointment only, so be sure to call in advance so that we may accommodate your curiosity and love for Bag End Cellars' wines!
Dawnielle R. S. Burich was born and raised in Ojai, California, to Dolores and William Shouse. At the tender age of 14 she packed her bags and said hello to the Santa Ynez Valley, an introduction that would prove to be an important one throughout the rest of her life. She had left her home to attend Midland College Preparatory School, located just a few miles from all of the vineyards she would one day come to know so well.
It was there at Midland where she was able to nurture her love for botany and the environment around her. Scarcely a single plant or flower in the area was far from the reaches of her recollection; her insatiable desire to know all of the plants made it hardly a surprise to everyone that her senior project would be to catalog the local plants and flowers and make them available for everyone's perusal.
After graduating from Midland, Dawnielle moved onto the local City College where she cultivated her love of the sciences and discovered her fondness for photography. Over dinner with her parents Dawnielle discussed her interest in making wine and the two U. C. Davis graduates chimed in that she would have to go to their alma mater for it's world renown wine and viticulture program! To further investigate the idea, she went to work for Sunstone Winery in their tasting room where she sneaked peeks in the winery just behind and joined in where ever she could help out. She could hardly imagine that she would return to work there as the assistant winemaker just a few years later.
Upon deciding to attend the University of California at Davis she committed to making the drastic change in scenery with two other friends from Santa Barbara. The three women would soon discover themselves immersed in the agricultural heartland of California with its many odiferous charms. After many classes involving tasting grapes and identification of varieties, pests and diseases; five gallon jars of fermenting juice with a plethora of different yeasts and bacteria, along with nose and palate preparation through wine scents and tastings, Dawnielle was ready to go out and learn the business of winemaking.
Her first winery working experience was with Kautz Ironstone Vineyards and Winery in Murphys, California, where she immersed herself in the laboratory and barrel cellar as their enologist. She then moved onto Testarossa Vineyards and Winery in Los Gatos, California, again as the enologist, where she worked in a semi retired winery previously used by Jesuit Priests and Brothers of the Sacred Heart Novitiate, since before the turn of the 20th century.
In 2000 Dawnielle moved back to Santa Barbara. Closer to her family and friends, she was able to see a future for her here in the newly up and coming wine region of the southern central coast. She returned to Sunstone Vineyards and Winery in Santa Ynez, California, as their assistant winemaker. It was at Sunstone that Dawnielle discovered her affinity for the Rhone varietals (a wine region in France), Viognier and Syrah. She later moved onto Fess Parker Winery and Vineyards in Los Olivos, California, in 2002 as their assistant winemaker, where she produced her first vintage of wines and subsequently, Bag End Cellars was born. During Bag End Cellars' infancy, Dawnielle moved onto work at Cambria Winery in Santa Maria, California, but she would soon discover that to make the wine label truly a success, she would have to go out on her own and devote her full attention to Bag End Cellars.
Six months later she decided to move her winemaking endeavors to the town of Santa Barbara, California, to Cellar 205 on 205 Anacapa Street. And that is where she will be this harvest, wearing her very fashionable floppy rubber harvest boots, stomping on her Santa Ynez grapes!
Port style wines are fortified with brandy and so their alcohols tend to be much higher than wines that are unfortified. This style of winemaking was born in the 18th century in the northern part of Portugal, near the coast, in the Douro Valley. It was then when the brandy was added to red table wine to stabilize it for its long journey by boat from Portugal up to Britain. It was actually here at the Portuguese shipping ports where Port received its name; Porto, which is Portuguese for Port.
In Portugal, there are many grape varieties from which Port wine is produced. There are also many strict regulations for those winemakers who make their ports in this part of the Iberian Peninsula. Of course as my port is produced here in California, it is not a true port wine from the Douro Valley, but rather a wine made in the same style and method of those port wines.
I fermented Santa Ynez Valley Syrah in an open top fermenting bin, during which, I halted the fermentation by adding brandy. This port style wine has 20.0% alcohol and about 5.0% residual sugar. This residual sugar helps to balance out the high alcohol of this beverage, leaving it with a comforting rounded balance of fruit, caramel, vanilla and oak.
Viognier is a grape whose flavor profile stands somewhere between that of Chardonnay (citrus fruits and moderate acidity) and Muscat Cannelli (peaches or apricots and some residual sugar.) Producers of Viognier differ slightly in their approach to making wine with this perfumed grape, so the final product tends to vary quite a bit. Some winemakers ferment a percentage of it in oak and the rest in stainless steel. Others ferment wholly in stainless steel. Of course, the manner in which the wine is blended before bottling also has an enormous impact on the final outcome of the flavor profile of each wine.
I prefer to keep my Viognier as fresh and fruity as possible. This Vintage was fermented in a neutral barrel (neutral meaning no oak was imparted into the wine) and blended with viognier that was fermented solely in stainless steel. It was then filtered and bottled to ensure the maximum potential for fruitiness. My viognier has a very slight amount of residual sugar that helps to plump up the mouthfeel and round out the acidity. But don't take my word for it, try my Viognier and see what you think!
Syrah is one of the varietals that originates in the Rhone Valley, a region found in the south-eastern part of France. The Côte Rôtie is yet a smaller region (about 320 acres) located within the northern part of the Rhone Valley. Here, most wines are made from Syrah, but what is interesting is that there is an allowance of up to 20% Viognier in each vintage of this inky red wine. This addition of Viognier to the Syrah is believed to help not only enhance the fruitiness of this wonderful wine, but to help stabilize the rich dark color that the Syrah varietal typically enjoys.
My Santa Ynez Valley Syrah was co-fermented with 20% Santa Ynez Valley Viognier in an open top fermenting bin. This wine was aged in a two year old French oak barrel for 8 months. It was then filtered and bottled. This wine may be enjoyed immediately or set aside for 6 to 7 years.
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