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Showing the changing trends in California wines in response to shifting climates, this winery is making Alsatian-style wines in Paso Robles.
Union Sacré, a winery based in Paso Robles’ Tin City, focuses on carefully crafting Alsatian-style wines that celebrate the versatility of California’s Central Coast American Viticultural Area (AVA).
Xavier Arnaudin and Philip Muzzy are the dynamic duo behind Union Sacré. Arnaudin came to California from France through classical wine training, while Muzzy is a self-taught designer from Michigan. Together, they share over thirty-five years of experience working in Central Coast wineries.
As the winemaker at Union Sacré, Arnaudin is passionate about creating elegant, single-vineyard wines that highlight the expressive character of Alsace’s noble varietals, including Gewürztraminer, Riesling, Pinot Gris, Pinot Blanc, Sylvaner, and Pinot Noir. While these wines are not as common in California as some other varietals, the fact that these Alsatian grapes are able to thrive in the Central Coast AVA demonstrates the region’s ability to accommodate a remarkable diversity of vines.
The Unique Climate of California’s Central Coast AVA
Across the Central Coast’s forty sub-AVAs (including Paso Robles, Santa Cruz, Santa Maria, Monterey, and Santa Barbara), the climate and topography are enormously varied. Years of tectonic shift from the San Andreas Fault, the Santa Lucia Mountains, the Galiban Range, and the Santa Cruz Mountains all contribute to this varied landscape and influence the diverse terroir of the region.
Soil on the western side of the San Andreas Fault is primarily limestone. As the area was part of an ancient sea bed in the early Paleozoic era, fossilized marine life there creates calcareous soils, or chalky soils that contain high percentages of both calcium carbonate and lime. Shale and loam are found in the Salinas Valley, and the San Francisco Bay is surrounded by sandy, gravelly soils. This diversity of soil types allows for the farming of a considerable diversity of grape vines across the Central Coast AVA.
Because Union Sacré is committed to producing elegant wines through low intervention methods, the majority of the wines they produce are only available in California.
The climate of the region is largely influenced by the Pacific Ocean winds that are funneled into vineyard areas through the Transverse Mountain Ranges — a series of mountains and valleys that get their name from their east-west orientation through California. Strong winds and fog provide cool breezes that reach even as far as the more inland areas of the Central Coast region.The result is a large diurnal shift (the difference between the average daytime high temperature and the average nighttime low temperature), which allows grapes to maintain the higher levels of acidity that ultimately yield high-quality, well-balanced wines.
Why Make Alsatian-style Wines in California?
While many consumers realize that wine is an agricultural product that is subject to adaptation in the wake of changing global climates, wine drinkers have still been programmed (through marketing and experience) to see “California” on the label and to expect specific grape varietals, winemaking practices, and flavor profiles. At the wine shop I manage in Cambridge, Massachusetts, my customers have grown accustomed to Chardonnay that has spent a lot of time aging in oak barrels, thus bearing strong aromas of warm butter or vanilla. This style of Chardonnay still very much exists, especially in California’s more legacy, conventional winemaking regions of Napa and Sonoma Counties. The Chardonnay I carry comes from one of the Central Coast’s natural winemakers and is entirely unoaked and instead presents crisp flavors of green apple and a light acidity on the palate. It can take a good deal of nudging to convince someone to try a California Chardonnay when they have a preconceived notion of what that wine should taste like.
All of that is to say, the winemaking principles at Union Sacré are as bold as they are valuable when it comes to introducing the wine-drinking public to the possibilities of California wine trends shifting in response to changing climates. While conventional winemakers may be struggling to maintain vintage continuity with the styles of wines that earned California its winemaking reputation in the 1980s, smaller producers have become increasingly agile and innovative. Their ability to create a diverse variety of wines amid California’s intricate climate complications highlights many possible paths forward for the industry. Introducing Alsatian varietals into the conversation about wines coming from California’s Central Coast AVA contributes to the ongoing dialogue about the future of winemaking in California’s changing climate.
The winemaking principles at Union Sacré are as bold as they are valuable when it comes to introducing the wine-drinking public to the possibilities of California wine trends shifting in response to changing climates.
Because Union Sacré is committed to producing elegant wines through low intervention methods, the majority of the wines they produce are only available in California. Wines made in this hands-off style (without filtering) are often more volatile due to the fact that sediments containing yeasts and fermentable sugars can remain in the bottle in small amounts. Changes in temperature and pressure, as well as general agitation in transit, can cause a wine to evolve in the bottle in distinctly unpleasant ways — think apple cider vinegar.
But Union Sacré produces a small quantity of wines that can withstand the unpredictability of shipping and distribution. While still unfiltered and made up to the same standard of all the wines bearing the Union Sacré name, these specific blends have been deemed less volatile and more likely to arrive to the consumer in exactly the condition the winemaker intended.
But, given the risks, why distribute at all? Hugo Puga, the longtime staff member of Union Sacré who poured for us in their Tin City tasting room, reminded us that while winemaking is a creative and passionate pursuit, it is still a business. Distributing a percentage of their wines throughout the United States enables Union Sacré to create more consistent revenue streams that allow them to take bigger risks within their overall operation.
Having previously been able to enjoy only those Union Sacré wines that are distributed to the East Coast, my partner and I were delighted to have the opportunity to sample their other bottlings. We made sure to pick up a few bottles from the tasting room to bring home with us, including the 2021 “Frauline” Dry Riesling and the 2021 “l’Squire” Pinot Noir.
Julia Cooper’s Good Libation: 2022 Union Sacré Orange Gewürztraminer (Paso Robles, California)
One of the few bottlings that Union Sacré distributes nationally, this is a limited production orange Gewürz from the Los Ositos Vineyard in Arroyo Seco. A delish, crowd-friendly bottle with notes of pithy grapefruit and floral chamomile, it’s fabulous alongside your favorite cheese and charcuterie, and even better when shared with friends.
For more information, read Good Libations: Climate Complications for California Winemaking.
