ALL ABOUT FOOD:O’ Laguna, a fine home for wine

As a young boy, growing up on a ranch in the freezing flats of Saskatchewan, Canada, Marlowe Huber dreamed of some day coming to sunny California. He loved studying American history and culture and was addicted to watching CNN.

Life was not lively in his hometown, so, like a lot of other folks, he began to brew beer in the basement. From beer he progressed to making wine from juice and then grapes. At this point he was hooked and took courses and studied wine-making.

In Canada, alcohol must be purchased in government stores that charge hefty taxes, so many people make their own wine. U-Vin stores sell wine-making kits and equipment.

Using his newly acquired knowledge, Huber and his brother Darren in 1994 bought a winemaking store in suburban Vancouver, taking the opportunity to make and market their own wine. Improving the product dramatically, sales quadrupled in 18 months.

His entrepreneurial nature led him to leave this first store to his brother, while he and his family built a second location. After a time, he persuaded his father to come out of retirement to manage this establishment. Now he was free to pursue his “American dream.”

While exploring business opportunities in San Diego, he met and married an Orange County girl. She showed him Laguna Canyon and his entrepreneurial instincts told him that, “with the art culture so strong here, wine would fit in well.” (The zillion-dollar homes didn’t hurt either.)

When he saw a large available space in the canyon next to Wyland Gallery, he knew he’d found his American location. A do-it--yourself kind of guy, he gutted the building and with the help of his brother and computer software from Costco, they redesigned the space. His father built all the cabinetry and trucked it down from Canada.

There are three wineries in Orange County, but Huber’s is the only one with a public tasting room. Surrounded by beautiful oak barrels and handsome dark wood wine racks, it almost feels like a wine cave. It’s a lovely place to taste wine.

The wines are made on site, but the grapes are purchased elsewhere. Most of his Cabernet grapes come from Paso Robles from the Allegresse Vineyard, owned by Jan Pierini of Laguna Beach.

We asked him if he ever had plans to own a vineyard himself.

“Oh, but I do,” he said. “I just planted four vines to frame the sign out front. In a few years, I plan on getting one bottle from each vine, and I will then be able to print a label that says ‘Estate Bottled.’”

He explained that growing grapes is a very difficult business. There is an old joke that goes, “How do you make a small fortune with a vineyard?” The answer: “Start with a large fortune.”

Huber, like many vintners, buys his grapes elsewhere. Then he crushes, presses, ferments, oak barrel ages, blends and bottles them in Laguna Canyon.

The process of choosing and blending grapes is complex. Huber buys grapes from California, Oregon, Washington State and Italy. To help him with the wine-making process, he has hired Gianni Seminari as his wine master.

Seminari is a vintner with a masters degree in wine making. The two met at the Italian Cultural Center in Vancouver. Seminari had worked as a professional wine tasting judge in Canada.

The style of Laguna Canyon Winery is what they call “fruit forward.” These wines are less astringent, with a lot of fruit and flavor. The reds have a soft tannin finish. The whites are aromatic, silky and easy on the palate. The wines are not loaded with chemicals for aging so that they will be drinkable more quickly.

Huber feels that people want to drink their wine now or a year from now, not in 10 years. His wines are designed to be best in the first three years, although they are built to age a good five.

He uses synthetic corks because he thinks they seal better and allow the wines to be stored upright so that the labels can be read easily. Regular corks will dry out if the bottles are not stored on their sides.

Huber now offers 21 different labels, 18 of his own and three in partnership with his next-door neighbor, the artist Wyland, who designed the images for these labels. The wines are named with the Italian words for dolphin, whale and ocean: Delfino, Balena and Oceano. A percentage from the sale of these three wines goes to the Wyland Foundation.

This November, Huber will be adding a Carneros Chardonnay and a Mendecino Syrah. His proudest addition this year is the Reserve Late Harvest Cabernet Sauvignon, the result of a fortuitous accident.

In the Allegresse Vineyard of Laguna’s own Jan Pierini, a cry of “It’s a miracle!” rang through the hills of Paso Robles last November when it was discovered that a small patch of grapes had been overlooked in three earlier pickings.

These remaining unharvested grapes were nearly frozen and, therefore, full of sugar. This unusual set of circumstances has allowed for the production of a rare, rich and delicious dessert wine.

The success of the winery may be measured, in part, by the fact that there are already more than 300 members in their wine club.

What makes the wine club so unusual is that the members can select whatever wines they choose rather than the standard practice of receiving the vintner’s selection.

Other benefits include 15% discount on wines and 25% on cases, availability of members-only limited editions, complimentary tastings when members pick up orders and, best of all, free monthly wine appreciation nights.

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