Artistry and the Clos des Amis Field Blend Bottling: Ventura County Vineyards November 2021

FOTM Donna Granata, Gretel Compton, Bruce Freeman

“Artists teach us to see the world with refreshed vision, they force us to ask questions about society, they console us and even enrage us. But, above all, they engage us and remind us of our own role in the world,” says Donna Granata, founder and leader of Focus on the Masters (FOTM), a non-profit, 501(c)(3), art appreciation program that documents, preserves, and presents the lives and works of accomplished contemporary artists, with most of them from here in Ventura County, California.

 

Recently, FOTM founder Donna Granata led an informal talk with Clos des Amis owners and winemakers Bruce Freeman and Gretel Compton, both who had successful artistic careers before wading into wine. The event included a lively discussion of how they incorporate their artistic creativity in their wine making while we  enjoyed three Clos des Amis wines paired with delicious food prepared by Yennyn and Christine Beirne in a beautiful backyard garden setting on a sunny Saturday afternoon in the Ojai Valley. 

I experienced an example of Bruce and Gretel’s artistry on a recent November Saturday.

No, Bruce wasn’t pulling prints and Gretel wasn’t doing graphic arts or teaching figure painting.

This was the artistry in the glass, on the plate, in teaching a task, and in creating community. Instead of an art class, this was a “Clos des Amis” or circle of friends gathered at the winery to bottle the Ventura County field blend which is made up of small lots of Malbec, petit verdot, carignan, and other red grapes from the estate as well as other red grapes from vineyards in Ventura County. 

 

 

While Gretel made and stoked the fire to make paella, Bruce taught us about bottling, and different people tried the various stations: from sterilizing the bottles to filling them to corking them and so on. The machine that attaches the lead was not cooperating, and it took Bruce a bit of time to get the label machine to work right. Some people had joined the enterprise before but for others, this was only their first or second time at the winery.  

Gretel Compton by Gene Lim
Gretel vs Prawn
Sterilzing by Gene Lim
Filling station by Gene Lim
Cheers by Gene Lim
Put a cork in it by Gene Lim
Get the lead out by Gene Lim
Good to the last drop by Gene Lim
a little for the rose!
bottling crew
Gwendolyn Alley, Bruce Freeman, Gene Lim
paella
Gretel toasts

The wine we were bottling? One barrel of the 2020 Clos des Amis Field Blend. We picked the Malbec, Petit Verdot and other grapes that went into this blend while listening to MusiKaravan– Etienne Gara and YuEun Kim who visited the winery in their vintage red VW bus. Art attracts art! 

Read more about “Music in the Malbec” and MusiKaravan’s 2020 harvest visit to Clos des Amis here;.

Read my article about their visit as published in the VC Reporter here.

See the video MusiKaravan made about their visit here, and above. 

Read about the finished and bottled but unreleased wine below!

Field Blend

2020 Clos des Amis Field Blend 

ABV 13.9%
SRP $26 (currently unreleased)
One barrel = 22 cases  

Color: Bright vibrant color, very dense, plum, magenta rim, very deep and dark in color

Aroma: Lots of fruit, cherry, raspberry, a fruit basket of fruit, and a spice rack of spices, sage, mint,  

Palate: Blue fruit, dry and chalky texture, eucalyptus, grippy tannins, lots of fruit with a nice tannins and structure. 

Pairing: While not my favorite with paella, it works ok. It’d be better with a juicy burger or lamb, and I can testify it was fantastic with a filet mignon with blue cheese!  

Clos des Amis 2020 Field Blend

By the way, if you’re looking for a worthy cause for your end of the year donations, consider Focus on the Masters!

This article is part of a monthly series which I began in January 2019 when I first ventured out to help at Clos des Amis, located on South Mountain above the Santa Clara River in Ventura County. Read more about Clos des Amis and Ventura County wineries and vineyards in this mostly once a monthly series with the oldest posts at the bottom:

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