Bruce Freeman outside the Clos des Amis winery in 2021

Over twenty five years ago, Wall Street journalists Dorothy J. Gaiter and John Brecher realized there was a problem common to many wine lovers: they would hold on to special bottles waiting for that very special occasion to open it up. This is a problem because not all wines are built to age and not everyone has proper storage for their wine meaning that the wines can go bad before they are enjoyed. So the couple invented one of the first “wine holidays” — and named the final Saturday in February “Open That Bottle Night.” About that same time, Bruce Freeman was experimenting with wine making in his Ramona Street garage located off Ventura Avenue in Westside Ventura using fruit he helped farm and people gave him in exchange for a case or two of the completed wine. A professional artist and an inventive person handy with tools (he worked for years designing and producing exhibits for the Ventura County Museum), Bruce plumbed a lab in his garage, and when he decided he wanted to make sparkling wine, he built his own riddling racks. Friends and family gathered in his garden oasis bringing wines they made commercially or at home to share and discuss. 

Clos des Amis winemaker Bruce Freeman in 2021 with a Cab Sauv wine from his second vintage in 1995.

• Read Because You Might be Dead Next Year: Bruce’s 1995 Clos des Amis Cabernet Sauvignon

As he developed his winemaking skills, Bruce assisted Adam Tolmach at The Ojai Vineyard from 2005-2010 where he did a little of everything from cellar and lab work to renovation of the buildings. “He applied his great creativity to create a beautiful space to harbor our Lab and workshop,” says Fabien Castel, who was GM at The Ojai Vineyard. “His passion and creativity are at play everyday.” 

Fabien described Bruce’s backyard in Ventura as an art piece that included “art studio, a wood fired hot tub, nestled in a bamboo forest, a yurt as a lover’s nest, overlooking a tight and well curated vegetable garden. He built a small barrel room disguised as a garden shed, a wood fire oven, a fish pond and many features that turned this small piece of land into a heaven of hedonism and friendship. This is where I got to really experience Bruce’s love for gathering friends around pressing grapes, bottling wine, cooking a meal and tasting his various productions.”

Fabien told me that the period when Bruce was at The Ojai Vineyard was one “of constant exploration of taste, fragrance and techniques to create them. Under Adam’s guidance we would taste many wines from all over the world and discuss the ways to include our favorites into our own production. Bruce is always extremely curious but also very funny and self deprecating. How many times would he hurt himself with a piece of equipment and marvel at his own clumsiness.” 

• Read about Open That Bottle Night and a tasting of The Ojai Vineyard’s older vintages — some when Briuce was on board.
• Last year for Open That Bottle Night, we camped at the beach and poured a 2009 Syrah from The Ojai Vineyard, one of the final vintages that Bruce worked on.

Then Bruce moved on to be the winemaker at Casa Barranca where he helped them get their organic certification. When the opportunity came to move his operation to an adobe and solar powered space in citrus orchards on South Mountain near vineyards he was farming and making wine from, he took it and that’s where he today practices his art making under a thousand cases of wine and doing tastings on a big table under the pepper tree outside the winery by appointment only or talking to people and pouring wine at two of Ventura County farmer’s markets.

Bruce and Gretel at the tasting table outside the winery on a cold February day in 2021 during a ZOOM organized by distributor Verovino.

“We have had this running debate between us, on whether winemaking is an art or a craft,” says Fabien. “The debate became heated many times and in the process he always defended the freedom that makes art. The need for it to be unshackled, expressed in its genuine form, without the weight of academic correctness. He always defends winemaking as an art. And quirky, prolific and dedicated artist he is. His relationship to it is complete, with risk taking, unconventional approach, relentless work and love of beauty. He taught me a lot about art and convinced me to be more confidant in being an artist.”

About ten years ago, Bruce’s partner Gretel Compton purchased a home in Santa Paula Canyon at Camp Bartlett, and they moved out of the Ramona Street home renting it to an artist friend who promised to take care of the place in exchange for cheap rent. 

Bruce Freeman and Gretel Compton at the Clos des Amis tasting table during a 2021 VeroTalk Zoom

For years now, I’d heard all these tall tales about the early days on Ramona Street. While Bruce and I were both active in the mid-1990s in the arts scene and on the Westside Community Council, we didn’t really know each other, and I never attended a Focus on the Masters Artists Studio Tour where his house, garden, and studio was a popular and memorable stop.

I’d never been to where the magic began until I stopped by with a couple bottles of wine, charcuterie, and some questions. First, we took a grand tour of the place, which, while very overgrown, was still very magical. Bruce has started using the large 1/4 acre property as offsite storage for bins, tanks, and barrels, and setting it up as a place to stay before the Ventura Farmers Market on Saturday which is fortunate because with a sinkhole and a HUGE landslide on the direct route between their home and the winery on highway 150, now they have to take the long way around turning a 20-30 minute drive into a 90 minute- two hour drive. From Ventura, it’s only about 30 minutes. 

Bruce Freeman’s PN Pet Nat

During our tour, Bruce pointed out what used to be where, and he showed me a stash of bottles from his first experiments with making sparkling wine. He grabbed one for us to open, saying it has some problems with brett and it might not be any good, but we’d open it and see. 

“All our wines aren’t done by the numbers but express a year, a place, a time,” says Bruce. “I don’t want my wines to taste like anyone else’s.”

Well, it was good. So good. A beautiful deep color for a rose with a fine fizz, the aroma had little if any brett, just a hint of pet nat funkiness, and plenty of cranberry with a palate full tart flavorful dried cranberries. Fantastic on its own or with our charcuterie.

Not only were we tasting a wine that was 15 years old, but one that was never intended to be commercial, a wine that was personal, a personal risk to see what he could do. 

Bruce is “an artist who put his creative mind to wine,” says Fabien. “It is often that people come to wine as a business opportunity or pursuing a romantic vision of the lifestyle but few come at it as a purely artistic pursuit.”

Bruce was “the first one to fully embrace the beauty and identity of this land, of this county, and working tirelessly to find and express that unique voice,” Fabien says. “The Ventura County Wine voice.” 

And in this case, via a pinot noir pet nat. Grateful to have had the opportunity to hear this Ventura County voice singing loud and clear. 

Since we were just having a relaxing time, and I wasn’t planning on writing about the wine, I didn’t take any notes or any photos– how it looked at the beginning of the bottle, how hazy it was at the end with all the yeast floating around. 

So here’s a Clos des Amis Sangiovese; the bottle features a Garibaldi which is California’s state fish but also a favorite of my grandfather’s. I wish my grandfather Manny Paquette and Bruce Freeman could have met — both do it yourself character. My grandfather always wanted to make wine, and if he’d known Bruce, well, he would have.

2022 Clos des Amis Sangiovese, Ventura County with osso bucco

2022 Clos des Amis Sangiovese, Ventura County

ABV: 15.2%
SRP:  $25 (?) 
Grapes: Sangiovese
sample for my review 

Appearance:  Ruby, very dense and dark, cloudy, almost purple or plum, ruby rim, very youthful looking.

Aroma: All about the fruit, a mixture of red fruit, plum, cherry, strawberry, raspberry, plus fresh roses, carnation, violet. 

Palate: Juicy and acidic, with balanced tannins, bright cherry fruit, with lingering cherry fruit on the finish, ponderosa pine. Deliciously easy to enjoy, and no hint of how high the alcohol is. I’d love to see how this wine would be in a few years. 

Pairing: The tart bright cherry fruit cuts through the rich dish full of flavor and umami. 

2022 Clos des Amis Sangiovese, Ventura County

• Read more about Bruce Freeman and Clos des Amis here on this Open That Bottle Night post where you can scroll down for links to two years of monthly posts I did while interning at Clos des Amis.
• Read more about Gretel Compton and Clos des Amis here.
• Learn more and buy wine at the Clos des Amis website.

And this pet nat was a start in his sparkling wine journey which led to Chambang! This is a sparkling wine made with Chardonnay from Saticoy on the edge of Ventura from a vineyard with a view of the ocean. 

Chambang!

NOTE: If you’re a pinot noir fan, and you can travel to Santa Barbara next weekend, you should get to World of Pinot Noir! Unlikely to find many shiners there, but maybe a pet nat or two and certainly some garagistes like Dusty Nabor who I will feature next so stay tuned and subscribe! 

Happy Open That Bottle Night! What will you open? And when will you open it? Open That Bottle Night can be every night!! There is no occasion more special than the present!