Loma Seca Vineyard
Property Geography
- Size
- 160 acres, 32 planted
- Location
- West of Paso Robles, 16.7 miles from the Pacific ocean.
- Distance to Le Cuvier
- 2.3 miles
Vineyard Overview
Loma Seca Vineyard is a hilltop vineyard located at the end of a torturous dirt trail off of Adelaida Road. The vineyard, which lies to the west of Paso Robles, is just 2.3 miles from Le Cuvier Winery, and 16.7 miles from the Pacific Ocean as the crow flies.
The property falls within the Adelaida District, a viticultural area that is characterized by high mountain slopes grading to foothills, and with a range of elevation between 900 to 2200 feet. Calcareous (limestone) soils dominate, and the district receives annual rainfall in the range of 25 inches per year making it suitable for farming without irrigation.
Grapes Grown & Wines Sourced
Loma Seca Vineyard grows the following grape varieties. Varieties used in Le Cuvier wines are identified as "sourced by Le Cuvier".
Table Summary
Le Cuvier sources a portion of its Cabernet Sauvignon, Primitivo (a variant of Zinfandel), Grenache, Mourvedre and Syrah grapes from the Loma Seca Vineyard.
Vineyard History
Of the 160 acres total, 32 acres were planted between 2011 and 2018.
Farming Practices
The entire vineyard is dry-farmed and head-pruned, meaning that the vines are individually trained to a stake rather than strung together along a wire trellis. Dry-farmed means that the vines need to survive on available water retained by the soil during the winter rainy season. The vast majority of commercial vineyards have grape yields largely governed by relative levels of irrigation and fertilization provided by the farmer; conversely, grape yield from dry-farmed vines grown on rough, rocky soils is very low because each individual vine is restricted by the natural limitation on resources where the vine grows. This results in grapes with highly concentrated, small-sized berries filled with site-specific personality.
Management
The day-to-day vineyard operations are managed by Steve Beck with the assistance of Tomas Mendoza, an expert in dry-farm vineyards.