As a lifelong Manhattanite who spends every harvest season in Santa Barbara County to make wine, Alexander Katz is keenly aware of his travel schedule.
“Our picks for pinot kept backing up and up,” said Katz, who co-owned the brand Timbre Winery (formerly La Fenêtre) with his good friend Joshua Klapper from 2010 to 2019. “That was very apparent for me, because I’m scheduling my harvest trip, and every year it’s getting earlier and earlier. It’s making this connection in my mind: What’s going on here?”
Even mentors like Au Bon Climat’s Jim Clendenen and Qupé founder Bob Lindquist, who’ve been making wine for four decades, were perplexed by how the wild and warming effects of climate change affected grape development. “This is not a normal thing,” said Katz. “This is not something they’ve seen before.”