News & Accolades

Articles about Casa Barranca Estate and Winery

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  Ventana Magazine, January 2008
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  Natural Home, March/April 2007
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  Edible Ojai,
  Winter 2005
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  Ventura Cnty. Star, November 2005
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  Yogi Times, November 2005
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  Ojai Valley News, August 2005
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  Ojai Valley News, November 2002
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  Architectural Digest, June 1999

Awards and Accolades

A Note from the Vintner

I found my passion for winemaking while schooling in the South of France, where I lived with a family at their small country home. My ethos as a winegrower was further developed as I steeped myself in the philosophy and lifestyle of the American Arts and Crafts Movement. Under these standards I employ environmentally sustainable organic and biodynamic practices as a method to grow the highest quality, certified organic wine grapes and weave all of these influences together into my grape growing, wine making and land stewarding protocol.

From hand-picked organically farmed grapes and using gravity for a gentle racking of the wine, to cleaning with earth friendly solutions and redistributing the crushed grapes back to the vineyard to nourish the vines, I fashion the wine with the same deep respect and love as I have for this beautiful earth we call home. I trust you will taste the devotion to detail in every glass.

-William Moses

Casa Barranca Wines Wins Competition

From Ventura County Star

Casa Barranca Wines, an Ojai winery, emerged from the San Francisco Chronicle Wine Competition, held in February, with an assortment of accolades including a Double Gold Medal for its 2004 Bungalow Red (Syrah/Grenache blend). The winery also earned honors for its 2004 Pinot Noir (Gold Medal), 2004 Cabernet/Merlot Blend (Silver Medal), and 2003 Syrah (Silver Medal).

Casa Barranca: The Ethos of Open Mind, Open Heart & Skilled Hands

The Pinot File Vol. 5 Issue 9

Ojai, California lies in Ventura County south of the major wine producing regions of Santa Barbara County. Until recently, the most notable wine producer in Ojai has been Adam Tolmach of The Ojai Vineyard. Adam was Jim Clendenen’s partner at Au Bon Climat until they split in 1991. Adam and his wife Helen had started Ojai Vineyard in 1983 as a side project, but after leaving Au Bon Climat, he devoted his full energies to his winery and has produced a succession of excellent wines. Unfortunately, his original vineyard in Ventura County was decimated by Pierce’s Disease so he sources grapes from several outstanding South Coast and Central Coast vineyards including Bien Nacido and Pisoni.

An avid reader of the PinotFile (a Pinot Queen) told me about the luscious Pinot Noirs being produced at a fledgling winery in also in Ojai called Casa Barranca. I am always seeking out the small Pinot Noir vintners because their wines have plenty of character. My recent trip to Sonoma had me stopping on the way to visit Casa Barranca owner Bill Moses and his assistant winemaker Jean-Benoit. Deslauriers. As we sat on the back patio on a glorious sunny day drinking Pinot, Bill told me the story of Casa Barranca and the Pratt Winery located on the estate.

Bill Moses is a New York transplant whose success in investment banking has allowed him to indulge in his passion for winemaking. He discovered his love for wine in the 1980s while attending school in the South of France, where he lived with a family on their small farm and vineyard. It was here that he was first introduced to sustainability in farming practices. Upon the urgings of a long-time friend, he paid a visit to Ojai and immediately became enthralled by the mountain peaks, orchards and majestic oaks that mark the landscape of this bucolic community. Subsequently, the famous Casa Barranca estate (also known as the Pratt House) in Ojai came on the market and eleven years ago, Bill purchased Casa Barranca and moved west.

Casa Barranca is widely recognized as one of the finest creations of the American Arts and Crafts Movement. It was commissioned by Charles and Mary Pratt to be designed by the most gifted architects of their time, the brothers Charles and Henry Greene who designed the Gamble House of Pasadena, the “Ultimate Bungalow.” Charles Pratt was an executive of Standard Oil and could afford the best. He chose a remarkable 54 acre site with commanding views of the surrounding mountain peaks and no expense was spared in building the house.

Bill Moses learned his winemaking skills assisting with custom crush programs in the Coastal wine region. He constructed a winery on the property using a century-old subterranean stone water cistern (the entrance is visible in the background below; Bill on the right, Jean-Benoit on the left), In building the tiered shelving system in the winery for his gravity racking protocol, he used craftsman who employed Old World skils like “mortis and tenun,” and “scarf joinery,” and who finished the walls in a “board and batten” style. The press “hopper” is crafted of oak and is inspired by Greene & Greene design. The winery was bonded in late 2004 and is the first certified organic winery on the Central Coast.

Bill enlisted the assistance of some of the top winemakers on the Central Coast including Richard Sanford and Robert Atkins from the Sanford & Benedict Vineyards and Etienne Terlinden of Cordon and Summerland wineries. Currently he has a full-time assistant winemaker , Jean-Benoit Deslauriers, who shows a spirited passion for Pinot Noir.

Bill is not interested in technical wines, rather more crafted wines. The philosophy of the Arts & Crafts Movement believed in the unity and beauty of a hand-crafted environment that could affect one's spirituality. Bill wants to continue this craftsman heritage by employing organic farming, solar power, and the use of artesian spring water. The attention to detail is evident everywhere one looks.

There is a two acre certified organic vineyard on the property growing Grenache, Syrah and Semillon. Bill plans to add another five acres in the future. The grapes for his traditional Pinot Noir has been sourced from the organically-farmed Sanford & Benedict Vineyard. Unfortunately, Richard Sanford has sold the Sanford Winery to a corporation who plans to discontinue the sustainable organic farming techniques lovingly employed by the Sanfords over the years. Fortunately, Richard and Thekia Sanford have purchased the La Rosa Vineyard from Sanford Inc. and plan to continue their sustainable farming and production in their new Alma Rosa winery. Bill Moses will continue to source grapes from Richard’s new project, as well as an organic block of Pinot Noir at Laetitia.

Casa Barranca produced 4,000 cases in 2003 including a “Bungalow Red” Syrah/Grenache blend with sulfites added and a “Arts & Crafts Red,” with no sulfites added. In the future, plans call for a total production of 6,000 cases, 2,000 of which will be sulfite free. Bill feels there is considerable interest in themarketplace for sulfite-free wines. For the sulfite-free wines, he brings the grapes in and crushes them without letting them sit, inoculates the juice and ferments the wine in a timely manner. No wine is truly “sulfite-free” as some sulfite is produced as a byproduct of fermentation (1 to 8 parts per million ‘ppm’). In order for a wine to qualify as organic or “no sulfates added”, it must have less than 10 ppm. Frequently winemakers add 30 to 100 ppm of sulfites to their wines to preserve them and to withstand the temperature fluctuations they are exposed to as they are sold to the marketplace. Organic wines with no sulfites added are therefore primarily intended for the local market and short-term consumption. Bill says that ultimately he would like to create a “world-class” organic Pinot Noir. Ojai customers have embraced his organic Pinot Noir and the 2003 vintage is sold out.

2003 Casa Barranca Arroyo Grande Valley Pinot Noir 14.3% alc., $19. No sulfites added. The nose is a bit shy and a tad funky, but not in an unpleasant way. Red fruit flavors lead the way to a soft finish. Not a terribly complex wine, but unmistakably Pinot in character. A daily drinker.

2004 Casa Barranca Santa Rita Hills Pinot Noir 14.5% alc., $30. Bottled 6 months. The beautiful label artwork is by artist Mara Berendt Friedman. This wine is beautifully perfumed with a generous dose of cherries, smoke and earth. The fullbodied flavors march to the same beat. Mouth feel is velveteen. A warm finish shows plenty of appealing sweet oak and herbs. A dead ringer for the last Sanford La Rinconada Pinot Noir I drank. Endorsed by a Pinot Queen - how good is that?

This is definitely a label to watch. There is a sense of serious commitment here. I tasted some 2005 Casa Barranca clone 667 juice which hit all the right notes.

“This is something I’ve wanted to do since I was a young man. It wasn’t until I moved to Ojai that I decided it was time to do what I truly wanted to do. I am so blessed that I have the chance to live my dream and can make these very good wines while honoring our earth’s resources” .........Bill Moses

Local Winery Takes Honors

By Ludmila Montoya OVN contributor
From Ojai Valley News

The results are in for the Long Beach Grand Cru wine competition, which has grown to be one of the most prestigious wine competitions in California. The Grand Cru wine competition was held aboard the Queen Mary on July 16 and 17. Ojai’s Casa Barranca Wines brought home two silver medals and one bronze medal (contact winery for winespecific info).

The competition has gained international prominence and has judges attending from across the United States. These judges are a carefully selected group of worldrenowned vineyard owners, journalists, winemakers, connoisseurs, authors and professors who come to Long Beach to judge under the leadership of chief judge, wine columnist and contributor to Gourmet Magazine, Dan Berger.

More than 370 wineries submitted approximately 1,600 wines for the competition. Wines came from California, Colorado, Florida, Iowa, Idaho, Indiana, Maryland, Michigan, Missouri, North Carolina, New Jersey, New York, Ohio, Oregon, South Dakota, Texas, Virginia, Washington and Wisconsin as well as Australia, Bulgaria, Canada, Chile, France, Germany, Italy, Mexico, New South Wales, New Zealand Portugal, South Africa and Spain.

“All entries are of premium status, which puts the tasters on their mettle,” observed Berger. “Every wine entered becomes a challenge.”

Wineries were given flexible category guidelines and each wine — regardless of its grouping — was judged according to its appearance, color, aroma, body, residual sugar, flavor, acidity, tannin, finish and general quality.

The Long Beach Grand Cru is unique in that it is a primary fund-raising vehicle for the Legal Aid Foundation of Los Angeles. Los Angeles County has the highest poverty population in the nation. To meet the civil legal needs of the poor, the foundation provides services for battered women and children, seniors, veterans, disabled and the homeless. Wineries who enter the competition are making it possible for thousands of clients to keep their homes; feed, clothe and shelter their families; escape domestic violence; remedy consumer fraud and abusive employment practices; and seek opportunities for better lives.