The Science Behind the sip

BY DAN FREDMAN

You don’t have to be a rocket scientist to be a winemaker, but Steve Autry’s background in aerospace hasn’t hurt him any.

Autry Cellars may be San Luis Obispo’s smallest winery. Run by Autry with a little help from his daughter, Kristen, and a few friends, his winery and tasting room lies in the center of Edna Valley, next door to Tolosa and underneath the SLO airport flight path. For the past twenty years, he’s been crafting small quantities of prizewinning wine and brandy from grapes all sourced within San Luis Obispo County.

Growing up on his grandfather’s chicken ranch in Rialto, he says he has agriculture in his blood. “I became a beekeeper, which kept me involved in agriculture, but I picked up extra work as a machinist at night. From there I moved into design and fabrication jobs in the aerospace industry and even spent a few years working with orthotics and prosthetics. The balance between nature and machinery has been a longtime fascination for me, and nowadays, as a small winemaker, having been a jack-of-every-conceivabletrade has certainly been a benefit. It doesn’t make the process easy, but at least it makes it possible.”

Autry’s “aha” moment came in 1983 when he and his wife were camping in Big Sur. At a restaurant in the Pfeiffer State Park, a bottle of the 1977 Monterey Peninsula Amador Zinfandel was recommended and turned out to be life-changing. He was inspired to make wine and brew beer at home, and during a lull in the aerospace industry, he took a job with Doc’s Cellar, a home winemaking and brewing supply shop in SLO.

“At Doc’s” he says, “I was working with 1,500 different clients, and they’d bring their wines in for us to taste. I was getting exposure to all these great, new-to-me grapes and wines and a few years in I tasted one that gave me the same feeling I got from that Monterey Peninsula bottle. It came from a grower out in Creston named Paul Hoover, and his Still Waters Vineyard has been my primary source for red grapes ever since.”

Most of Autry’s white wines are made from grapes grown in Edna Valley. “I get Grüner Veltliner and Chardonnay from within a halfmile of my tasting room.” Over the past few years, a lot of the vines around Edna Valley have been pulled out and replaced by lemon trees. “I’m concerned about where I’ll buy grapes to make wine” laughs Autry, “but I’m a distiller too, and I see a great future ahead for limoncello.”

Autry’s interest in distillation developed naturally. He had a greatuncle who’d done time for moonshining and the thermodynamics aspect of the process fascinated him. He eventually designed and constructed his own still. He calls it a “triple parallel column, vapor management compound fractionating still” and he uses local grapes and apples for his material. The Autry brandy took the Double Gold at the San Francisco International Spirits Competition last year, and he also makes a grappa out of leftover skins from the grape fermenting process. “It’s not recycling, it’s upscaling,” according to Autry. >>

“People tell me that my wines have a particular style,” says Autry. “I like my grapes a little riper than most winemakers around here, just like vine-ripened tomatoes or tree-ripened fruit, because that’s where the flavor is. I learn as I go, usually working out how to solve problems with my science background. My wine education is almost completely self-taught. I came out of aerospace research and one thing we figured out there was how to figure things out. We do that through scientific method, where we only change one thing, and if it’s different, you can blame it on that one thing.”

“Over the years, I’ve zeroed in on a fermentation protocol that I like: I make all of my white varieties the same way, and make all of my red varieties the same across the board. The only thing different is the grape variety, and that varies based on the grape variety itself and the vineyard it was grown in. I’m trying to show people the unique differences between all of these grapes. We do single vineyard, single varietal wines almost exclusively, but we do make two blends out of the fifteen different wines I usually make each year. Up until recently, all of my wines have been fermented in American oak barrels, but lately I’ve been moving to barrels made from Hungarian oak.”

A visit to the Autry Cellars is a unique experience. The wines reflect Steve Autry’s focus on making wines the way he thinks they should be made, and in between the array of airplanes crossing overhead, you’ll experience an amazing selection of birds that live around the property. On the right day, you could see red tail hawks, bald eagles, or peregrine falcons, all being watched from the ground by Mustcat and Mustache, the winery’s cats.

And about the winery’s logo: it’s a big bass clef. Autry is a longtime bassist, having played in a number of local bands over the years. SLO LIFE

*Tasting Notes

2021 Albariño // Edna Valley $38

Lychee, grapefruit, tangerines, and green apples predominate on this wine’s nose and palate. Light and lithe in the mouth, Albariño should be your go-to variety when the summer heat kicks in.

2020 Sauvignon Blanc // Still Waters Vineyard // $35

The wine is crisp and clean, with just enough grassiness to make it a perfect pairing with Thai or Chinese cuisine. Five weeks in neutral American oak give it body without interfering with the flavors or aromatics.

2020 Primitivo // $40

For years, Primitivo, aka: Zinfandel, has been the standout red wine in SLO County but over the years it’s ceded its enodomination Pinot Noir, Grenache, Syrah, and Mourvedre blends, and Cabernet Sauvignon. Autry’s version brings it back to its beginnings as a slightly rustic, semi-fruity wine to enjoy with a meal. Easy to drink, but still a serious bottle of wine.

Autry Brandy Aged in Hungarian Oak // 750ml // $80

Distilled from Albariño, this distillate spent five-and-a-half years in a neutral Hungarian oak barrel. The oak influence is subtle, resulting in a sense of coconut, and marzipan, basically the essence of “tropicality.” Great on its own but also works well in cocktails.