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Tucked away behind a Target store in Gilroy, the tasting room for La Vie Dansante—The Dancing Life—provides a relaxing oasis for shoppers in the mood for a bit of grenache, syrah, or carignan or, if you are lucky (and it’s available), a glass of their charming and historic Mission wine.
But what if your shopping was done at one of the local vineyards, and you find yourself lugging around a few tons of grapes with nowhere to keep them safe while you check out the winery’s tasting menu?
You’re in luck. The owner of La Vie Dansante, Jeffrey Fadness, is also the director of operations for Atelier des Savants Fous—Mad Scientists Workshop—a custom crush facility right next door that works with several well-known San Benito County wineries.
“We don’t advertise,” Fadness said. “Nobody knows we exist. But our clients have been finding us.”
The building was originally a roofing tile factory, and its peculiar architecture lends itself nicely to the wine business. The northern section of the interior is where the old tile kilns were located. Resembling barn stalls, the 10×40-foot brick-lined corridors are uniquely suited to storing barrels of wine.
“It was turned into a wine production facility called ‘The Stomping Grounds’ in 2015,” Fadness said. “The original concept was a shared-use co-op for about four wineries, a brewery and a bakery, with tastings and events.”
Fadness said the idea never had the momentum it needed, and the partnership was dissolved in 2020. Reimagined as a facility where winemakers can have their grapes crushed, fermented, barreled and bottled, it currently serves 14 wineries and one limoncello maker.
Fadness said starting his winery in 2015 cost him close to $500,000. With Atelier des Savants Fous, he said, he can offer winemakers a significant reduction in overhead.
“One of the things we offer for smaller wineries,” Fadness said, “is that they can go into production without purchasing the entire setup. You’re not buying tanks. You’re not buying pumps. You’re not buying filters. It’s all right here.”
Each narrow corridor can hold up to 120 barrels or around 3,000 cases of wine. For Fadness, that represents two year’s worth of wine. Some of the larger clients use two or three of the corridors to store their barrels.
The crush pad, where wine grapes go to die and be reborn, houses two presses capable of handling up to 15 tons of grapes at a time. Fadness said that as many as 500 tons of grapes are processed yearly, with a 400-ton average and a maximum production capacity of 50,000 cases.
At the heart of Atelier des Savants Fous stands a series of massive fermentation tanks capable of handling 234 tons of grapes at a time. Its website lists eight 20-ton 6,500-gallon tanks, four 10-ton 3,000-gallon tanks, three 6-ton 2,000-gallon tanks and four 4-ton 1,300-gallon tanks. Thousands of gallons can also be produced using high-capacity plastic microbins, portable stainless steel tanks and a concrete egg fermentor.
For most of the year, Fadness said, things can go on autopilot with very little intervention—until harvest time.
“In winemaking,” he said, “90% of everything that is important happens in 90 days. Things are nice for nine months of the year, and then you get three months where it’s insane. There’s just so much fruit coming through that we’re working two shifts from 7 a.m. to 9 p.m.”
Michael Wargin, of Soquel’s Wargin Wines, was one of the first winemakers to use Atelier des Savants Fous, joining in 2016 when it was still The Stomping Grounds. He said that he is attracted to the facility because of the proximity to the fruit he uses, the excellent technology, the “beautiful staff,” and the functional lab.
“I’d say there is a serious range of intelligence here,” he said. “There are winemakers with 10 to 20 years plus of experience and a really incredible staff giving you advice when you need and no shortage of everything you’d ever need to make any kind of wine you feel like.”
Though the facility is in Gilroy, Fadness said he sees a large number of San Benito County grapes go through production at Atelier des Savants Fous.
“They’re wonderful grapes,” he said. “The growing season is perfect; they get a little more sunlight than we do. Some of our favorite growers are down there.”
The Wines of La Vie Dansante
2019 Picpoul Blanc – “This is probably my favorite white wine at the moment,” Fadness said. “It’s light and lower in alcohol, which is something we keep getting asked for.” This is a very bright and lemony wine with a light aroma, a rich minerality, and a touch of herbs. It is one of those spring or summer wines with softness, smoothness, and a finish that makes it disappear into your mouth almost before you notice. Delightful.
2018 Grenache – “It is one advantage of being a small winery that this is our standard grenache, and it is from 2018,” Fadness said. “It sat in a barrel for three years, getting topped off and condensing. And it’s been in the bottle for two and a half years. That’s why it is so smooth.” With a leathery aroma that verges on tobacco, this wine has a tiny bit of butteriness, some licorice, an exceptional smoothness, and that same easy dropoff in the finish. There is wonderful fruit and a little bit of dryness. Overall, it is an exceptional wine and a standout grenache.
2019 Petit Syrah – The aroma is wild lavender and moist earth, with light tannins and the excellent velvety smoothness that Fadness tends to lock into his reds. There are blackberries and blueberries throughout and a little aftertaste of oak that comes in the right moment, and gives it a nice backbone before a clean finish. I loved the Grenache but this was my pick of the tasting.
Golden Ale – Available only by the glass at the winery, Fadness said he decided to try his hand at beermaking after seeing couples where the men were sitting out the tastings while the women tried the wine. “I thought, ‘OK, this ridiculous,’” he said. “I need to do something to entertain the boys. I’d been getting a lot of pressure from one of my friends to do beer, and I didn’t want to do it because I thought it would take away from the wine.”
His friend offered to pay him to start making beer, and after Fadness looked into the processes and checked what equipment he had, he discovered that he could start with only a $60 investment. “If you have all the stuff to make wine small scale,” he said, “you could probably make beer.”
Made with barley malt and Citra hops, it is a nice middle-of-the-road beer with a little bitterness that does not overwhelm. It is a very easy-drinking beer with a grassy aroma, an inviting flavor a and a light alcohol that invites you to snag a second glass. Fadness is promising traditional root beer at Christmas as well and I look forward to seeing what else he will be making.
La Vie Dansante Tasting Room
6500 Brem Lane, Gilroy, CA 95020
Hours:
Friday – Monday – Noon to 5 p.m.
Tuesday – Thursday – closed
Contact:
Phone: (408) 852-0779
info@LaVieDansanteWines.com
https://www.laviedansantewines.com/
Note: Atelier des Savants Fous is not open to the public. Those in the trade may contact Jeffrey Fadness at (408) 852-0779
Recommendations for future Eat, Drink, Savor articles can be emailed to roberteliason@benitolink.com.
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The post Eat, Drink, Savor: The Dancing Life and the Mad Scientists Workshop appeared first on BenitoLink.