Candid Wines | Tensley Wines

tensley wines

Interested in selling or serving Candid
Wines to your customers? Please
contact Damien.

Santa Barbara County is home to a rather
unique geological feature; a mountain range
that runs east to west.

Tucked into these directionally challenged hills
is a multitude of micro-climates which, in
concert with the local soils and careful
farming, can produce a remarkable range of
Syrah. Captivated by these differences, Joey
Tensley works each year to create as many as
seven single vineyard bottlings. Each is grown
in careful collaboration with the vineyard
owners and there is an emphasis on healthy,
ripe grapes above all else. The resulting wines
are powerful, and each a powerful lesson in
terroir. With the exception of the Colson
Canyon Vineyard, none of the wines are
treated with new oak barrels and all are made
the same way.

Candid receives a small selection of these
Syrah's as well as the white wine Joey and his
wife Jennifer make, Camp 4 Vineyard Blanc.
To read more about each of the wines that are
available in Illinois, click here.

To visit the Tensley's web site, please click here.

The short history of a family winery:

Joey Tensley and Jennifer Beck fell in love
as twelve year olds in France. Not with
one another (that would come later), but
with wine. Joey spent time in Bordeaux
on a travelling soccer team, but
remembers the smell of local wineries
more than the thrill of victory. Jennifer,
lucky girl she was, lived in Paris with
her mother, a wine importer.

Years later in California, they met each
other and the rest, as they say, is bottled
history.

Along the way, Joey has worked as an
assistant winemaker for Babcock and
then Beckmen Vineyards. He started
Tensley Wines while working at Beckmen
Vineyards, producing just 100 cases in the
first year. Today, he and Jennifer split
time the tasting room and you are likely
to see either one of them if you stop by
the winery. Chances are, you'll meet
their son Oliver as well, who, having
been raised since birth among grapes,
barrels and bottles, would seem to have a
lead on both of his parents.

Read more about the specific wines
available in Illinois.

Recent Reviews

"Best American Syrah Over $20"
Food and Wine Magazine

2006 Reviews by Parker
2006 Three Creek Syrah
2006 Tierra Alta Vineyard Syrah
2006 Colson Canyon Vineyard Syrah
2006 Camp 4 Vineyard Blanc
2006 Lea Rose Black Oak Vineyard

2005 Reviews by Parker
2005 Three Creek Syrah
2005 Tierra Alta Vineyard Syrah
2005 Colson Canyon Vineyard Syrah
(sold out)

2005 Reviews by Tanzer
2005 Three Creek Syrah
2005 Tierra Alta Vineyard Syrah
2005 Colson Canyon Vineyard Syrah
(sold out)

Matt Kramer, writing for The Wine
Spectator said "Joey Tensley is a 30
something wine maker in Santa
Barbara County who's got a gift for
creating single vineyard
Syrahs...elegant characterful wines
with the grace of a ballroom dancer."

Videos with Joey Tensley from www.askawinemaker.com:

Tensley Colson Canyon Syrah:
"America's Best Syrah, 2008"
and a Top 100 Wine of the
Year for 2009.