Today we’d like to introduce you to Joshua Klapper.
Hi Joshua, can you start by introducing yourself? We’d love to learn more about how you got to where you are today?
I founded Timbre Winery in 2005, originally under a different brand name. I was working as a sommelier in Los Angeles and caught the winemaking bug. After five years of commuting to the Central Coast to make wine, I moved my Family to Arroyo Grande in 2011. In 2017, we opened our first tasting room in the old village of Arroyo Grande. In 2023, we will be opening our second tasting room at our urban winery in San Luis Obispo.
Can you talk to us a bit about the challenges and lessons you’ve learned along the way. Looking back would you say it’s been easy or smooth in retrospect?
The wine business is incredibly complex. A study was done and it was determined that over 500 unique decisions are made in order to make a bottle of wine, and that is just the making of the wine itself! Add in the business aspects of marketing, selling, finance, inventory management, and logistics and it becomes quite a complex business! It has not been smooth, but I have found that both my wife and I have the ability to quickly look at problems, re-assess, learn our lessons, and ultimately move past the problems we encounter. Some of the recent struggles we have had related to the pandemic was sourcing bottling supplies. At the height of the pandemic, the global supply of glass was heavily impacted. If you look at our 2021 Rose and aromatic whites, they are in different-looking glass than what we typically use and at double the price!
Alright, so let’s switch gears a bit and talk business. What should we know about your work?
As a former sommelier and now having been a winemaker for 18 years, I have learned to trust my palate. As a winemaker, my ultimate goal is to produce wine that is delicious, age-worthy, and an accurate example of what the vineyard site the grapes came from can best express in a wine. That comes with deciding when to harvest, how to ferment, how to age and in what vessel type to age in, and finally blending and bottling. Throughout that process, my best tool for guidance are my nose and palate. If I smell or taste something is off, the science typically backs it up! We specialize in white and red wine from San Luis Obispo County and Santa Barbara County. We are probably best known for our Pinot Noir!
Let’s talk about our city – what do you love? What do you not love?
The Central Coast of California is absolutely beautiful. We have amazing beaches, great restaurants and culture, and fairly light traffic. Ultimately sitting in traffic was one of the main reasons for my exodus from Los Angeles! I do wish it was a little easier to get to our area from LA… Typically, wine travelers on the 101 head to Santa Barbara to taste wine. if they are heading to Paso Robles for wine travel, they take the 5 freeway. There is no reason to take the 101 beyond Santa Barbara for wine unless you are specifically coming to our town, so we don’t get as many casual visitors as we would like.
Pricing:
- Wine tasting flight $25
- Bottles of wine $28-$65
Contact Info:
- Website: www.timbrewinery.com
- Instagram: timbrewinery
- Facebook: timbrewinery
Image Credits
Joshua Klapper, Bethany Watje, Mady McNeill, Mario Nicholas Torres
