La Fenetre Wines rebranding as TIMBRE WINERY

SANTA MARIA, CA – La Fenetre, founded in 2005 in Santa Barbara County, CA is changing its name to TIMBRE WINERY beginning with the 2012 & 2013 vintage of single vineyard offerings, which are currently available at LaFenetreWines.com and TimbreWinery.com. Owners Joshua Klapper and Alex Katz felt that the winery had outgrown its original persona, including the name and packaging that went along with it. When Klapper started La Fenetre, he decided to use Burgundy-inspired label imagery to convey information about the wines he was producing.  This was particularly salient then – over a decade ago – when the vast majority of California wines were big, rich, and fruit-forward.  A lot has changed in 10 years, which has given Klapper and Katz the freedom to be more expressive of style in their packaging and branding. Klapper notes, “La Fenetre was a reference to the fact that winemaking is our art form.  That underlying ethos of winemaking-as-art has not changed.  What has changed is the way we want to convey that feeling both to ourselves and to our customers.  We had a strong desire to relate the ethos to something more relevant to our lives and the lives of our customers and a musical analogy seemed like the perfect fit.”

TIMBRE is most often pronounced, “TAM●ber,” but, “TIM●ber,” is an alternate pronunciation. Timbre is the “color” of musical sound.  It’s how two voices express their individuality, even when singing the same note. “When you hear Robert Plant, Amy Winehouse, or Nina Simone, you know who is singing, even if it’s a song you’ve never heard before,” explains Katz.  “What makes a voice (or instrument) unique and recognizable is TIMBRE.  We source fruit from some of the best vineyards in Santa Barbara County and across the Central Coast, but we don’t own any of those vineyards, so what differentiates our wines from others sourced from the same vineyard sites?”  There are, of course, many factors from picking decisions to fermentation, oak, when to rack, when to bottle as well as intangible, indescribable elements.  The concept is that those intangibles have a big impact and, collectively, they make up the TIMBRE of the wines.  Adds Klapper, “as a terroir-driven winery, we strive to make wines that are expressive of the places and times from which they came, but inevitably, as winemakers, we are channeling these vineyard sites through our own experiences and adding our own mark, our TIMBRE, on the resulting wines.”

Each wine has its own name, with musical reference, which speaks to he individuality of the site it was harvested from, or its blend. For example, Supergroup is a bottling of Pinot Noir made from three distinct vineyard sources in the Santa Maria Valley. Just as a supergroup is a band made up of members who have already garnered fame from other projects, the three vineyards from which this wine is blended are themselves famous. Other bottlings include Pinot Noir, Chardonnay, Rose, and a Late Harvest Viognier under names like Lead Vocals, The Headliner, Guest Star, The Rhythm, The Hi-Hat, Opening Act, and Encore.

Each label has unique art, featuring stylized soundwaves that reflect the distinct personality of each vineyard site (or blend of sites). To Klapper and Katz, these waves represent the visual representation of TIMBRE. Because they are somewhat abstract, like wine, they are open to interpretation. One may see mountains, valleys, the ocean, glaciers, all of which relate to the terroir of the wines.

TIMBRE WINERY is committed to sustainable practices in its vineyard and product sourcing, as well as its production.

Klapper and Katz met as Freshman at Stuyvesant High School in New York City. Best friends since then, Katz worked in corporate finance while Klapper made a career as a sommelier, eventually partnering in La Fenetre in 2010.

Contact: Joshua Klapper, 310-977-5615, [email protected]; Images available upon request