Joey Tensley decided to be a winemaker when he was 12 years old. His Bakersfield, Calif., soccer team was playing in a tournament in France when they toured a winery. He remembers the chill of the cave and the smell of wine fermenting—and those impressions stuck in his mind. Having just finished his 30th vintage in 2023, the Santa Barbara–based winemaker, now 53, is among the top Rhône-style producers in California. Senior editor Tim Fish recently sat down with Tensley to discuss his career.
Wine Spectator: What led you to winemaking?
Joey Tensley: I was bit by the wine bug at a young age. I went to Bordeaux when I was really young, and in high school and later in college in Santa Barbara I worked at high-end delis that sold wine. I started to read Wine Spectator. This was around 1992, when I turned 21. Eventually, I became the wine buyer and got to taste a lot of stuff. I had two epiphany wines that changed the trajectory of my life. The first was a Paul Jaboulet Ainé Hermitage La Chapelle 1990, and the other was a 1989 Zaca Mesa Syrah-Malbec made by winemaker Gale Sysock.
WS: What was your first job at a winery?
JT: I worked in the tasting room at Zaca Mesa in 1993, and then in 1994, I went to Fess Parker and worked in the cellar for my first harvest. I was fairly mechanical, so I started running a bottling line as well. One day, we were bottling for Bryan Babcock and I asked him if I could volunteer to help him pick Pinot Noir. He said, “You want a real job?” and I said yes. Then, in 1998, I joined Beckman as assistant winemaker and had a space of my own to start my own label.
WS: What was the first vintage of Tensley?
JT: That was 1998. I started with four barrels—100 cases—of Thompson Vineyard Syrah and Alisos Canyon Syrah. That was a big El Niño year, too, and I was like, “Wow, what a great year to start my brand off.”
WS: What makes Santa Barbara such a distinctive place for Rhône-style wines?
JT: I think it’s the huge swings in temperatures we get every day. The winegrowing valleys of Santa Barbara are unique to California, running east-west, instead of north-south, which opens the vines to ocean breezes. It’s typical for us to get a 40-degree swing in temperature in a day. We’re getting California sunshine, which gives the round juiciness, but then we also get really great acidity because it cools off so much at night.
WS: What about the soils?
JT: Syrah is pretty adaptable. It’s very distinct in sand, so in the Sta. Rita Hills, where Turner Vineyard is located, and even up in Santa Maria, those wines are more aromatic. I really like that. Colson Canyon gets a lot of wind, which helps it keep acidity, but it also gets a lot of sun—and it’s more like Gigondas, kind of clay loam and calcareous.
WS: The popularity of Syrah and other Rhônes in California has gone up and down over the years. Where are things now?
JT: I think a lot of small producers are charging a lot for the wine, and I don’t think that’s been really helpful in establishing a national variety going forward. We’ve maintained our prices. Colson Canyon Syrah is still $50, and our Santa Barbara Syrah is still $32. But it has kind of come full circle—Syrah is pretty hip again in restaurants and steak houses in major markets like New York and San Francisco. Syrah doesn’t have to be ripe to have color and weight, but still have a lot of freshness, especially from coastal vineyards.
WS: What wines are you drinking lately?
JT: Probably 80 percent to 90 percent of the wine that I consume at home is a Rhône variety. I drink a lot of Southern Rhône—there’s still such great value there. I make 90 percent Syrah, but I drink more Grenache. I do drink a lot of St.-Joseph, because there are still producers making wines in the $30 to $40 range. My go-tos are Châteauneuf, Vacqueyras and Gigondas.
