A Timeline of Six Sigma Tempranillo
1964 Kaj (age 14) makes his first move into the wine business when he discovers he can collect and sell empty wine bottles in Denmark to the local grocery store.
1975 Kaj (now old enough to engage with full bottles) discovers Tempranillo on a business trip to Spain.
1985 Kaj plants his first grapevine at the family’s cabin in Denmark.
Pictured here: Christian prunes the vine a final time in 2007 before the house sells. The Danish climate has by this time ripened exactly 0 kilograms of grapes.
1990 Kaj and Else fall in love with a fun Rioja wine named Club Privado and ask a friend in Spain to ship some their way. They receive 100 cases. (The wine is great, but it still takes years to consume; They give away the final cases when the family leaves Denmark for the USA.)
1993 Team Ahlmann moves to Kansas City and plants a small vineyard on their land in Bucyrus. It is not clear if the crop would have been suitable for winemaking – turkeys eat the grapes.
2002 Things get serious. Kaj plants the first 2 acres of Tempranillo at Six Sigma Ranch. Pictured above is the first harvest in 2005 – Kaj (right) with David Weiss, our first Vineyard Manager
2007 Wine Enthusiast Magazine names inaugural 2005 vintage “best California Tempranillo in this critic’s experience,” and rate subsequent vintages up to 94 points.
2017 A group of top Sommeliers arrive with Somm Journal in an entourage of black Cadillac Escalades to taste a 10-vintage flight of Six Sigma Tempranillo above the vineyard. (The event would be difficult to replicate, because only 5 bottles of the original 2005 vintage exist at Six Sigma Ranch.)
2018 We select grapes and barrels for the first-ever Grand Reserve Tempranillo. We later scrap this first version – it is very good, but it’s not the all-out epic we had in mind.
2019 We select grapes and barrels a second time for Grand Reserve. This time, it’s awesome. We make 6 barrels (150 cases).
2022 We prepare to release this FIRST vintage of Grand Reserve on October 22nd.
If you want in on this, just email: Katelyn@SixSigmaRanch.com to reserve a few bottles or a case.
(Retail price is $79/bottle, or $63 for members.)
