SantaBarbara Trip Report Feb 11-14
Was out to SoCal for a week earlier this month. Couldn’t resist doing some wine things.
Monday (2/13)
Started off the day by dropping into JaffursWnry to visit w/ CraigJaffurs. Even though he sold
the wnry to DanGreen/Conarium, a Pinot/Chard producer up in Lompoc, he is still coming in most days.
Manager DaveYates is stepping back from the wnry for a break, but is much too valuable to lose to the
operation. Craig will stay on-board at Jaffurs until the end of August, and then step back a bit.
We reminisced a bit about our first meeting up at BobSenn’s LOW&SE and trying his first Viognier & Syrah
from Gerber baby food jars (the Reidel ones, of course). Got the meet Stephen, the Jaffurs CellarMaster.
I had stopped by on Sun afternoon and tasted thru the recent Jaffurs wines that were open. I was quite
taken by the new Viognier '15. Much more restrained & balanced and less DollyParton than previous ones.
And the new SBC basic Syrah '14 is yet another winner.
Then headed down to Ojai to meet up w/ Fabien at the OjaiVnyds tasting room. Unfortunately, he had
something going on at the wnry and had to send in the first team. So spent nearly an hour visiting w/
AdamTolmach, whom I’ve followed from the very start. We tasted thru a few of the current releases. The
new RollRanch Viognier '15 is particularly good, quite restrained w/o seeming lean & eviscerated. I also
like his Chards and Pinots quite a lot. He has a dessert Riesling Kick-On Ranch '14 refrigerator ice wine
that’s very delicious. As I leave, Adam gifted me a btl for dinner of:
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OjaiVnyd Riesling Kick-On Ranch (13.0%) 2015: Light yellow color; quite aromatic/floral/Riesling
somewhat stony/mineral/chalky lovely nose; rather tart/crisp quite stony/mineral lovely spicy/floral/R/
mango flavor; very long/lingering stony/chalky/mineral perfumey/mango/floral/R bit pineapple quite crisp
finish; plenty of acidity that should allow this to age quite well; maybe his best Kick-On R yet. $30.00
Over the last few yrs, Adam has been reining in the style of his wines, particularly the white.
Mostly by harvesting earlier. Some of them have a screechy/teeth-chattering acidity to them. This R did
not and may be his best Kick-On R yet. It should age very well. Reminded me a lot of some of the Wachau
R’s in character.
Tuesday (2/14)
Since we decided to stay in SantaBarbara an extra day, this gave me a day to head up to the
SantaYnezVlly.
First stop was at the LompocWineGhetto. Alas, most of the wineries there are only open on the
weekends. But I noticed that the back door to Conarium was open, so I stopped in. Ran into StephenSearle,
CellarMaster at Jaffurs, whom I’d met the previous day, forklifting barrels. He retrieved DanGreen for me.
Introducing myself to Dan, I welcomed him to the Jaffurs family, whom I’ve followed from the very start.
We had a very pleasant visit for about 15 min. I’m confident in his taking charge at Jaffurs and feel
comfortable that the wines are not going downhill, maybe get even better. He will be moving some of his
Conarium wines down to the Jaffurs facility in SantaBarbara
After visiting w/ Dan, on a lark, I gave a call to Larry Schaffer/Tercero, about meeting up w/ him
that afternoon. He was completely booked up for the afternoon, but the opportunity to taste w/ TomHill
was not to be missed, so Larry cancelled his afternoon appts w/ RobertParker, Antonio Galloni, and
JancisRobinson to show me his wines in his tasting room. My TN’s are kinda sparse since we mostly were
chin-wagging. We tried:
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Albarino 2016: Larry’s first venture into Albarino territory. Light/near colorless; strong
fresh/very appley bit shy nose; fairly tart crisp/appley/zippy flavor; like biting into a fresh
Granny apple; not the floral character of Calif Albarino or the stoniness of Spanish Albarino;
should become a quite nice Albarino w/ some age.
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GrenacheBlanc 2014: Light gold color; very strong honeysuckle/GB perfumed rather pencilly/oak/
butterscotch nose; lightly tart strong floral/honeysuckle/GB bit pencilly/butterscotch/oak flavor;
a very attractive GB that avoids DollyParton territory.
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VerbiageBlanc (Roussanne/Viognier/GrenacheBlanc) 2014: Light gold color; very bright strong
honeysuckle/very floral fragrant/perfumed nose; lightly tart/balanced fairly rich honesuckle/floral
ripe fruit flavor; quite attractive bright white Rhone blend.
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Marsanne 2014: Light yellow color; somewhat mineral/stony quite appley/floral/Marsanne nose;
very tart clean/spicy/bright lightly mineral some appley/floral flavor; reminds me some of the early
Qupe Marsannes who start out a bit simple and go on to greater glory w/ age.
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Roussanne ZacaMesaVnyd 2014: Light gold color; quite spicy/nutmeg very floral/honeyed/honeycomb
slight earthy quite aromatic nose; strong floral/honeysuckle/honeyed rather spicy/nutmeg flavor; speaks
strongly of Roussanne.
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Mourvedre Rose 2016: Light garnet color; very floral/aromatic bright strawberry nose; tart/lean
strongly floral/strawberry very spicy flavor; an absolutely terrific rose right now w/ amazing aromatics.
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Cinsault Camp4 Vnyd(100% w-c)2015: Fairly light ruby color; some peppery/earthy bit rustic nose;
bit soft earthy/dusty/peppery bit rustic flavor; a very pretty bit rustic red.
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Carignane Camp4 Vnyd (100% whole cluster; 11%) 2016: Light red color; very strong cherry/Carignane
light earthy/dusty quite fragrant nose; rather tart bright/cherry/Carignane/earthy flavor w/ light brisk
tannins; quite an attractive rendition of Carignane.
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Aberation CabFranc (100% w-c; 100% SS) 2016: Dark color; rather herbal/green olive some dusty/earthy
nose; fairly strong herbal/green olive some dusty/earthy bit rough flavor; speaks of CabFranc/herbal and
needs age yet.
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Mourvedre LarnerVnyd (no w-c; destemmed) 2013: Dark color; strong plummy/classic Mourv slight earthy/
dusty nose; bit soft rather rich/lush/plummy/Mourv flavor w/ some tannic bite; pretty classic expression
of Mourv.
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Mourvedre ThompsonVnyd (100% w-c) 2013: Dark color; very strong plummy/Mourv quite spicy/peppery
slight earthy nose; lightly tart strong plummy/Mourv/earthy strong spicy/black pepper bit earthy flavor
w/ some hard tannins; very spicy/peppery Mourv and very interesting; a lovely expression of Mourv.
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Syrah LarnerVnyd (no w-c) 2011: Very dark color; Very dark color; very strong blackberry/Syrah/
bit boysenberry slight smokey/pungent nose; bit soft strong blaclberry/spicy/peppery ripe bit smokey/
pungent/oak flavor w/ some ripe/smooth tannins; reminds a lot of the Jaffurs basic SBC Syrah; a very good/
solid/4-square SBC Syrah that should age well over the next few yrs.
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Syrah LarnerVnyd (60% w-c) 2013: Very dark color; strong blackberry/Syrah/ripe/boysenberry more
spicy/black pepper more complex nose; very strong spicy/blackberry/Syrah more black pepper/complex very
interesting flavor w/ some ripe/smooth tannins; one of the best Tercero Syrahs I can recall; should age
well for 4-6 yrs.
A wee BloodyPulpit:
- The three 2016’s were barrel samples that Larry pulled that afternoon. I didn’t take note of the prices but
they should be on Larry’s WebSite (www.TerceroWines.com). His prices are always quite reasonable and the
wines, in large part, overdeliver.
Larry is going more&more to whole-cluster ferments on his reds. Based on these Mourv/Syrah pairs tasted
here, this seems to be a move in the right direction.
Tom
