What Santa Barbara County/South Coast Wine Are You Drinking?

It’s no secret that I like SBC wines. There are some good ones: Tercero, Tensley, Jaffurs, Ojai, Paul Lato, SQN, etc. I know others here enjoy them as much as I do. So post your most recent indulgence.
Tonight we popped a 2013 Tensley SBC Syrah. Great right from pop and pour. A tad sweet, but with juicy acidity and pepper to balance things. A drink me now wine that is hard to put down. Nice QPR.

The Tensley SBC is a great Syrah for the price!

Liquid Farm! - had a great visit with Jeff a few weeks ago and the wines were delicious. It was a treat to taste the soon to be released Pinot Noir - awesome stuff.

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For $17 it’s hard to beat the ABC SB County Pinot noir

They make a nice Chardonnay too.

At the moment, Dragonette and Paul Lato.

Harrison Clarke

My wife and I were just up there for a quick weekend trip.
Lincourt:
Liked everything we tasted there. The unoaked 2013 “Steel” Chardonnay was interesting with a nice acidic edge. 2013 “Lindsay’s” Pinot was very good and made in a less fruit forward style but with some noticeable oak - thought it should probably be laid down for a year or two. The most interesing wine was the 2012 Cabernet Sauvignon which showed a lot of true Cab character without a facade of oak and overextraction. Good value across their lineup.

Tercero:
Love visiting Larry and trying his wines. He opened up the not-yet-released 2011 Camp 4 Grenache and it was fantastic. The other standouts were the 2010 Larner Syrah and the 2013 Roussanne. The only wine club that I belong to - enough said.

Succulent Cafe:
Ordered the 2013 Buttonwood Malbec with dinner. A beautiful wine - new world for sure with up front fruit, but varietal purity with no oak mask. Only $38 from the list - a great value at list price of $26 at the winery. I’ve tasted there previously and have always liked their wines and thought they presented very good value.

Ampelos (Lompoc Wine Ghetto):
Spacious and nice tasting room. Interesting lineup. 2013 Red Carpet Pinot was actually pretty good and we were informed that it would be poured the next day at the Golden Globe awards! The 2011 Lambda Pinot was very nice in a fairly restrained style. 2011 Rho Pinot was similar but with more noticeable French Oak. The 2011 Gamma Syrah and 2011 Syrache were both very good but it was the 2011 Delta Grenache that stole the show for me - a well-balanced and tasty wine with good varietal character.

Fiddlehead (Lompoc Wine Ghetto):
Tasting room is very cramped with fold up chairs and table. Loved the Sauv Blancs but the Pinots were unremarkable and the NV “Missing 7” was terrible. $15 for only 5 wines, three of which were low-end. A poor experience.

Arcadian/Bratcher (Lompoc Wine Ghetto):
Was very impressed with the 3 Bratcher wines that were poured. New producer for me and now on my radar. 2010 Mary Ellis Chardonnay was gorgeous as was the 2013 Sauv Blanc. I’m blanking on which Pinot was poured but I think it was the 2012 La Encantada which was also very good. The Arcadians were also fantastic wines. The 2007 Sleepy Hollow Chardonnay was fresh and vibrant. The 2008 Santa Lucia Pinot Noir was a well balanced, flavorful wine that reminded me of the (more recent vintage) Sandler versions. The most interesting wine was the 2007 Sleepy Hollow Syrah which had wild aromatics and ever changing flavors. A beautiful tasting room and a great chance to taste wines from a Central Coast legend. We were the only ones in the tasting room the entire time we were there on Sunday around 1pm for about 45 minutes. Only $12 for the tasting of the six stupendous wines.

Paul,

When you where at the wine ghetto did you go by Piedrassasi? I always thought they had some good lower priced Syrahs. I didn’t bother going there earlier this year because their web site said most of their Syrah were sold out. Zotovich also there has some good Syrah but kind of pricey.

Lineup at Sanford right now is very good, loved the reds at Dragonette from a recent stop at their tasting room. I see that Ken Brown made a Happy Canyon Sauv Blanc and plan a special trip to go taste that, as HCoSB AVA SB is really driving my imagination right now.

The CFO (wife) and I did an anniversary trip to Santa Ynez, Los Olivos and Santa Barbara in early December.

I posted a trip report here: http://www.snooth.com/talk/topic/santa-ynez-santa-barbara-trip-report/.

This is my roundup of the highlights:

Best of show - Melville, everything we tasted here was top shelf, the setting was beautiful and the folks pouring were fantastic.

Best tasting experience - Demetria, not necessarily the best wines but the setting and the seated tasting were first class.

Best Chardonnay - Liquid Farm, all of them, not much of a surprise here.

Best Pinot - Au Bon Climat, 2012 Isabelle

Best Syrah/GSM - Melville 2012 Syrah, High Density

Best Bordeaux varietals - Happy Canyon Vineyard, 2011 Piocho Reserve

Nicest tasting room - Alma Rosa, once we found it on Santa Rosa Rd, next to Industrial Eats

Most unusual offerings - Kenneth Volk. We tasted Malvasia Bianca, Verdelho, Negrette, Blaufrankisch, Touriga Nacional and Aglianico with a bonus pour of their Old Vine "F"Red which is a blend of Cabernet Sauvignon, Zinfandel and Touriga Nacional.

Biggest surprise - with all the hype about this areas Pinots and Chardonnays, we found the syrahs to be the standouts. With a few exceptions, the majority of pinots were good but not great and the chards were all over the place from steely/minerally to oaky and buttery.

anyone visited A Tribute to Grace, the grenache producer in Santa Barbara? I am new to those wines, but man did I enjoy the ones we bought this fall. made me want to visit the area and taste more

Kirk,

A Tribute to Grace does not have a tasting room at present.

And Roger, please do stop by next time you are in the area.

Cheers.

Did you try their rose?

Greg,

Sadly, I am nearly out and therefore not pouring it in my tasting room anymore.

The good news - I’ll be bottling it at the end of February and it’s tasting and smelling awesome :slight_smile:

Cheers.

Joel, no, I did not get a chance to try Piedrasassi. I’ll make sure to try them next time I’m “in the ghetto”.

Piedrasassi Syrahs are very good to great. Even the “cheap” ones.

Piedrasassi makes great juice.

'12 Jaffurs Verna’s Vineyard Syrah
I normally would hide these in the cellar for 5-6 years, but Jaffurs has toned down their style in the last few vintages and this one, while young, is drinking very well with lots of spice and dark fruit goodness.
I heard Verna’s was sold, so I am not sure how many more vintages we’ll see from here. I really like these. Too bad.

'10 ABC “Isabelle” PN. Too young but delicious nevertheless. One can easily wait another 5 years to open this wine.

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