Day THREE! - SaturdaySaturday was all about my friend, Stacy’s, birthday celebration. I had curated a day that 12 adults could enjoy, with some variety. Some outdoors vineyard stuff, some indoors, different varietals at different tasting rooms (Rhones at Larner, Pinots and Chards at Loring and Babcock) and some free time at the end to explore Los Olivos. I had prepared a little handout to give people an overview of the day.
Some winery/winemaker facts for the group
A very abridged list of tasting rooms in Los Olivos that fit our plan well
We jumped in the Sprinter van and headed up the scenic drive on 154 from Santa Barbara towards Santa Ynez. Fortunately, our driver was great! She was Brasilian, like one of our group members, and they got the party music started. She also took very nice photos of us and our tours so I have more pictures for this part of our trip! Excitement was high as we headed to wine country, singing 80’s tunes on the way.
Larner
Our first stop was Larner vineyard. I chose this vineyard for several reasons. I have a lot of respect for the Larner family as growers, having enjoyed Kaena’s Larner Grenache, Tercero’s Larner Grenache, and other winemakers’ Larner Grenache too. I liked the idea of seeing a grower I respected, and getting to taste what Michael Larner was doing with his own fruit as a winemaker. There is also a wonderful family story behind Larner, and a vision for the future of Larner that includes family legacy. Michael’s background as a geologist makes him a fantastic person to listen to as he explains the topography and terroir of Ballard Canyon and the entire region. He was a key figure in getting Ballard’s AVA approved and is a central figure in the present and future of wine in this region. Plus, he is a nice guy (yes, this matters too). If you have a minute, check out his fun ‘smack talk’ videos with Mikael Sigouin of Kaena when they had a throwdown to see who was truly the ‘King of Grenache’.
Promo shots from their WWE-Style Grenache Showdown: Michael Larner and his Nemesis/Buddy Mikael Sigouin of Kaena Wines
Another bonus in visiting Larner was the Polish connection as a member of our group is from Poland, as is Michael’s Mom. Both from rural areas not far from Krakow.
We pulled into the beautiful vineyards and a warm Michael Larner greeted us. We were welcomed with a glass of Larner Malvasia, an unusual varietal to see in these here parts, but a grape Michael’s mother loved from her time living in Italy (told you this was a family-driven enterprise). The Malvasia is gorgeously perfumed and dances lightly on the palate with a moderately dry finish. The perfect start to our visit. (We have since drank the bottle of Malvasia we brought home with us, enjoying it at a birthday party where a friend of mine who loves Viognier was in ecstasies over the nose which she compared to Muscat though the wine is dry in the mouth)
Pulling in to Larner Vineyards
Future Larner Onsite Tasting Room (once permits are sorted out)
Starting with a glass of fragrant Malvasia!
Michael then walked us up into the vineyards a bit to where we had a panoramic view of the rolling hills of the area (is there anything so soothing as rolling hills covered in rows of grapevines and framed by a mountain backdrop?). He explained the nature of the geology that made the area unique and perfect for producing high quality wines; he touched on the transverse mountain range running East-West which creates a unique climate for the area. Closer to the ocean, around Sta Rita Hills it is like Burgundy (thus Pinot Noir and Chardonnay), then as you move East it gets warmer (like moving farther South in France). So Ballard Canyon is like Northern Rhone (and lots of Syrah here). Foxen Canyon (Syrah, Grenache etc) and Happy Canyon are even warmer, like Southern Rhone. It was a fascinating way to look at the topography and climate of the area.
Vineyard
Larner Blocks
Michael Larner (Center, with Bottle) shares his vineyards, rose and family story with us
Michael explains the area’s geology and the AVA approval process
Then we had a sip of the Larner Rose as we stood in the vineyards. The rose, like most roses to me, was pleasant and a fun wine (a month later, we drank a bottle with a watermelon/tomato/basil/mint/mozzarella/pistachio salad and it was wonderful with it). We then returned to the long tasting table outside. What a beautiful environment to taste wine in, surrounded by the vines growing the grapes you’re drinking.
Drinking Wine Al Fresco at Larner! (Stacy, the birthday honoree, is in the blue shirt on the right)
In addition to the Malvasia and Rose, we tasted our way through the following:
2013 Larner Elemental - A GSM whose ratios change yearly. Classic Rhone flavors here, with good balance. Full flavored blackberry, bluebery and a hint of cherry mixed with some pepper/spice and moderate tannins. Fruit is not as deep dark and powerful as their straight-up Estate Syrah. Drinkable now (so I bought a bottle).
Larner Estate Syrah was everything I love about Ballard Syrah. Blueberries, smoke, black pepper, slight tannin bite at the end. Full, fragrant, and could be enjoyed alone or with food - definitely red meat-friendly. This is a step up from the recent Rusack and Stolpman Estate stuff, imo.
Larner Reserve Syrah - This was designed to age longer, so had additional new oak treatment. Obviously, then, it needs more time for the oak to integrate. I won’t venture to guess what this projects to taste like in the future. It will be interesting to see how some of these age. I think this Ballard AVA is absolutely right to brand itself with it’s Syrah (in fact they have special bottles with Ballard on them that Ballard wineries can solely use for estate syrah). The long term vision, it seems, is to identify these age-worthy wines with Chateauneuf type wines. It’s a good plan and I am curious to see what happens. Remember how young this region is, in wine history terms. That it has come so far, so fast, is a testament not only to the terroir, but the growers and winemakers here. I look forward to them evolving as they create that top tier of age-worthy wines.
Also worth noting, the Larner label design and logo are very nice. Simple, clean, and represent the sizing tool for sorting earth and rocks. The four rings also represent the four founding members from the family, Stevan, Christine, Monica and Michael.
Here is the Elemental label:
What a great start to our day! Then we trundled off to our much bally-hooed Loring wine and cookie pairing. Many in our group were very excited by this concept! To be honest, I was curious but cautiously so… Wine with cookies? Would it help or hurt the wines? Well let’s just say it was a FASCINATING experience! Read on!
Loring Tasting Room (Buellton)
A Happy Group At Loring Wine Co. Tasting Room
Anna and I had visited brian at his winemaking facility in Lompoc on Friday, but today we were visiting his tasting room. Unfortunately, Brian had prior commitments on Saturday so I am glad we got to meet him on Friday! No need for concern, however, as the people at Loring Winery’s Tasting Room are so warm and welcoming it’s a perfect place to visit. Once we were situated, they showed us how to enjoy the wine-cookie experience. “Sip, Bite, Sip” is the method. This lets you get a clear sense of the wine on its own, then take a bite of cookie, then sip the wine again to see how the flavors in the cookie have altered your perception of the wine. This was a fun, informative experience that really highlighted specific qualities in each wine.
Again, since I was with a large group, and socializing while also organizing things, I was not able to take proper tasting notes. I’ll relate what the experience was like, as best as I can.
An Einstein Arm-Tattoo Instills Confidence In Us!
C is for Cookie
The Chardonnay Was Fantastic! Round, yet crisp with subtle lemon notes
April the Cookie-Maker!
Stacy Approves of Loring Wine AND Cookies!
[vimeo]221053402[/vimeo]
Loring Wines Tasting Menu
Time to taste!!!
2015 Loring Santa Lucia Highlands Chardonnay
Sip: Fairly straightfoward, well-made Cali Chard with some lemon, some oak, some size, some zip.
Bite: Lemon Pistachio Cookie
Sip: WOW. This combination was amazing. The chard becomes laser like in it’s focus. The flavors interplay back and forth. Head-turning pairing.
2014 Mateo Russian River Pinot Noir (Keefer Ranch)
Sip: Cherry, but balanced not just fruit. Concentration. Some nice acid. Not totally my style.
Bite: Montmorency Cherry Shortbread
Sip: Pairing cherry with cherry may seem obvious, but it’s obvious because it works!
2015 Loring Sierra Mar Vineyard Pinot Noir
Sip: Deeper and darker than the Mateo, definitely more going on in this glass! Wish I’d had more time to sit with this one.
Bite: Montmorency Cherry Shortbread
Sip: I didn’t think this pairing was as ideal as the others, to be honest. Great wine. Great cookie. But they should just be friends instead of getting married.
2014 Loring Kessler-Haak Pinot Noir
Sip: Love when a Pinot has red AND black fruit on the nose and palate! Another Pinot that deserved more time to unfurl all it’s layers and power.
Bite: Fig and Gorgonzola Cookie
Sip: This pairing was amazing. The savory funk in the gorgonzola highlighted the fruit and acid in the wine amazingly, and the wine’s depth of fruit played well with the fig (which I associate more with a riper aged fruit flavor in wine). This Pinot is great. Really happy at this point in the tasting/pairing!
2015 Loring Wine Company Pinot Noir Santa Barbara County
Sip: Lots of red cherries 'n berries. Good entry level Pinot.
Bite: Mexican Hot Chocolate Cookie (This was the only cookie I didn’t love)
Sip: This one didn’t work as well for me.
Overall, the cookie pairing concept was fantastic. Especially because FIRST you sip the wine and experience it. These were very good wines, and Brian has even more amazing ones we tried in his barrel room. Once you take a bite of the cookie, it really highlights different aspects of the wine and also demonstrates how massive an effect food has on one’s experience of the wines. Several of these pairings were just euphoria in my mouth. Bravo!
My absolute favorites of Brian’s wine are his Rancho La Vina Vineyard Pinot, the Divergence and the Russell Vineyard Mourvedre. But all of his wines taste fantastic.
Okay… time for our NEXT stop… but around this time you can see who has been pacing themselves (and/or spitting) and who has been drinking. The wine is going to a few people’s heads and we are in need of food. Fortunately we have planned a picnic lunch at our next stop, Babcock. Unfortunately all the picnic bags except two were forgotten by the front door of the house! We decide to use those two picnic lunches as appetizers for the entire group and order sandwiches for the driver to go pickup and bring back. Tragedy is averted!!!
Babcock
When we arrive, we are ravenous. We find a corner and spread our food out on a livingroom style table, surrounding it like lions jockeying for a piece of the kill. I cannot recall all that was eaten, but bread was torn with hands, cheese eaten in hunks, and general gourmet savagery ensued. Once we were sated, we began our wine tasting. Around this point, the more serious wine lovers in the group are hitting our stride. The casual ones are enjoying looking around the very cool vintage shop. This is part of why I chose this as our third stop. Those who want a break from drinking can enjoy exploring and relaxing around the grounds.
Here’s the great tasting room at Babcock winery in Sta Rita Hills
Here’s one of the tasting flights
At this point, I am definitely beyond caring about taking notes. Here’s what stood out to me from the Babcock tasting:
- A Cabernet Sauvignon that had a surprising jalapeno element to it
- The Top Cream Chardonnay is nice in exactly the way you’d expect a Cali Chard to be, and since I am not a huge Chard fan it didn’t move me. But my Chard fan friends loved it. (I just checked on CT out of curiosity and last year I scored it an 89 while the CT avg is 91, so there you go)
- The Pinot that got my attention was the 2015 Babcock Pinot Noir Appellation’s Edge Radian Vineyard. I seem to like these deeper, darker Pinots with some black fruit!
As we wrap up here, many are plain tuckered out, while others are game for more. We head to Los Olivos for free time. This is a gorgeous, cute little town right in the heart of wine country. It has that ‘Main Street” charm. We each have an hour. I choose to hit a few tasting rooms, while others go for a coffee and relax on the patio.
Dreamcote
Tasting Menu
I wanted to stop in here because their website lists some pretty interesting varietals and experiments, as it were. Young winemakers Brittany Zotovich and Anna Clifford really are cutting their teeth here. While I wasn’t overly enamored of the wines, to be honest, the cider was fantastic. Of course, putting their wines against winemakers who’ve been doing it for decades is going to be challenging. Where I think they do really separate and distinguish themselves is in their Chardonnay-Barrel aged ciders. These have the fruit and aromatics of a good saison while carrying a bit of tart apple, and just makes you crave things like sausage, breaded schnitzel and a host of other fat-rich foods that pair well with crisper beers, ciders and white wines. I was sorely tempted to buy some cider, but resisted so I could pick up more wine instead.
Bien Nacido
Tasting Menu
Everything was very well made. The Pinots had depth, complexity, a soft touch of tannins, good length. Really no missteps. Fruit and acid were harmonious. Simply very skilled winemaking, top to bottom on all the Chards and Pinots. Syrahs and Grenache were better than I expected. Had I not overbought already in the trip I would have been tempted. That said, at $60 per bottle I can’t call Bien Nacido wines a value. Were these in the $40 - $50 range I likely leave with a bottle or two.
Los Olivos Wine Merchant
At this point I popped into the L.O.W.M. to pick up a wine for dinner. Two of our courses involved hints of coconut, and lemongrass so I thought a nice Gruner Veltliner from Solminer would do the trick. I love Solminer’s Blaufrankisch, and their biodynamic practices. I tried to set up a last minute visit, since they are located very close to Los Olivos’ main drag but they weren’t available that day. Fortunately, LOWM had what I was looking for so I snagged a bottle of the 2015 Solminer Gruner Veltliner. The Los Olivos Wine Merchant, by the way, is a local restaurant and wine shop that features a lot of local producers that are hard to find elsewhere. It also makes an appearance in Sideways (double date dinner scene).
Coquelicot
Popped in with only a few minutes before we were leaving, so I couldn’t do a full tasting. I asked one of the staff if I could try whichever wine they thought was their best in their lineup. She put forward a riesling which was not my style. I found it too sweet, lacking acid to offset it, and lacking enough complexity to make up for it. It was not a bad wine, simply not for my palate. I moved on.
Kaena
On my way back to the Sprinter van I saw two of our group in Kaena. I popped in to corral them, and whilst there couldn’t resist picking up a bottle of the Kaena Grenache Rose.
Mikael Segouin does very good Grenache. His standouts, in my opinion, are his Kaena Larner Vineyard Grenache for something a little more complex, and his Grenache Rose for something very fun. I picked up a bottle of the rose for poolside enjoyment on Sunday. I bought some last year and found it had a delightful watermelon aroma and was far too easy to drink on a hot day.
Once we rendez-vous’d at the van we drove back to the Santa Barbara house. But, energy levels were NOT the same.
There is less singing on the drive back to the house
Saturday Night Dinner And Wines
Saturday night we stayed in and had a lovely dinner. There was a greens salad with fig and manchego, a lemongrass coconut soup, a black cod with miso-tumeric broth and a dessert. We drank the Tercero Marsanne (great complex nutty character for a white), the Solminer Gruner Veltliner (went great with the Thai-influences in the food), and some Italian white varietal I had never heard of but wanted to try and already forget!
We then retired to the livingroom and drank the following:
2014 Myriad Cellars Cabernet Sauvignon Beckstoffer Georges III Vineyard (excellent but needed more time)
2011 Roccolo Grassi Amarone
And we played silly games like, “If you had to marry, have sex with, or be roommates with the following three people, who would you choose and why?” For example, one set of options was Beyonce, Ellen DeGeneres and Michelle Obama. Then the ladies wanted a male set of choices so we did Robert DeNiro, Harvey Keitel and John Travolta. If it sounds sophomoric, it’s because it was! Plus, it was fun after an entire day and night of sharing wonderful wine with good friends.
Okay… we are ALMOST at the end. Hang in there because now it’s…
Day FOUR! - Sunday
Sunday started with coffee. And brioche pastries from a French bakery. Then detox workouts run by my wife, Anna. lol. After that it was mainly about lounging by the pool. We enjoyed two bottles of the Kaena Grenache Rose, which has a fun aroma of watermelon and perfect refreshing quality for poolside quaffing. We ate the picnic lunches that had been forgotten by the door the previous day and contented ourselves with taking photos of everyone in midair as we jumped into the pool. A very fun afternoon. However, I was looking forward to dinner!
Dinner at The Lark
The Lark is a real crowd pleaser. Just good enough food for the foodies but not pretentious. Casual enough yet trendy and hip enough. Rustic yet upscale enough for a birthday dinner. Good for adult cocktails but kid friendly too.
So The Lark checked all our boxes.
For wine we decanted a bottle of Tensley Colson Canyon Syrah and a Justin Cab that members of our party had brought. We each began with our own choice of cocktail or wine. I opted for a glass of fairly non-descript bubbly. Champagne, even when unremarkable, always conjures up a celebratory feeling for me.
When our food arrived we had foie gras, a beet and fennel salad, seared diver scallops, mushroom tagliatelle, shrimp and grits, asian bbq ribs and three orders of steak to consume between us. It was a big task but we were eager and up to the challenge!!!
The Tensley Syrah was a potent force that cut right through all that heavy bbq smoke and seared steak flavor. The cab was not my scene (not a Justin guy) but paired well with the steak. The wine went fast, as did dinner. We wrapped up with multiple desserts. I most appreciated the goat milk cheesecake with a Tokaji they got from Les Marchands next door because the Sauternes on the list (a Rieussec, iirc) was on the sweeter side.
Once we all straggled back to the funhouse, some went to be, others the hot tub. A small group of us played some Cards Against Humanity, a wonderful game for horrible people. It had us laughing our heads off. I also brought out the remaining 1/2 bottles of Tercero Petite Sirah, Myriad Beckstoffer Georges III, amd Roccolo Amarone. All three still had big black and blue fruit. 3/4 people preferred the Tercero, which was a pleasant surprise.
I posted this pic in the other thread, but here it is again to go with the story
And then, all too soon, it was…
MondayNo wine today. Reluctantly we said our goodbyes as we all returned to our daily lives. What a fun weekend. We may do it again next year!
Thanks for reading. Hope there were some bits of interest for you.
Barry