Always thought of these wines as grocery store cheepos…never really peeked any interest, even when we visit Cambria, which we love. Now I see Antonio Galloni’s Santa Barbara report…and these caught my eye! 2020 Cambria Katherine’s Vineyard Chardonnay 94pts…and 2019 Cambria Katherine’s Vineyard Signature Collection Chardonnay 96pts! WOW…pretty high scores for wines that are very inexpensive and readily available? From own rooted vines 1971…lot of minerality, cut and energy descriptors. Pinot’s in the 90’s as well.
Their Julia Vyd PN is also reliable/good and generally everywhere (Costco etc). Matt Kramer thinks they are too heavy on the oak, but there’s a taste for that. Oddly enough I was just thinking about picking one up as I have had not anything from there in a while, and I have a credit at a merchant.
Their grapes also go into other winemakers bottlings too.
The main point of the entire article was to talk about how well Santa Barbara County did in a challenging 2020 vintage. In addition, it was pointed out about the relative pricing in Santa Barbara County to other parts of California.
Jackson Family owns two wineries just up the road from the Au Bon Climat and Lindquist winery on Santa Maria Mesa Rd. Byron is mothballed, I believe , which is sad because it is just gorgeous. Both wines are made at the Cambria facility…everything is subject to change!!
The Cambria brand has never really caught on. Byron benefits from some wonderful vineyards planted by the Mondavi posse 20+ years ago.
All they need to do is buy more barrels from us and the possibilities are endless!
Larry makes an excellent point: this region produces excellent wines at very fair prices.
I stopped by the Cambria/Brewer Clifton tasting room this past March and enjoyed the wines. To echo the comments above the value of Santa Barbara wines for quality is unmatched. I really like their Clone 4 Chardonnay.
Ahh…NO! Bought a bottle of the 2020 for $17 at the local grocer…and for the life of me, don’t see the 94pts here? It is totally drinkable…I would definitely send the wife to the store and get this if she needed a cooking/drinking wine…but it really isn’t anything more than a cheap, mass produced Ca. Chard imo. Has nice citrus…some creamy pear and apple fruits…even white flower florals…but masked by protruding oak, and some disjointed alc burn. Again…totally drinkable…but really uninspiring, with zero emotion…and compared to the Talley Arroyo Grande Chard, which is my benchmark at this price point, not even close! Wife agrees.
Yup, Buzz… pretty much agree with your take on this wine. Nice/pleasant but nothing particularly distinctive about it. A decent $19 Chard… but just that.
Tom
How much are people paying for the Talley Chardonnay? Hard to believe it sells for less than $25. $38 on their website. Since Talley buys barrels from us and Cambria makes their own, you know my prejudices! But we should compare apples to apples.
Now that I guess we’re moving on from Cambria, and to avoid taking up the other thread with this, you guys and Galloni make this point about relative pricing, but honestly, I look at WSP’s list of most expensive SBC wines and, even beyond SQN (), I see a lot of listings that do not seem to be worth their price-points.
You are not incorrect in pointing out so of the more expensive wines in the region but luckiky, these are the ‘outliers’, with most wines, like the ABCs and Jaffurs of our area, being quite reasonable . . .
Talley has a few different bottlings, and for the base chard, 2020 is the current release on the shelves. I have not seen vineyard designates at mass market ‘on the shelf’ kinds of places.
Guillermo,
A chacun son egout as the French say but I look at the lists you published and find lots of values.
The winery I know pretty well is Au Bon Climat
I ve had tons of S and B from them. This is a wine that ages beautifully. 60$ ?? Both the Pinot And the Chard are steals.
I tried playing around with wine searcher but it told me I was a robot…. How did they know? What is this nonsense about walks that are cross? Angry walks…?Does not compute…
What region in the USA would you offer as a comparison?
Sine Qua Non is the only really expensive wine and it is sold out forever.
They won’t go up in price. I am sure James Suckling has given them 93 or higher for years. They are good value wines no doubt and I would drink them if offered.
), I see a lot of listings that do not seem to be worth their price-points.