In the “real world” of wine, anything over $7 a bottle is considered premium wine and the answer to “what kind of wine do you like?” is “I prefer red to white,” so I think the answer to your rant is “because 99% of all wine drinkers don’t care.”
You are correct - there is logical case for SBC to be a sub-region like Napa and Sonoma. I will consider making these changes, but might not be able to. Making large moves like this has a trickle-down effect of breaking some other things and ends up being a large-scale project. We may have to live with this. Sorry.
The unfortunate thing is that we are stuck with some choices I made over ten years ago when I was first putting some order into our geographical data. There are things I would do differently now in many areas.
Thanks for reply - and the email. i hear you - it’s just a bummer. Yep, things are certainly different than they were 10 years ago, but in terms of CA regions, I will continue to feel that SB and SLO counties really do get ‘assimilated’ into a larger area that has no ‘identity’ whatsoever.
And Jay, you are correct that many consumers would not know the difference - but that’s why important to educate them . . . which is something I very much advocate about every aspect of what I do.
Larry,
Santa Barbara is very much a Central Coast wine region both geographically and in style, and I fail to see how that placing it there somehow erodes the value of the region.
What’s wrong with the central coast? If central coast producers like you see it as a negative, how will the wider wine world ever see it differently?
It’s not about ‘placing it somewhere else’ - it’s about giving it it’s own identity. Yes, geographically, we are considered ‘Central Coast’, but as I said above, no one other than grape brokers would combine the Napa and Sonoma and Lake County regions into ‘North Coast’ as a default because those regions are so different and diverse . . . just like ours and Edna Valley and SLO and Paso and Monterrey, etc.
I don’t think of lake county or Napa as Coastal wine growing regions. I might be in the minority, but they certainly don’t act like coastal regions. And I fail to see how a true statement erodes one’s identity. Santa Barbara has a distinct identity, and it’s also on the central coast. I don’t understand why that’s an issue.
Nope, I would say they don’t ‘act’ like coastal regions - with some exceptions, of course. But neither does most of Paso or the Happy Canyon area or the Los Olivos District.
Santa Barbara does have a distinct identity - but not as a wine region except for a small percentage of knowledgable wine folks. I’m truly amazed at how many people really don’t what we have to offer here, and any chance I have to ‘separate us’ from a larger, non-descript area, I will.
I am proud of the wines that we produce here, and appreciate and enjoy the wines from the other areas that fall under the ‘Central Coast’ tag. But we are not ‘the same’ and are often categorized as such - every major wine writer, travel writer, etc . . .
Pretty much every website and database ever has lumped together regions like this. I don’t understand why you are singling us out. As Andrew has already said, at times we wish we had one more regional layer. However, we do not. At this point due to a number of technical limitations, we are not likely to change this.
Just some examples.
VINOUS
Jeb handles this better, as he has an extra layer in his regional hierarchy.
Sorry if it seems like I’m singling you out - based on what you posted, the issue is definitely more widespread.
I know that you and CT are certainly more ‘approachable’ with issues like this than the others mentioned - and I appreciate any consideration you can give to the area in which I make wines. And no, this is not about me - it’s about the entire region.
Larry - taking your Camp 4 Mourvedre as an example, I actually like that Central Coast is listed. I don’t really know the Santa Ynez Valley from Santa Claus, so it actually helps me place it in the general California landscape.
Geographically, Happy Canyon and the Sta Rita Hills are in Santa Barbara County, but the Santa Rita Hills probably have more in common as a growing region with the Carmel Valley (silicate/calcareous soils, proximity to open ocean, on-shore flows) than they do Happy Canyon. Hmmmm.
