Just got back from a trip to Pismo Beach. We visited Tercero, Talley, Tablas Creek, and Kynsi. Many have posted about the first 3 on here quite often and we had great experiences at all of them. The time just flew by with Larry at Tercero. I think we were there for more than 2 hours. I was going to stop by at Tensley but time got away from us. Larry was gracious enough to pour us several barrel samples in addition to the bottled wines. Really enjoyed his Pinots.
I wasn’t expecting great things from Kynsi as I have never heard anyone here talking about it. We didn’t have much time on Saturday for tasting so I thought I would pick a place near the SLO airport. Settled on Kynsi since it had decent Cellar Tracker scores. We were very impressed. I loved their Bien Nacido Chard and their estate Pinot from Stone Corral. Great wines and staff here. I enjoyed the low key vibe. Prices were reasonable.
I used to like this winery run by Don Othman, a wine equipment inventor. I’ve been stopping for 15 years or so. He used to strictly buy grapes, but from some very good vineyards (Bien Nacido). Mainly chards and pinots, but some syrah and now grenache. Kynsi is partners with Talley and Stephen Ross in the Stone Corral vineyard, which is right next to Kynsi Winery in Edna Valley. I was there a couple month ago and I don’t know as I’ve ever met more disinterested tasting room employees; was tempted to complain to Don but I didn’t.
Hmm, this is unfortunate…
I recall that they were the first, in my experience, winery that incorporated the “Tip” section into their tasting room purchases. Discouraged me from buying more. My experience with their employees has been ok, but nothing memorable. Although I haven’t visited them since about 2019.
I’m not trashing them. I visited with Don before the tasting room opened. They made a huge deal about having a reservation, then the people were not ready to open. They had to clean counters and tables and find the wines (which were way too cold). They couldn’t answer basic questions about the wines except that Bien Nacido is east of Santa Maria. There are probably a lot of similar experiences out there, but this one stood out on an otherwise fine trip. Kynsi does not get much play on the wine boards.
The name caught my eye, as it is Finnish (it means nail, as in fingernail or toenail) and I started to wonder how on earth a Finnish word ends up being a winery name.
Well, apparently they just chose the name because of the owls that reside at the winery (as “kynsi” can also mean bird talon). I’ve still no idea why they went with Finnish, though.
They might think of a talon, but to a Finnish person the winery name sounds more like “Fingernail Winery”.
That’s exactly the reason it’s called Kynsi. “To honor family heritage, they chose the Finnish word “Kynsi” meaning talon to go with the beloved barn owl.”
No, vice versa. They selected the word and the picture of an owl because they had owls at the property, as I said.
Exactly as I said in my post. I just didn’t see any explanation why they decided to go with Finnish out of all languages, which was the thing that originally confused me. Based on their names, the people behind the winery didn’t seem Finnish, and if they had Finnish ancestors, I didn’t find any mention of it anywhere.
