We ran into Jeff pouring some of the 13 Chards and a tank sample of the 14 rose at Wine + Beer in Santa Barbara Public Market. He generously agreed to take time to show us their “winery” later in the week. We arrived at the NE corner of Buellton in an industrial area to see grapes being unloaded for Dagonette-which is next door to LF. James-the lapsed Mormon-winemaker met us and he was soon joined by Jeff. The harvest for LF was finished (9-23) and everything in barrel. We barrel tasted some 14 juice and Nicole fell in love with the Chardonnay barrel from Clos Pepe Vineyard-hopefully they will bottle this separately. The barrels are from Damy Meursault and have medium toast-but no overt oakiness was evident in any barrel sample and we tend to be very oak intolerant. The 14 rose seemed much fruitier and richer than the 13 version-it could displace some French rose next summer on our table. We also tasted 2 different 14 pinots-both showed excellent promise. While we were barrel sampling and visiting Jeff generously opened some of the 13 Chardonnays. There are 2 new bottlings- La Hermana and Bien Bien. Hermana is 60% Bien Nacido, 33% Dierberg and 7% Maldonado. The Bien Bien is 100% Bien Nacido.
13 White Hill 13.8% I feel this is a bit bigger than the 12 version-we drink a lot of Chablis so do not agree with those comparing it with Chablis but it is leaner than the other 13’s. A blend from 7 vineyards.
13 La Hermana 13.6% Stylistically similar to White Hill but a bit richer. We really liked this and feel it could drink a little earlier than the other 13 LF.
13 Bien Bien 14.2%. Moving to a bigger and more forward wine. Not sure if this is released yet but it is heading toward Four territory.
12 Four 14.3% My first taste of a Four and we were impressed. We thought French Burgundy Premier Cru with a bit of fat. I believe there was a barrel of Clos Pepe in the mix. James and Jeff commented that like the barrel of 14 Clos Pepe it really stood out in 12.
Again thanks to Jeff and James for spending time with us. Liquid Farm is making excellent Ca. Chardonnay.
A side not on Santa Barbara Public Market-this is a relatively new place with a variety of restaurants with Wine + Beer store near the back-you can order food and then go to the store and buy wine from them and the restaurants will deliver your food to you-no corkage-and you can eat at the tables in Wine + Beer. The place was buzzing on Sat with many people doing wine and beer flights
I want to say the charge came from Wood and Water LLC or something like that. I emailed to check that it was them because I didn’t recognize the merchant name.
Thank so much for the honesty and feedback!! We were also not expecting Sat delivery!!
GSO was to pick up Thurs for Fri NOT Fri for Sat which happened as it looks for some orders - I was fielding a few understandable concerns over the weekend no doubt - no rest for the Nikki, I mean wicked…- thankfully the weather wasn’t too hot for us to personally be concerned (wines a bit more “tough” than we think per our experience with heat/cold BUT! still not planned!) The wine returned to temp controlled warehouse Sat afternoon where it remained through this AM and redelivers are automatically in effect today.
That being said, please for sure let us know if you end up with anything less than perfect re; the wines / shipment - we are OVER achievers or strive to be in all areas so please do let us know - we would happily replace anything and everything! and thank you in advance for your understanding re; the Sat deliveries - DEF not planned, scheduled that way or something to expect in the future - we use that only for wine “emergencies” / Sat specific requests on occasion but never regular orders, etc.
And, thanks to you Mark for the lovely account of the wines - sorry to miss you in person though! Conquer and divide is all too often these days the name of the game and only way to get all things done. Hopefully we will see you up here for Berserker day?!?
CHEERS guys and again please do email me with any further concerns on anything - we’re always here for the FAM!
Nik
Also!
Sorry to not address any CC charge questions - we had the Charge name changed last week after much back and forth with our new merchant account to Liquid Farm Winery vs Water & Wood, LLC which is yes, our LLC - sorry about that or any wondering!
SHIPPING: plans were to ship this coming Monday for FedEx orders ----> HOWEVER, this AM (and I will send email to all FedEx members today) we are with the still warm / raising temps in many areas, moving the Ship Date to Monday NOV 3rd - if you would like a later date/are traveling week of 3rd, for any reason please email myself or Anna and we can can see to that!
This new software has oddly and annoyingly not provided us with a way to view requested later ship dates that you may have made and/or we internally made per email request by members which we are you can bet throwing quite a fit about with the software co/Vin65 - hence the flub with Joe’s being sent early - thankfully he is awesome and we worked out a nice way to make that up to him (you can trust that we always will if anything is less than fab!)
Of course and as mentioned - anything that seems odd or off to you guys in any area, I am here for you directly anytime you know where to find me nikki@liquidfarm.com
Thanks again guys for your patience and support and feedback!!
Nik
Nikki,
you sure make great lemonade… Thank you for resolving my issues above and beyond the call of duty Rapido!
As Mark Knopfler says “Sometimes were the fly and sometimes were the Windshield”
Have a great week…
Thanks Nik!
The wine arrived today and appears to be in great shape. Checked one of the boxes and all bottles were cool to touch.
Looking forward to celebrating with a bottle of “Four” when the Giants win the World Series!
Thanks again for all that you do!
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you know where to find me