Superstork 2017
Santa Barbara County Wine Trip &
The 2nd Annual Grenache-a-Rama!
June 27 - 30, 2017
We made the dreaded trip through LA on Tuesday, the 27th, with stop-and-go traffic from Long Beach to I-10. Where do all the people come from? On a Tuesday? Mid-day?
Anyway, once we got to Ventura, it wasn't too bad. Here is Lorri driving my new Audi on it's first road trip.
Well, probably not its first road trip since it's a 2014 model with 50k miles on it, but its first road trip under our care. I'm happy with it!
We got off 101 at Las Cruces and headed north on Route 1 toward Lompoc.
We drove straight to D'Alfonso-Curran for a tasting with Bruno and Chris, always a fun, entertaining and long-lasting affair.
Their 2013 Chard is an award-winner - 96 points in Wine Enthusiast! We picked up a couple bottles!
We stayed in Solvang and were greeted by the Solvang Founding Fathers! They didn't say much. I wish they wood have. Hey, I wonder if they are chips off the old blocks? This photo sure is grainy! What branch of the family are they from? Sorry.
If you can pronounce their names you get the key to the City.
Actually, a key to the City would be nice because everything closes at 9:00 PM. That has to change.
Typical Solvang-ish architecture
Wine Valley Inn! Our home for the duration.
We stayed in room 313, a good room.
Wednesday, June 28
José picked us up in his 15-passenger Ford van and took us all the way to Los Alamos, which is a few miles north of Buellton off of the 101
Here is where we started the Second Annual Grenache-a-Rama! The First G-a-R was in our back yard in Encinitas and featured wines from Casa Dumetz and Vino Sapien. Here is the link to my blog about that: Link
This is Sonja, the owner, wine-maker and overall head honcho of Casa Dumetz. Wait, can a woman be a "honcho"? I'll have to check on that. OK, I just check my Google Translate app and the translation of Spanish to English for honcho is Honcho! So I guess Sonja can be head Honcho.
This is her tasting room in Los Alamos where we started with a couple whites, just to get us going.
There were eight of us and two young ladies, Katrina and Tim (I think). Katrina works for Sonja and Tim is involved in the wine industry.
So I got to ride in the front seat with Sonja and all the ladies while Lorri rode in the trailing vehicle (driven by Sonja's brother) with all the guys!
Sonja makes Grenache from several different vineyards, picking the grapes on the same day, using the same procedures for processing, fermentation, aging and so on, so that the differences in wines reflects the differences in the vineyards or the "terroir", as wine people might say.
This Is Tierra Alta Vineyard in the Ballard Canyon area. I just happened to see some Curran rows, Chris Curran of D'Alfonso-Curran, with whom we had a tasting the day before.
Green grape clusters will be red Grenache wine in a couple short years from now!
The concept was to taste the 2014 and 2015 vintages from the same vines, processed in a similar fashion and so on. Why do they taste so different?
Ah, that's why Sonja is here - to tell us why.
I think she said it's because of the differences in the weather during the growing season. What else could it be?
Notice how far apart these rows are. These vines were planted around 17 years ago. Today they would be planted closer together.
If you ever see green wine grapes like this, don't taste them. They are bitter and not good. Wait until August or September when they're sweet and juicy!
¡Hola!
All hail Bacchus!
Time to load up for the next vineyard.
But first, a photo op.
That house at the top of the hill is where the property owners live. I think Sonja said they just own the land and collect money from the people who farm the vines, a tough life in a terrible setting.
Next on the agenda was Larner Vineyard.
Larner is also in the Ballard Canyon AVA but farther to the south and west.
Not only are world-class wines being made in Santa Barbara County, the scenery is also world-class!
The rolling hills are taking on their buff-colored hue for the summer.
Just a month or so ago, these hills were as green as Ireland due to all the rain we had last winter. They say the rain was good for the vines after 5 or 6 years of drought, washing away accumulated salts and other by-products of irrigation and dry weather. It will be very interesting to see how the wines turn out.
Third stop was John Sebastiano Vineyard, further west, cooler and windier.
YOU can see how windy it was by looking at Lorri's hair!
Greg is walking down the hill to get out of the wind and, of course, to inspect the vines.
Sonja educated us about the finer points of pruning, cutting back, and thinning of the grape clusters and how all these things affect the grapes and the wine.
Learning, tasting, enjoying the view and the camaraderie!
Have I mentioned world-class scenery and views?
If I were a better photographer, these would be better photos!
Duh.
From the front seat of the Sonja-mobile, heading down and out of John Sebastiano Vineyard.
Sonja picked up sandwiches from Patty-Bakes and we had lunch al fresco in Machado Vineyard (I think).
After lunch we headed to Brewer-Clifton where Sonja has made wine and stores it in oak barrels.
Full disclosure: Sonja is married to Greg Brewer!
Mitzi and Lorri exchanging stories
We visited Hilliard Bruce the next day, but some of their barrels are here at B-C. Greg Brewer is also the winemaker for Hilliard-Bruce
...as well as Brewer-Clifton
Sonja discusses the finer points of barrel-aging
Barrels aging. Or, I should say, wine aging in barrels.
This is the tasting room at B-C where we tasted some of Sonja's wines from barrels. Well, not straight from the barrels, but from bottles that Sonja had previously filled with wine from the barrels. Get it?
All hail a great day of touring, tasting and learning!
Kelly, Sonja and Greg back at the Casa Dumetz tasting room in Los Alamos.
Jack, Sonja and Lorri
Wednesday evening we re-grouped back at the Wine Valley Inn and picked up charcuteries platters from The Succulent Pig across the street. Sorry, no photos.
Thursday, June 29
This is the long winding private road that leads to Hilliard-Bruce Winery and tasting room.
The entry gate
It's a very attractive new "green" facility nestled in the Santa Rita foothills
How about that hat, eh?
Clean lines, great kitchen/tasting room!
State of the art everywhere...
Crusher!
Looking down on the tasting room and kitchen area from the upper level.
Everything is "gravity flow" here. The grapes get delivered and crushed on the upper level, then flow downhill into barrels, bottles and eventually your mouth!
Time for tasting
This looks like a good assortment
Just the four of us today. Roger, Mitzi, Richard and Dana had to go back to San Diego.
Greg, Hilliard-Bruce and the LUVMEDO mobile.
I'm not normally a fan of modern minimalist architecture, but I liked this one a lot!
The wines were excellent!
We had some time to kill before lunch so we stopped by Foley, one of our local favorites.
We also happen to be Foley wine club members and it's just down the road from H-B!
Foley view
Industrial Eats!!!! Wild mushroom pizza
Smoked pheasant salad! (What the...?)
Prosciutto, taleggio, Parm and arugula pizza
All hail Caesar!
We had Alma Rosa wine with our Industrial Eats lunch, a great lunch!
Across from Industrial Eats, there was a distillery, Brothers Spirits, where I was forced by the martini gods to purchase a bottle of their fine gin!
Lorri bought some sweet stuff here.
Next stop was Dragonette Cellars in Buellton.
Where we had the pleasure of meeting and talking with Brandon Sparks-Gillis, one of the three owners, along with Steve and John Dragonette. Brandon is a very dynamic, articulate and enthusiastic wine guy.
We were hosted by our friends Jess Gasca, the sales manager, and Kristen, wine club manager, and I'm embarrassed I have no photos of them.
The tasting area among the barrels.
We had a great time and tasting here at the winery!
The above-mentioned Jess and her husband Brady also own Story of Soil Winery with a tasting room in Los Olivos. That was our next stop!
Jessica is the "winemaker" and Brady in the "apprentice". I know this because it says so on their business cards.
Jess is making some very nice wines and they've done a great job with their tasting room just off the main intersection in Los Olivos.
We had dinner Thursday evening at Santa Ynez Kitchen, known to the locals as "SY Kitchen", and this is what we had:
Lorri had pasta
Greg had pasta
Kelly had pasta
Jack had the best seared rare ahi ever, served over his favorite veggie, sautéed sliced zucchini!
It was a great trip! No more photos! We made it home Friday after spending an extra hour or so circumventing a small plane crash near the John Wayne Airport which shut down I-405 and the 55.
