Orange Muscat
Winemaker Bruce McGuire looked to a cool climate pocket west of Los Alamos as a source for this captivatingly aromatic varietal. The ancient Muscat grape umbrellas over a family of varieties, three of the most common in California being Orange Muscat, Muscat Canelli, and Black Muscat.
Also known as Moscato Fior d’Arancio in Italy, Orange Muscat is not nearly as widely planted as the better known Muscat Canelli. Orange Muscat has been known to produce delicious dessert wines that play off of the wine’s inherently floral nose and orange tint in the glass.
Our Muscat was fermented dry in stainless steel tanks at cool temperatures to produce a very aromatic and crisp wine. The small vineyard site near Alisos Canyon Road where the fruit was sourced provided
cool temperatures to nurture the varietal’s complex perfumed aromatics to full potential. This wine is a pleasant apertif with its pronouced sweet floral and orange blossom nose.
It has a refreshing crispness on the palate that lends itself to pair with seafood dishes and soft ripe cheeses. Also a nice match with spicy Asian cuisine and Thai Basil.
Retail: 16.00
To Order: Santa Barbara Winery
Wine people are known to throw around such terms as ’stylistically,’ ‘nose,’ ‘palate,’ ‘oaked,’ ‘ML,’ and on and on down the sensory vocabulary list. So why do these terms matter? What makes one Sauvignon Blanc different than the next? If you’ve had a wine of a particular varietal and liked it one time, doesn’t mean you’re going to like it the next. This is where wine style comes into play. For example, consumers typically form early opinions on the commonly bottled Chardonnay varietal. If you had one too many glasses of a poorly made, over-oaked Chardonnay early in your wine drinking days, that stereotypical butter bomb descriptor may taint your impression of this type of wine for years to come (until you have tasted enough to see the enormous range of wine styles that this varietal can produce). 
The 23rd Annual Ojai Wine Festival is coming up on Sunday, June 14, and we will be pouring a selection of six Santa Barbara Winery wines from noon to 5pm at the Lake Casitas Recreational Area. Tickets are only $30 advance purchase, and $40 at the gate. A ticket buys you entrance to the music filled event, ten tastes of beer of wine (35-40 wineries attending), and a souvenir wine glass. This year they are trying out a Wine by the Glass area for $6 a glass in a lounge atmosphere with free hors d’oeuvres and music. 
Santa Barbara wine and fashion pioneers Pierre Lafond and Wendy Foster have spent the past few decades establishing and building an empire with businesses spread out between Montecito’s glitzy upper and lower villages, bustling State Street, and the serene vineyard packed Sta. Rita Hills. An ocean side drive that spans about an hour in length can get you from one end of their trail to the other – shopping, wine and dining along the way. 
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