Ryan Ralston, Santa Barbara Winery assistant winemaker, attended this past weekend’s 27th Annual Taste of the Town and poured samples alongside over 80 of Santa Barbara’s finest restaurants and premiere wineries. The event was held on Sunday, September 7 from noon-3 at the Riviera Park Gardens overlooking the ocean and all of the proceeds benefit the Arthritis Foundation. This organization is the only nonprofit dedicated to discovering the cause and cure for arthritis. While helping a great cause attendees got the opportunity to embark on an “epicurean adventure.”
Restaurants who attended included: A Piece of Cake; Bacchus; Ballard Inn Restaurant; Barcliff and Blair; Bay Cafe Seafood Restaurant and Fish House; Brothers’ Restaurant at Mattei’s Tavern; Ca’ Dario;Caribbean Coffee; Cheese Pies; Chef Karim’s Moroccan Restaurant; CrushCakes; Elements; Emilio’s Ristorante; Green Star Coffee; Los Arroyos; Louie’s; Michael Hutchings; Mondial; Neo Chase Restaurant and Lounge; OMNI Fresco; Opal Restaurant and Bar; Outback Steakhouse; Pacific Beverages; Palace Grill; Peet’s Coffee; Piatti; Pierre Lafond Bistro; Quantum Kitchen and Cocktails; Renaud’s; Santa Barbara Olive Company; Scotch Bonnet; Sesto Senso; SOhO Restaurant; Spa Cafe at Bacara Resort; Stateside Restaurant and Lounge;Sweet Buttercup Cupcakes; The Palace Grill; UCSB Faculty Club; Via Maestra 42; and Wine Cask.
Wineries included: Adelaida Cellars; Alma Rosa Winery & Vineyards; Artiste; Au Bon Climat; Babcock Vineyards; Beckman Vineyards; Bedford Thompson Winery and Vineyard; The Brander Vineyard; Brophy Clark Cellars; Buttonwood Farm Winery; Cambria Winery and Vineyard; Clendenen Family Vineyards; Cottonwood Canyon Vineyard; Curtis Winery; Daniel Gehrs Wines; Edna Valley Winery; Firestone Vineyard; Foley Estates Vineyard and Winery; Geissinger Winery; JanKris; Laetitia Winery/Barnwood Vineyards; Lincourt Wineries; Lucas & Lewellen Vineyards; Mandolina Wines; Melville Winery; Mosby Winery; Nichols Winery & Cellars; Pacific Oasis; Qupe Wine Cellars; Rancho Sisquoc Winery; Robert Hall Winery ;Roblar Winery; Santa Barbara Winery; Shadow Canyon Cellars; Soleil & Terrior; Sterns Wharf Vintners; Summerland Winery; Sunstone Wineries and Tolosa Winery.
Joanie Hudson, Assistant Tasting Room Manager, Santa Barbara Winery
I spent a long weekend visiting Washington DC and got the chance to enjoy the Chesapeake Bay’s signature crustacean, the Blue Crab. These beautiful crabs are native to the Atlantic, particularly in the area of Maryland and Virginia. They have electric blue claws and are known for their aggressive sharp pinches when they are alive. The whole crab experience was very unique to the area, especially when I went to the wharf to collect a dozen and a half live shellfish, which after stretching their claws upwards as if to say “pick me!” were tossed into a bag to take home to steam.
Choosing a wine to serve at a casual dinner like this doesn’t need to be over thought, especially since such a wide variety of whites work well with steamed crab. Nobody will be paying too much attention to the wine anyways when they are snapping and hammering at the legs and pulling apart the body, digging dutifully for a well worth it bite of meat. Choose a medium to full bodied white that has balanced fruit and acidity. Crisp, yet rich, French Chablis is a nice match, as well as white Rhones, Pinot Gris, a dry Riesling, or Chardonnay. If you like prefer a good amount of melted butter on your crab, California Chardonnay is a good way to good. These wines can pack that necessary balance of richness and acidity that works really well with the delicate and sweet shellfish.
Joanie Hudson, Assistant Tasting Room Manager, Santa Barbara Winery
I have always been a visual learner. Lately I have taken up to watching informational videos on wine to increase my knowledge. Two of the best sites that I have found to do this are winelibrarytv.com and the video theater section on Wine Spectator’s website. These are great ways to focus in on specific areas that peak your interest as well as to learn about something you had no previous knowledge whatsoever about. On winelibrarytv.com Gary Vaynerchuk takes viewers through a live blind tasting. He will choose either a certain varietal, a specific region, or diverse price points (to name a few) and then line up a few wines and taste them in front of a camera. Viewers can see his honest reactions and develop their wine vocabulary and flavor profiles (your spice cabinet of wine descriptors).
Wine Spectator’s videos are put together by their editors. James Laube, a senior editor, put together an interesting piece on Russian River Pinot Noir that I just watched where he speaks to the winemakers of famed cult winery, Kosta Browne. They discuss the ideal climate for pinot noir grapes to flourish in, pointing to cool nights as an integral part of the process. The fog rolls in at night to the Russian River Valley, like it does in the Sta Rita Hills, to keep the area from getting too warm. Pinot is a delicate grape that does not do well in areas that have hot days or warm nights. These cool nights allow the grape to develop its vibrant acidity to the full potential and the purely seductive bright fruit that it brings to the palate.
Check out both of these sites to learn more about your favorite grape or region. Or if you’re just a wine nerd like me…
Joanie Hudson, Assistant Tasting Room Manager, Santa Barbara Winery
Camereon Bendetsen on the harvest
Saturday September 6th marked the beginning of the 2008 Santa Barbara Winery urban harvest. The inaugural fruit came from the Grassini Vineyard located in the Happy Canyon area in the eastern most section of Santa Ynez. This soon to be appellation is on average ten degrees warmer than the rest of the Santa Ynez Valley.
The warm weather, coupled with little ocean influence makes the vineyards of Happy Canyon ideal for growing Bordeaux varietals like Sauvignon Blanc, Cabernet Sauvignon, and Malbec. The Fruit came down on a flatbed goose-neck trailer in eight food grade picking bins pulled by a one-ton diesel truck down the 101 south. The 154 can be a bit treacherous with a large payload and spilling grapes on the freeway is not an option.
Typically, eight picking bins will yield approximately four tons. This year however, we received 2.75 tons. The small yield was primarily due to an uncharacteristic frost at the beginning of fruit set. The tonnage per acre worked out to about 1.5 tons/acre, which is very low especially for a vineyard planted with 6′x3′ spacing. The upside to a low yield is high quality.
When the vineyard is packed full of grapes uniform ripening throughout the vines can become compromised. This compromise is due to layers of grapes shading the rest of the vine. Consequently, low yields will ensure that all fruit clusters are exposed to the proper amount of sunlight essential for ripening and the Grassini Sauvignon Blanc was no exception.
With a few shifts of the forklift, the gapes rode up the sorting belt and into our press. The urban harvest had begun. The Brix came in at 24.9 with a 3.3 pH; perfect for the non-grassy, slightly tropical Sauvignon Blanc that assistant winemaker Ryan Ralston strives to create. Head Winemaker, Bruce McGuire felt that the Grassini Sauvignon Blanc will play an essential role in the overall flavor profile and balance of the 2008 Santa Barbara Winery Sauvignon Blanc and will continue to be a vineyard that will play a key role for years to come.
Camereon Bendetsen, Cellar Production Technician, Santa Barbara Winery.
Saturday, September 6, we received our first grapes of the 2008 harvest. Urban Wineries are different — space is limited and we have to compete with traffic but in the last 46 years things have not changed all that much.
The photos show the forklift bringing the picking box into the winery then dumping it into the conveyor and lastly the grapes being sorted on the way to the wine press. For white wines we press whole clusters and the juice is then allowed to settle in stailess steel tanks then pumped to barrels to ferment.
Santa Barbara Winery 2007 Chardonnay
Winemaker Bruce McGuire was able to travel throughout western Santa Barbara County choosing several vineyards (including Scheid Vineyard up in Monterey County) for this multi-vineyard blend.
These vineyards meet Bruce’s standards for viticultural practices and growing conditions suitable to make this full-bodied yet eminently approachable Chardonnay. All the grapes for this wine were pressed as whole clusters and 51% of the wine fermented in stainless steel without undergoing malolactic frementation.
These two steps lend brightness to the fruit intensity that then integrates with the mouth pleasing weight and supple flavors enhanced by barrel fermentation. Our Santa Barbara County Chardonnay is a good all around choice to satisfy a wide variety of foods.
With enough structure to age for five to seven years, we think this wine is very enjoyable two years after the vintage year. This nicely balanced wine is a great choice for service with roast chicken, sea bass, and pasta. Try with a mixed fruit and nut platter featuring a selection of light to mild semi hard cheeses.
Suggested Retail Price 14.00/750ml
To order:
We have a new release in the tasting room, the 2007 Santa Barbara County Chardonnay (color label). We transitioned from the 2006 to 2007 yesterday, and put it on the tasting list along with a few other changes. The 2004 Nebbiolo is on the list, which is an interesting one to taste as it is unlike any of our other wines, and a very unique grape. We also have the 2007 Pinot Gris on the list, as well as the 2007 ZCS. The 2007 Rose and 2005 Sangiovese will stay put for now.
Our color label Chardonnay is one of our most popular wines, our signature wine I guess you could say. It makes up about a third of our total production. It is relatively consistent through the years, but this year we had a different assistant winemaker, Ryan Ralston, than previous vintages. Always interesting to see what a different winemaker brings to the mix… Come try the new tasting list, which is offered daily from 10-5.
Joanie Hudson, Assistant Tasting Room Manager, Santa Barbara Winery
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