A California Winery Blog

Fall takes on a whole new meaning when you are in the winery.  Although the Santa Barbara weather cannot be trusted to tell you what time of year it is (raining one day and hot the next), there is no doubt what time of year it is at Santa Barbara Winery.  It is the time of year when my morning coffee is accompanied by a plate of Sauvignon Blanc grapes fresh off the semi-trucks that are here almost daily during harvest.  If I ever feel an overwhelming sense of morning groginess all that I need to do is see that truck full of grapes and know that that is the product of passionately hardworking farmers who were up hours before I was, picking grapes so that they could come into the winery cool and ready to be pressed first thing.  Pierre posted a great video on the blog yesterday showing this process of night picking. 

This morning we received Wente Clone Chardonnay from the Lafond Vineyard.  Our assistant winemaker, Ryan, seemed in a particularly great mood when I got to work this morning because this is his favorite clone.  That excitement is contagious, and it makes for a wonderfully positive experience in the tasting room.  It is just great to see people so excited about what they do everyday. 

I am just in the midst of my first wine club shipping experience at Santa Barbara Winery.  I was a little bit intimidated by the size of our growing club, but we managed to pack up and ship out all of the wine this week.  The September wine club shipment contains three bottles.  The first wine is our 2006 Chardonnay, Santa Barbara County.  This wine makes up about 22,000 cases of our 55,000 case production.  Sourcing from six different vineyards allows us to make a Chardonnay that is extremely well balanced and easy drinking.  The second wine is our 2005 ZCS.  This is a unique blend of Zinfandel, Carignane, and Sangiovese aged in neutral oak to show the full fruit quality of the grapes.  The third wine is our 2005 Grenache Syrah (one of my personal favorites).  This is a blend of cool climate Syrah from the Hilltop Ranch Vineyard in Santa Rita and Grenache from the Byron Vineyard in Santa Maria. 

I encourage you all to come into the tasting room during harvest and see for yourselves the genuine passion and excitement that is in the winery, and taste the product of a lot of hard work from vineyard, to grape, to bottle. 

Joanie Hudson, Assistant Tasting Room Manager Santa Barbara Winery