Santa Barbara Wine Festival 2012

Santa Barbara Wine Festival at the Museum of Natural History

The 2012 Santa Barbara Wine Festival was held on Saturday, June 30th from 2:00 to 5:00 pm on the grounds of the Museum of Natural History.  Proper ID was required for entrance or you were promptly eaten by a T-Rex.

This is the second wine and food event of three (that I know about) in the Santa Barbara area this year.  In addition to the Santa Barbara County Vintners' Festival 2012 held in April, there is a "California Wine Festival - Santa Barbara" scheduled for July 19th - 21st near the beach at Chase Palm Park.

This festival was located in the back of the Museum of Natural History in a few areas across Mission Creek and along the back of the museum near the entrance.  It was a very comfortable setting, although at times it was a little crowded, especially in the picnic area.

I spent about an hour at each of the three general areas and only managed to cover about 40% of the wineries and restaurants. You'd think three hours would be plenty of time to sample most of the wine and food at 58 wineries and 24 food booths!  Well, it might be if you were the only person tasting - but that wouldn't be any fun!

WINE
I  enjoyed sampling wines from the following wineries.

Alma Rosa founder Richard Sanford and Jon Knoll poured a great 2008 Pinot Noir, Santa Rita Hills and a 2009 Chardonnay, El Jabalí Vineyard, Santa Rita Hills.
 

Andrew Murray Vineyards is dedicated exclusively to Rhône varieties. They poured a 2010 Syrah, Watch Hill Vineyard and a very nice red blend, a 2009 Espérance (60% Grenache, 25% Syrah, and 15% Mourvedre). Wine Enthusiast rated it 91 Points. 

Au Bon Climat Jim Clendenen poured a XXX Anniversary (2010) Santa Maria Valley Estate Bottled Chardonnay, and if you asked nicely, a rare XX Anniversary (2000) Santa Maria Valley Estate Bottled Chardonnay. Both were very nice!

Additional wines included an ABC 2008 Pinot Noir, Santa Maria Valley; 2010 Clendenen Family Vineyards Gewürztraminer, Santa Maria Valley; and a 2004 Clendenen Family Vineyards Nebbiolo, Santa Maria Valley.

Beckmen Vineyards poured a nice 2010 Estate Cabernet Sauvignon. Their website has "no products in this category" listed under Cabernet Sauvignon.  Must be a limited quantity.

Brewer-Clifton - Greg Brewer poured a 2009 Chardonnay, Sweeney Canyon, a 2010 Machado Pinot Noir, a 2010 Mount Carmel Pinot Noir, and a very nice 2010 3-D Pinot Noir.  Greg is also the winemaker at Melville Winery and has another wine label - "diatom." Brewer-Clifton has received rave reviews for their Pinot Noir and Chardonnay wines.

Cambria Winery poured a 2007 Bench Break Vineyard Pinot Noir.  Cambria's tasting notes indicate that it's a little  young and undeveloped, but the long and balanced pinot noir should continue to grow and evolve over the next decade.  I agree, it was young, but tasted good otherwise. 

Carr Vineyards and Winery poured a very nice 2009 Pinot Noir, Turner Vineyard, Santa Rita Hills.  The 2009 harvest was just over 2 tons to the acre making the fruit rich and full of flavor. The Pinot Noir clones used were 113, 777, and Pommard.

Daniel Gehrs Wines poured a 2008 Petite Sirah, Paso Robles that had soft tannins and tasted like blackberry.

Fiddlehead Cellars poured an excellent 2008 Seven Twenty Eight Pinot Noir and a 2009 Happy Canyon Sauvignon Blanc. They specialize in Pinot Noir and Sauvignon Blanc - that's all they make!

Flying Goat Cellars - Kate Griffith poured an interesting 2010 Goat Bubbles Rosé, Solomon Hills Vineyard (from Pinot Noir clone 23) and a fantastic 2008 Pinot Noir, “Dijon” Rio Vista Vineyard, Santa Rita Hills.  The Pinot Noir grapes are from three different blocks and three different clones (115, 667 and 777) in the Rio Vista Vineyard.

Gioia Wine poured a nice 2010 Chardonnay, Santa Barbara County and a 2009 Bacia Bianca, Santa Barbara County (didn't try it).

Huber Cellars poured a 2008 Dornfelder and a very good 2009 Pinot Noir, Santa Rita Hills (Silver Medal Winner at the San Francisco Chronicle Wine Competition).

Ken Brown Wines poured a 2008 Syrah, a very nice 2009 Pinot Noir, Santa Rita Hills that combined Pinot Noir from all corners of the appellation, and a 2010 Pinot Noir, Santa Barbara County. 
 
Kenneth Volk Vineyards poured a 2008 Pinot Noir, Santa Maria Cuvee, Santa Maria Valley, a 2009 Mourvedre, Enz Vineyard, Lime Kiln Valley, and a 2009 Zinfandel, Enz Vineyard, Lime Kiln Valley.  I really like all three, especially the Mourvedre!

Koehler poured a 2009 Grenache and very good 2009 Syrah. The Grenache was light-bodied with notes of raspberry and I tasted a little oak with mixed herbs.  The Syrah had an earthy, blackberry aroma and tasted like blackberry and pepper.

Mosby Winery & Vineyard poured La Seduzione, made from a Cal-Italian varietal, the  Lagrein grape, grown at the French Camp Vineyard. The wine had a flavor of ripe black currants and a finish with soft tannins.

Next to the Mr. Picky booth Dave Teckman of Per Cazo Cellars poured a 2010 Tres Blanc (45% Grenache Blanc, 35% Roussanne, 20% Viognier) that had bright fruit flavors with floral notes. I especially liked the 2010 red blend they poured named "ZinG." The blend of 38% Zinfandel and 62% Grenache had a medium body with a peppery finish.
 

Sagebrush Annie's had some fantastic, aged red wines available for tasting. Larry & Karina Hogan poured three excellent Cabernet Sauvignon wines - a 2004 (Clone 7), a 2007 (Clone 337 & Clone 7), and a 2008 (Clone 337, Clone 7 & Clone 8). The Clone 8 adds a blueberry flavor. I also tasted their 2008 Zinfandel and a 2008 Merlot that were both great.

Sunstone Winery poured a very nice 2007 Eros Merlot blend. The tasting notes mention aromas of blackberries, cherries, black truffles, rhubarb and anise seed with tastes of blackberries, cherries, plum, tobacco leaf, toasted almonds, black licorice, and a cocoa flavor at the finish. A very enjoyable blend!

Chris Marks

Kristi Marks

Sweeney Canyon Vineyard

Chris Marks, Vineyard Manager, and Kristi Marks, Winemaker, were both very popular and pouring their red and white wines. Chris was pouring the award-winning Pinot Noirs from Santa Rita Hills and Kristi was pouring a 2006 Chardonnay, Santa Rita Hills.  I tried the vertical of 2007 (Clone 777), 2008 (Clones 115 & 777), and 2009 Pinot Noirs and found each to be a winner.

Tablas Creek poured a 2011 Tablas Creek Vineyard Rosé  blend of 58% Mourvèdre, 30% Grenache and 12% Counoise, and one of their signature wines, a 2009 Esprit de Beaucastel, which is based on Mourvèdre.  For more about Tablas Creek and their wines see my earlier blog entry: Paso Robles Wine Festival Weekend (May 18-20, 2012).

Doug Timewell and Terrie Leivers from Toucan Wines poured some Zins and a very good Carignane. The 2009 (unreleased) and 2008 Toucan Wines Estate Zinfandels  both tasted very nice. The award wining 2008 had 14% of Estate Petite Sirah blended in it and the 2009 was 100% Zin.  The unreleased 2010 Old Vine Carignane, Evangelho Vineyard, Contra Costa County was my favorite of the these three wines. 

Joey Gummere of Transcendence Wines poured  a 2011 Chardonnay, Zotovich Vineyard, Santa Rita Hills (Clone 76). This was my first wine taste of the day and the crisp/acid of Chardonnay paired well with the nearby ceviche.

Vogelzang Vineyard poured a 2009 BirdSong “Red,” Happy Canyon that was a blend of 40% Cabernet, 18% Cabernet Franc, 16% Merlot, 14% Petit Verdot, and 12% Malbec.

WINE SUMMARY

My favorite wines were:

And the Top 3 wineries that I discovered were:

FOOD
The festival food complemented many of the wines very well.  I didn't get to try all of them, but those that I did sample were very good.  I enjoyed appetizers and beverages from Country Catering Company, Linda's Gourmet Latkes, Pierre Lafond Wine Bistro, Renaud's Patissiere and Bakery, Root 246, The Stonehouse at San Ysidro Ranch, Via Maestra 42 and the following... 

 Whole Foods & D'Angelo's Bread was a great place to start!

Dry Soda Co. gave out bottles of very flavorful and slightly sweetened soda.

My wife liked the Rhubarb and has since stocked up on several other flavors.

Pastry Chef Tiffany Buchanan served the very popular FreezerMonkeys.  Described as "Natural Frozen Treats" with bold flavors, they are made only from whole fruits and natural ingredients.  I really enjoyed the Raspberry Thai Chili!

 

San Ysidro Ranch (Stonehouse Restaurant) made my favorite appetizer of the day - tuna tartare on criss-cut potato chips!  They were working hard to keep them on the table, but they disappeared very quickly. At least while I was around ...
 

Pacific Pickle Works - Bradley Bennett, Principal Pickle & Emi Umezawa, Pickle Packer, served mini Bloody Marys.  My friend Richard tried one and he liked it. They looked good, but I tried to stay focused on wine.

Village Modern Foods served a cool Firecracker Summer Salad.  It was made with farmers market corn, green beans, and tomatoes with ginger beer battered farmers market onions. 

Finally, how about some ubiquitous Water in a Box from Rustad Spring in Norway? It seemed to work well as a rinse container for wine glasses.  And if you don't need to drink out it it directly these are a great eco-alternative to plastic bottles.  The small boxes have a Carbon Footprint that is only 25% of comparable plastic bottles.

Even though I don't live in the Santa Barbara area I managed to run into several wine tasting friends.  It was good to see friends and museum volunteers, Betsy and Guy, at the festival.

It was a great festival for tasting wine and food.  And if it had been a few hours longer I might have enjoyed visiting some of the other wineries on my tasting list.  Oh well, I'll catch them next year!


Cheers!
Gary Coon


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