
Sipping Santa Barbara by Charine Tan & Dr. Matthew Horkey
Santa Barbara County is a wine region that we are big fans of for a variety of reasons. Wineries there are producing world-class wines that are terrific value (comparative to other, better known regions), not to mention it’s still a relatively undiscovered area making it particularly fun and accessible to wine enthusiasts. So when we were asked to review Exotic Wine Travel’s latest wine book Sipping Santa Barbara: Recommended Wines & Producers we accepted the offer with great interest and fairly high expectations.
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Winemaker Greg Brewer
We pulled up to Brewer-Clifton on a sunny but cool day in January. Outside of the winery stood Greg Brewer, co-founder and winemaker, looking up into the sky, his hand shielding his eyes, as he squinted into the sun. “That is the new Space-X rocket” he said, pointing. “Cool…. I’m Greg” he says as he stretches out his hand in greeting, a broad smile beneath dancing eyes. It turns out that initial moment captured a lot of the personality of the man we were about to spend the next 90 minutes with. Brewer is intellectual, curious about all sorts of things, warm, unusual and one seriously good winemaker.
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To call Rick Longoria, winemaker and proprietor of Longoria Wines, a pioneer with respect to Santa Barbara County would be a massive understatement. He settled in the area and started winemaking at a time when hardly anyone foresaw the level of success the wine region is seeing today—hardly anyone that is, except for him.
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Bryan Babcock
We first met Bryan Babcock, proprietor and winemaker at Babcock Winery a year ago when we visited Santa Barbara hosted by their tourist bureau, Visit Santa Barbara. They sent us to the Santa Barbara Wine Collective, a very hip bar that pours a lot of very good local wine by the glass. We tasted 5 or 6 different Pinot Noirs from Santa Barbara County. Our favourite of the tasting was the 2012 Babcock Pinot Noir Radical. We told that to the bartender who then informed us that Bryan Babcock was actually sitting just a few tables away and would we like to meet him? Of course! We were introduced, had a brief conversation and he invited us to come up to Lompoc and meet him at his winery the next time we were in the area. That Radical was so darn good we knew we had to get back and learn how he made such good wine and to taste the rest of his line up.
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2011 The Hilt Pinot Noir The Vanguard
The Hilt is a Santa Barbara County winery created by the people from the highly successful Jonata Winery. They do two Pinots: The Old Guard from older vines and The Vanguard from younger vines. Fruit for this cuvee was sourced from three of the finest vineyards in Santa Barbara County: Solomon Hills, Sanford and Benedict and Bien Nacido. Dark red with little fade at the rim. Very fragrant nose that gives up black cherries, raspberries and brown spices. After some swirling hints of vanilla and cream soda poke through. Definitely a bigger wine, with full body, it retains balance and does not fall into that “Syrah lovers Pinot” style that some from the Central Coast can. Power and elegance combined in the right proportions. The finish is long and spicy with just a bit of tannin. Can drink now or hold for another 5+ years.
Excellent – $64 tax-in at BC Liquor stores. This is particularly good value for the quality. The 2012 release is out and sells for $99
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