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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2002 Betz Family Cabernet Sauvignon Père de Famille
Dark red in colour, this wine is only slightly faded at the rim which is surprising given its age at 14 years. Fantastic nose revealing lots of black fruit, pepper and earth. Medium plus in body this is a bold, smooth wine that has very nice complexity. Very Bordeaux like in style it has a medium to long finish with lots of tannin left to make us think this still has several years left.
Excellent +
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2003 Robert Mondavi Reserve Cabernet Sauvignon
A powerful but not overpowering wine, it delivered superb complexity with notes of blackberry, blueberry, spice cake and vanilla. Bold and intense yet so well balanced as to still come across as elegant. Drinking beautifully now but still has lots of time if you were to lose it in the back of your cellar for another decade. Extraordinary
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Pierre Peters NV Grand Cru Extra Brut
A delicious Champagne. The wine spent 5 years on lees before release and is 65% 2005 and 35% 2004. 100% Chardonnay mostly from Le Mesnil with some fruit from Avize, Cramant and Oger. The time on lees shows through in the beautiful bread dough palate, backed up by notes of green apple. The acidity is accentuated by the persistent bead. This is quite full bodied and pairs very well with food. Wrapped together these separate components harmonize into a wonderful balance that shows simultaneous power and elegance. 2g/l dosage. Fantastic.
Excellent+ ($82 available at BC Liquor Stores & Everything Wine)
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The entrance to Pesquara Winery
Pesquera is the jewel in the crown of Alejandro Fernandez’ collection of wineries in Ribera del Duero, the wine region of Northern Spain that is attracting a lot of attention. Fernandez, and his winery, are a big part of how that attention came to the region. Pesquera is one of the most prestigious wineries in Ribera and Alejandro Fernandez is its most famous resident, rightfully known as the “King of Tempranillo”, Spain’s greatest grape variety.
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