As I look back at my wine country wanderings over the past year and through the hundreds of photographs that I’ve taken along the way, I realized how many experiences and wines that I have yet to write about in this column.
So, before the year is up, I want to share with you a few more short stories of special local artisans—and many of my favorite wines—with the hope that you’ll discover them too!
One person who is no stranger to the Santa Barbara County wine industry, Chris Hammell—the acclaimed vineyard manager of Bien Nacido Vineyards—has recently introduced his own wine label, Hammell Wine Alliance.
He meticulously farms new hillside plantings of several Rhone varieties on 6 acres adjacent to Bien Nacido.
He makes ripe wines in a cool climate, which is not easily done. Hammell keeps the crop yields extremely low so that the fruit is intense.
“I drink all kinds of wines,” Hammell said. “But these are the kinds of wines I want to make.”
Hammell’s flagship red Rhone blend of grenache, syrah, and mourvedre, is called True Believer, a complex and concentrated luxury wine priced at $80 a bottle.
He’s doing his own thing, his own way, and that is a beautiful thing!
To sign up for his winery mailing list, go to hammellwinealliance.com.
I’m also now a believer that chardonnay pairs wonderfully well with artisan cheese.
After attending a seminar titled Wisconsin Cheese Complements Acclaimed Chardonnay, at this year’s Chardonnay Symposium in Pismo Beach, I walked away with a new appreciation for the pairing.
Panel moderator Laura Werlin, renowned cheese educator and author, walked us through a plate of eight outstanding gourmet Wisconsin cheeses paired with chardonnays from Melville, Adelaida, J. Lohr, and Patz & Hall.
Every cheese we tasted, from a nutty goat/cow/sheep blend, to a subtle blue, to an aged English-style was delightful with the wines.
A piece of advice: When doing your own cheese and wine tasting, Werlin says, make sure to always taste the wine first with a clean palate, then the cheese.
Some of the friendliest wine industry folks that I met in 2015 were Mark and Wendy Horvath, owners of Crawford Family Wines.
The charismatic and impossibly cute couple poured their new releases at the annual Wine & Fire grand tasting at La Purisima Mission—great pinot noir, chardonnay, and syrah, sourced from excellent Sta. Rita Hills vineyards.
Visit their wine tasting room at 92 Second St. in Buellton on weekends, or visit crawfordfamilywines.com to learn more.
Scar of the Sea wines really caught my attention this year.
Their gorgeous 2013 Scar of the Sea Bien Nacido Vineyard chardonnay was a standout for me at the Santa Barbara Vintners spring weekend grand tasting.
Scar of the Sea is a boutique Santa Maria-based winery. Winemakers Mikey Giugni and Michael Brughelli source premium grapes from special cool climate sites, and they take great care in the cellar handcrafting their superb small-lot wines, elegant chardonnay and pinot noir, in addition to intriguing sparkling hard ciders.
If you haven’t tasted these wines or ciders yet, seek them out! Learn more at scaroftheseawines.com.
This year, I happened upon Habit wines for the first time, at the Under One Roof party in May in Los Olivos. I also got to meet the man who makes these sought-after wines.
Jeff Fischer, the successful Hollywood voice actor best known for playing himself on the animated Fox TV show American Dad, is making a name for himself in Santa Barbara County for his delightful chenin blanc, sauvignon blanc, cabernet franc, and other varieties. I especially like Habit’s vibrant grüner veltliner. Check out habitwine.com.
Here’s a short list of many of my other favorite wines tasted over the last year in Santa Barbara County: Tyler pinot noir, A Tribute to Grace grenache, Notary Public chenin blanc, Paul Lato pinot noir, Cotiere chardonnay, Presqu’ile sauvignon blanc, Brewer-Clifton pinot noir, Storm pinot noir, A-non-ah-mus grenache, Frequency GSM, Casa Dumetz roussanne, Big Tar cabernet sauvignon, No Limit syrah, Dreamcote malvasia bianca, Zotovich pinot noir, Fess Parker syrah, Solomon Hills chardonnay, Ampelos pinot noir, Alta Maria chardonnay, Larner rosé, and Longoria pinot noir.
Sun wine and food columnist Wendy Thies Sell can be contacted at [email protected].
