08/30/06 – Santa Barbara County (red vs. white)
Winos,
There were no fires this weekend, so I really don’t have anything exciting to talk about. Oh, wait, yes I do….. Santa Barbara wines!!!! This week, we wrap up our Santa Barbara tasting experience with a big, catch-all “red vs. white” meeting. Anything goes — bring a bottle of whatever you want (even something we’ve already had if we particularly liked it), because I’d like to use this meeting to see if we can decide on some wineries we’d like to visit when we take our trip. More on that later. Right now, here’s the same paragraph about Santa Barbara wines that you’ve read for the past two weeks, and it’s as riveting as ever:
Santa Barbara isn’t actually a region itself — it’s the name of a county, and it’s a term used to encompass two smaller regions: Santa Maria Valley and Santa Ynez Valley. These are the ones you have to know when you go shopping (although the term “Santa Barbara” may appear on bottles as well). We will also be lumping the following two regions into this week’s tasting, since they’re just north of Santa Barbara County and they produce mostly the same wines: Edna Valley and Arroyo Grande. Look for any of these four regions when you’re shopping for this week’s bottle. In a grocery store, you’re on your own, but if you’re in a wine shop, they may be able to help you find Santa Barbara wines if you’re having trouble. If you want to go for the full “Sideways” experience, here are the six wineries that Miles and Jack visited in the movie, all of which are in Santa Barbara County:
Sanford
Kalyra
Foxen
Firestone
Andrew Murray
Fess Parker
I happen to know that Firestone and Fess Parker both have wines for sale at Vendome in Studio City, and I’m sure the rest can be found at other good wine shops. I, myself, am bringing a bottle of something I believe the majority of you have never tasted before. Be very excited.
Also, regarding the elusive wine club field trip: it’s time to decide on an official date. We’re going to do a one-day Saturday trip to Santa Barbara, and it’s gonna be either September 9 or September 16. Which one do people prefer? I want to decide on Wednesday. Then we’ll deal with all of the details (transportation, which wineries, etc). If you can’t make this week’s meeting, please e-mail me your preference of dates so that we can get this thing settled.
We’ll be meeting at Regan’s lofty abode in the former Pabst Brewery, which is near downtown, and easily accessible via Los Angeles’s brilliant system of interconnected free-access highways.