#santaritahills

[thewinestop]

We Love The Melville Single Vineyard Pinot Noirs #melville #pinotnoir #santaritahills #blockm #capinotnoir #winegram #pinotlover (at Downtown Burlingame) https://www.instagram.com/p/CWRgobtvbsx/?utm_medium=tumblr

[wine-porn]

Clear light brilliance. Black-purple, but SOOO ridiculously transparent. Half the pinots I drink are denser than this. Big sharp fruit in the nose. Sweet Tarts and Gummy Bears, a smoky volatility with maybe a touch of KMBS. As is typically the grenache suit, the crazy visual thin-ness contradicts the intense black cherry and stemmy vegetal of the nose. Watching a new winemaker come up is always interesting. I watch them very carefully... how they market, their work-ethic, their fruit sources and equipment networking, how they treat social media, how fast they expand, their demo, their attitude and philosophy toward bottle contents. Often, they have full-time jobs or have recently QUIT full-time--far more gainful--employment or careers. Few have impressed me the way this kid has. The sky's the limit with this one, folks. He's doing everything right. In the mouth, that brittle stemminess waves hello inside decadent cherry fruit. Stunningly acidified, it washes a remarkable plum and watermelon profile over the tongue, dense and concentrated--AGAIN: FAR more than you would expect from the color. Edgy and green without being green, it never pauses in its perfection, tannins aligned seamlessly with the richness of the fruit, chunky caramel and licorice poking at the acid, raspberry, iced tea and cola never letting go for a second. Some of Dusty's wines are from Paso... some are quite dense... there's no way this thing is over 14-oh. not a hint of heat, this thing finishes clean and bright and stellar. Absolute purity of fruit all the way through. This is the best wine he's ever made. 2018 @DUSTYNABORWINES #Grenache #spearvineyard #SantaRitaHills Hills Santa Barbara Co. 13.5 #libbeyglass (at Dusty Nabor Wines) https://www.instagram.com/p/B75AqtHnvpQ/?igshid=s165nf7befad

[socialsf]

#therewardisinthebottle @bonaccorsiwine 2005 #pinotnoir #santaritahills #knowyourwinemaker cheers #mikebonaccorsi #stilldrinkinggreat #youhadavision #ripmyfriend #bestwishes from #allofusatthetable #wholovedyou #letsholuday #merrychristmas #drinkupclown #sundaysupper https://www.instagram.com/p/B6KagLcHV2O/?igshid=1d6hx8e0fhoo0

[wine-porn]

A gorgeous density of clear garnet with a ruby core.  Generous roasted cherry, dark, asphalty and concentrated, smoky cinnamon and rosemary warning you against thinking it flabby. Oh so robust in the nose, though. Positively suffocating in its graciousness and sharp elegance--just a TEXTBOOK-smelling pinot: rich and roiling, but sharp where it counts. Pointed fruit with barely a trace of barnyard. In the mouth, ridiculously plummy, plump and sexy. An absolute perfect balance of fruit and acid--at once sweet and charming, again raspy and grippy, the perfect curl of bitter late-middle that dashes and dazzles this sparkling stream of pinot perfection against the rocks, letting the breeze blow brightly through it and exposing all the meatiness contained to the light. This is not a giant blockbuster pinot. It is also not a green, wiry, funky pinot. This is, like, literally a PERFECT PINOT. It just has this beautiful calm existence with not a single flaw. All the flapping mouths running off currently about Pinot with your holiday meals: holy WOW, wouldn't THIS be a charmer. There's literally not a single person on the planet who can drink this and say they don't like Pinot. 2018 @LORINGWINE COMPANY #PinotNoir Cargasacchi VYD #SantaRitaHills #SantaBarbaraCounty #California 14.3 #libbeyglass (at Loring Wine Co.) https://www.instagram.com/p/B5WoJIoHNGv/?igshid=1d343jc4ppmso

[wine-porn]

Medium ruby, with a hue far pinker and bluer than garnet. Strong clean candied nose, fruit bight but worn. Dried peach with dull green wood areas, almond butter and herbs de Provence on a steely background softened by the lollipop berry, but strengthened by the tiny mint visible and a match-head which grows stronger with air alongside a little smoky blusteriness. Still, it feels a bit flabby in the nose I watch pretty carefully what my audience drinks in terms of Pinot Noir from Santa Barbara. Especially at the higher price-points. I'm not going to mention any names, but I see a bunch of you line up for *that one* and *that one* and shell out big bucks for them.  And to those folks I am always wanting to introduce Tantara. Never heard of it? I had never either--until I moved here. There's 2 or 3 of these tiny cult Pinot producers here in Santa Barbara, and I had never heard of ANY of them before I moved here. Now these Tantara's aren't cheap, but let me tell you they ARE cheaper than *those ones*, and the amount of personal attention and Burgundian flair they receive and are instilled with blows the smoky-club out of the water. We're not even gonna TALK about oak. In the mouth, a calm, dark-fruited entry remains grainy and slightly viscous for a second, then EXPLODES in green tangy bitter beauty, edged in burnt rubber on tar, black walnut on sour cherry, and sulfur and phosphorous meeting on striker-box. Man I didn't see THAT coming. I had this thing nearly written off for being chubby while smelling it, and it goes straight-up floor-mat, Kool-aid and black tea in the mouth. Easily one of the most tannic Pinots in recent memory, but that subtle fruit hangs on and on, softening those initial blows until it all succumbs to a bit of heat. One of the most respected--and cherished--Pinots in the valley, and every Pinot-person NEEDS to experience them. 2017 @tantara_wines #PinotNoir La Encantada VYD #SantaRitaHills #SantaBarbara 14.6 (at Tantara Winery) https://www.instagram.com/p/B4BczHRHCAY/?igshid=1cw8gc34mb8eh

[wine-porn]

Clear garnet. Big nose of sassafras, sarsaparilla, and nutty goodness culminating in rich round cherry with rooty earthen layers of root-beer and intensely ripe tropical. This is an elegant monster–as Fiddlestix usually are–I’m guessing 14-5 with gobs of smoky goodness and the kind of Pinot fruit that brings you to your knees, but without a whole lot of funk and earth. Certainly no match-head and cedar. Just amazing fruit and ripeness. In the mouth, way more restrained. Delicate petals of falling fruit and dusty rose clamor for attention beside creases of mineral and the slightly burnt portions of fruit peels and stems. Ridiculously smooth and sophisticated, acid and tannin growing slowly from the middle, making this a fruit-punch pinot dream. Clean goodbyes distill heavy berry into your pores far into the finish, where a slight burn graces the mellow tannins. I’m moving my guess a full point lower after tasting, to 13-5, as the silky pinot wonderfulness massages your throat. An extremely elegant pinot, one that will hold court with the blingiest of Santa Barbara County bling pinots with ease. Trot this out at your next tasting and blow them away. 2016 @CHIRONWINES #PinotNoir #Fiddlestix Vineyard #SantaRitaHills #SantaBarbara County 13.4 (at Calistoga, California) https://www.instagram.com/p/B37zIAvHwgh/?igshid=12pa4187iocrh

[wine-porn]

Beautiful clear ruddy glow with a wide garnet rim.  Zangy, sexy, spicy, salty-licorice-infused amaretto blackberry with red bell pepper bringing a fresh-cut introduction to saline & straw barnyard funk ever-so-slightly visible behind fruit so powerful you KNOW it is California but refined and restrained as it drops little soft plums to the ground, allowing earth to swallow them up almost unnoticed. It fattens considerably late-breathe--a disappointing direction--but hey, whaddya gonna do??? It's CALIFORNIA. STILL SO MUCH going on in the nose, from the fig and latex through the sweet cream and roasted tomato, to the sharp mineralific wet stone that dumps you right back down onto the chubby fruit and slight burn--full circle. In the mouth, a smoooooooth entry and middle disappoints for the second time--glycerin-ey and flaccid--the dark concentrated fruit only apparent near the finish, where everything suddenly explodes into the myriadic cornucopia of issues we all cherish in Pinot Noir--WITH a chubby tinge.  Now-mouthfilling and extravagant, match-head comes alive on polished steel and gel-coat. More vegetal pepper, but refined into a more vanilla-spice scenario, and white-pepper clanging for attention as the applesauce and blackberry slowly give way to a bit of tannin and considerable heat. This is the second time I've had these wines, and this is easily the oldest of the two sessions.  These are highly-sought-after specimens in the area and beyond, and the complexity they exude *almost* over-rides the confusion they show. A most interesting wine, one you don't take simply and can't quite over-rule for a few rough edges. Yes, it is a little awkward and disjointed, and sometimes comes off as a porn-show, but I wouldn't go so far as to call it unbalanced. It WORKS for what it is, and that is a big fat chubby monster the bling-bros will buy with marginal pinot-redeeming characteristics. 2014 MAIL ROAD WINES #pinotnoir #santaritahills #santaynezvalley 14-1 #pixel #libbeyglass (at Mail Road Wines) https://www.instagram.com/p/B1K3oB1n6g1/?igshid=5os6vk4syqli

[wine-porn]

An unmistakable blue-purple clear Syrah crimson in the glass.  Toasty and roasty in the nose, glazed shish-ka-bob vegetables, a shrill young pepper storming through cinnamon and ginger-glazed licorice, carrying angelic darling boysenberry and rose-hips SO saline, SO petrichor, SO gratingly gorgeous--I haven't tasted anything like this South of Sonoma Coast. Whenever a firmly established winemaker starts a second label--especially when it is the dude's middle name, or his brother's name or something--and doesn't just come right out and boldly announce the intent of the label in pure non-marketing-spun words, you always kinda assume it is a cheaper thing... with easier fruit... and less sophistication.  I don't have to tell you about Margerum Syrahs. They are ridiculously good.  The entire world knows what those wines are like.  So I kinda poo-poo'd Barden for the first year or so until running into them at Santa Barbara Futures Festival and I *almost* skipped them, but the winemaker was, like, Come'on... these are different... these are a different style... here we're going for a fresher, greener, lower alcohol, more No. Rhone style.  WHAAAAAAT? SHUT UP AND TAKE MY MONEY.  I couldn't get them in the glass fast enough. And they are NOT cheaper. In the mouth, match-head and granite come quickly to rest against a wall of firm sour cherry.  It sweetens and deepens and ripens pushing into the middle, coating the tongue with thin nectar and ridiculous acid. Blackberry seeds, black olives and black walnut amp the game up, but the fruit holds on--as delightfully light, elegant fruit often does in well-made wines.  Tannins are an abrasive sort, but there's a buttery coating to them, letting the fruit run abreast far down that dirt road. How much more do you want to know about this wine? It's fucking delicious. Stupid, STUPIDLY young though. Buy a case and drink one a year. 2017 @BARDENWINES #Syrah #SantaRitaHills #SantaYnezValley California 12.8 #pixel #libbeyglass (at Barden Wines) https://www.instagram.com/p/B1IUxEVHMWn/?igshid=1eiylcyotl5xo