June '13 Local Visit - San Antonio Winery

I've built up a pretty good amount of animosity toward San Antonio Winery over the past three years. Three years ago was the summer when I really started to become enthusiastic about wine. That summer we went on a family trip basically in the middle of nowhere. We flew into Reno, picked up a rental car, stopped at a Costco and loaded up on provisions. We asked for some advice on which wines to choose from the Costco wine guy, and he enthusiastically directed us to a bottle of Stella Rosa, a wine we had never heard of before (somehow). We bought some other wines, but that was the one that he really got our hopes up about. So we get out to our vacation spot, and we're having a great time. I'm relaxed as all hell and have started to read Terry Theise's awesome book Reading Between the Vines. Reading this book, relaxing, and drinking wine, it was ideal - until we pop open the Stella Rosa. It was bad news. Sticky sweet nastiness. That's not to say it ruined the vacation, or turned me off wine - clearly that hasn't happened - but it kind of offended me. My dislike was further fueled over the many, many billboard's that have seemed to crop up across the state promoting Stella Rosa - "Stella gets around." Each time I saw those I remembered how much I disliked that wine.
To draw it together, San Antonio Winery is the parent of Stella Rosa, as well as an grip of other wine labels: San Simeon, Maddalena, Sera Ambra, Riboli Family, Windstream, Opaque, Santo Stefano La Quita, Kinderwood, Sangria, Bow Tie, and I'm sure others. It's been around for a very long time, since 1917, it's the longest running winery in Los Angeles. It managed to survive prohibition because it produced sacramental wine for Catholic churches. It not only survives today it thrives.

San Antonio Winery ($12 tasting, wines $13-$30)
San Antonio '10 "Heritage Blanc" (Viognier/Riesling/Pinot Gris/Sauvignon Blanc), San Antonio '12 Rosé of Gamay, Maddalena '10 Zinfandel, , San Simeon '08 Syrah - Pretty Penny Vineyard, San Simeon '08 Petite Sirah, Opaque '09 Malbec, Sera Ambra NV Moscato Orange
First impression of the place - there is a ton of stuff being sold. A big space is filled with many displays of wine, beer, liquor and food. Off to one side is a cafe. There's a very long tasting bar that runs the length of the room, so there's lots of places for wine drinkers to plug in. Behind the bar is a wall shelved with more wine, beer and liquor. All of the beer, and most of the liquor for sale are not products from the San Antonio regime - they just have a really good alcohol selection for folks, which I find strange, basically making San Antonio Winery a liquor store with a winery theme.
It was a Thursday afternoon, and there were plenty of patrons. We sidled up to the bar, and were immediately tended to by an enthusiastic youngish dude. He informed us of our options for tasting, three for free, and another four from the Artisan series for $12. We opted to pay - might as well put some skin in the game, right? The dude pouring for us was pretty hyped about the wines.
None of the wines impressed. I didn't hate them, honestly they were better than I expected, but after my Stella Rosa experience I had low expectations. The white blend was nicely crisp, though the fruits were jumbled. Additionally it had 14.9% alcohol per volume, which is a bit steep for a white. The Rosé - interesting that it was a Gamay - had watermelon notes, sneaky pepper and a too watery finish. The Zinfandel has a rough tart entry and was overly oaked. The Syrah had big tannins and unripe plums - it was my least favorite of the group. I couldn't locate a specific flavor within the Petite Sirah, just purple. The Malbec was the best, and the priciest of the lot. Pretty good length, the flavors were a bit clumpy, and there was a harsh sharp note that made the wine less enjoyable. Last, we finished up with the Orange Moscato. It was syrupy and industrial.

As far as I can tell, San Antonio Winery is a very successful business. They have a large presence in LA, and establishments in San Bernardino County and Paso Robles.The LA space is huge, and they obviously deal in high volume. The prices for the wines that we tried were steep for the quality, but I can imagine that people are willing to pay those prices. I found it a bit odd that on the way out there are road arrows for at least a block directing people out. Perhaps they've had patrons get turned around on the industrial streets around their place, but I more took them as a sign that I should be fine just visiting the one time.
Experience: C+ / Wine: C-