Municipal Winemakers ($12 tasting, wines $27-$38)
'12 Pinot Noir, '12 "Bright Red" (Grenache/Cinsault/Counoise/Syrah), '12 Counoise, '11 "Dark Red" (Syrah/Cabernet Sauvignon), '11 Grenache - Fox Family
This was the first visit that I'd made to the Funk Zone. It's in a converted industrial sector of Santa Barbara - artists, builders, restaurants, and a handful of wineries. Specifically I was interested in going to Municipal - I first heard about it from Wes Hagan when we did a tour at Clos Pepe. We were hanging out with the groom, just biding time before the wedding rehearsal so we headed over to check Municipal out. Municipal is definitely going for a different feel, it's skewing toward a younger audience. The tasting room is in former dive shop, and they've kept some of the old signage around. They've also got a lot of funky decor - goofy paintings, mismatched chairs, re-purposed shelving, etc. It's a fun kind of silly, not an annoying needy kind of silly. The woman who attended to us in the tasting room was limited in her knowledge about the wine, but was extremely friendly and super stoked about the fact that our friend was getting married. Our visit was a bit short, we had to book on out to make sure that we didn't miss the rehearsal.
Across the board the wines had a nice organic flavor, with enjoyable vegital notes. However they were a bit simple, cluttered and at times the acid was too prevalent. The Pinot was slightly too high on the acid. The Bright Red blend was quite zippy as well - curiously a mix of two contrasting experiences: licks off of a battery and light pillows. The Counoise was fun and simple. The Dark Red Blend was very flavorful with jumpy acid. Finally the Grenache was quite sharp, overtaking other aspects.
Experience: B / Wines: B-
Piedrasassi / New Vineland Winery ($10 tasting, wines $22-$42)
'12 "P.S." White Wine - Sauvignon Blanc, '10 White White (Sauvignon Blanc/Roussanne), '12 "P.S." Rosé (Sangiovese), '12 "P.S." Syrah, '10 Syrah
Visiting the Wine Ghetto with friends that have never been before creates a tricky situation: what wineries do you choose to take them to? There are many great options. With our friends from Chicago with us, we knew we needed to make stops at Ampelos and Stolpman to make pickups. Those two places are always good, solid choices. Since I've written positively about that places several times, I didn't write up notes for the blog. The third and final choice was a tricky one. Go to one the few places that we'd never been to that may or may not be good? Go somewhere we'd been many times already and really enjoyed, like Samsara or Jalama? Or go somewhere that we had only visited once, intrigued us on that visit, and deserved a second tasting to see if it held up? Obviously that's the choice that we went with.
Since our last visit almost two years to Piedrasassi ago, they're now making bread in the back of the building. Since we entered from the back, the baker pointed us through to the tasting room in the front, but also offered some bread samples. Melissa Sorongon was handling the pouring duties, so it was neat to get her input on how she and Sashi Moorman (her husband and winemaker for Stolpman and Sandhi) made choices regarding the Piedrasassi wines. Early on in the tasting we were able to have an in depth discussion about the wines and breads that we were served, but soon a few large groups arrived, and the room became much more loud and tight.
Regardless the wines were very enjoyable. The "P.S." wines are more budget focused, but stand up on their own merits. The P.S. White had a very nice profile - crisp with pineapples, a smooth ending, medium bodied. The Piedrasassi White was very reminiscent of Stolpman's flagship white - L'Avion - with a bit more kick. The Rosé was made with carbonic maceration, weighty compared to other rosés, with very crisp acid and strawberries. The P.S. Syrah was a kick in the pants, big ass black pepper and green vegetables that calmed down really nicely midway through to the end. It was a great price so we picked up a few bottles. Randomly I was at our favorite wine shop here in LA a few weeks later and there was a dude buying a half case of the P.S. Syrah. I chatted with him for a bit about how great the wine was, and we basically convinced each other to split up the last four bottles that the store had left in stock. The Piedrasassi Syrah was a little bit more of a quiet storm compared to the P.S. It's pepper and acid was neatly restrained, but it had a lot of juice. Probably one to open a while before pouring to allow it to breathe.
Experience: B+ / Wines: B+
We're getting quite sneaky at integrating winery visits into our trips. This time around our visits were nice little breaks from the bigger event of the weekend. It was nice to break free during the hubbub to take the groom out. It was even nicer to share our new obsession with old friends on a lazy Sunday.
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