AVA Santa Barbara ($10 tasting, wines $26-$32)
'12 Sauvignon Blanc - Ballard Canyon, '12 Viognier - Ballard Canyon, '10 Chardonnay - Santa Maria, '12 White Blend (Sauvignon Blanc/Viognier), '12 Rosé (Grenache), '10 Pinot Noir - Santa Maria, '12 Cabernet Franc - Santa Ynez Valley
The Funk Zone is becoming quite the clutch stop for us when we're interested in doing a tasting and can't quite make it all the way up the road to Santa Barbara wine country. In this instance, we hit the road a bit late on a Friday and got stuck in weekend getaway traffic. The plan was to get up to Lompoc by late afternoon, and check out a few places, but the 101 decided to nix that idea for us. Instead we found ourselves rolling through downtown Santa Barbara with just enough time to pop into a Funk Zone tasting room.AVA is a side project for Seth Kunin, his primary label Kunin has been around for over fifteen years. His goal with AVA is to highlight the variety of terrior that exists in the Santa Barbara region. To accomplish that he makes specific varietals that are emblematic of each region - Pinot Noir and Chardonnay from the cooler Sta. Rita Hills, Syrah and other Rhones from the moderate Ballard Canyon, and Cabernet / Bordeaux wines from the warm Happy Canyon AVA. It's a fun concept, and the tasting room backs it up with a totally bad ass mural.
The wines were a bit of a mixed bag. It's hard to argue that they were emblematic of the terrior, considering that the wines were all a bit dense - hinting at barrel aging, and some straight up showed oak in their nose or flavor profile. I'm not saying that oak shouldn't be used, but when a winery is trying to show regional typicity, it should take a low-interventionist approach. Oak or not, I enjoyed the Viognier quite a bit. The Sauvignon Blanc and the Chardonnay had promising variety but were both too cluttered. The White Blend and the Rosé were on tap - the Rosé was okay, but the white was nearly undrinkable - too stark and candied. The Pinot Noir was my favorite - it hit on all the right notes. The Cab Franc was a bit of an experience - roasted squash, super dense, not to be consumed without a hearty meal to accompany it.
Experience: B / Wines: C+
Martian Ranch & Vineyard ($10 tasting, wines $20-$35)
'13 Rosé (Syrah), '12 Albariño, '12 Chenin Blanc, '12 Grenache Blanc, '12 Viognier, '12 Mourvèdre, '11 Grenache Noir, '12 Grenache Noir, '12 Cabernet Franc, '11 "Red Shift" Syrah, '11 "Mystery" Syrah, '11 Tempranillo,
At the beginning of the day, we had a plan: Hit up Martian Ranch in the morning for an hour or so, then head down to Los Olivos for a few visits, then roll back over to Lompoc to hang out in the Ghetto for a few more hours. Perhaps a bit ambitious, but not unreasonable. The plan was all shot to hell the minute we got to Martian Ranch. Right off the bat they were super accommodating. Wanna bring your dog in? Sure go right ahead. Wanna try every wine on our long ass list? Go for it. Super duper accommodating. So much so, that when the afore mentioned dog pissed in the tasting room, the owner - Nan - quietly grabbed paper towels and cleaned it up before we even noticed that it had happened. Somehow that endeared Nan to us, and she asked if we wanted to check out the winery and vineyard. So we filled our glasses with Viognier, and hopped into the back of the ranch truck. Martian Ranch is a new venture, and Nan was very excited to share it with folks. It is a stunning property with an immense open space, bordered by verdant hills. Nan said that part of the appeal of having a winery was having a big space all to yourself. I'm not rich as hell, so I don't think about a concepts like that, but in looking out over her whole property, I can see the appeal. She's also proud of their biodynamic focus, which I can get behind. After a long meandering conversation we headed back to the tasting room and drank a lot more wine.In addition to being biodynamic, all the wines are estate grown. The Rosé and Albariño were simple. The Chenin Blanc had an interesting herb characteristic - it is aged in acacia wood barrels. The Viognier was my favorite of the whites, bright, layered, slight oak. The reds were more interesting than the whites in general - some juiciness, some fun notes (twigs, funk, meat), though not especially complex or lengthy. In general, the wine quality is just pretty good, dependably solid, but nothing to right poetry about. I did appreciate that their wines are reasonably priced for the region, especially the reds. It will be interesting to see how Martian Ranch develops. They definitely roll out the red (and white) carpet for their guests.
Experience: A- / Wines: B
LaMontagne Winery ($10 tasting, wines $30-$48)
'11 Pinot Blanc, '12 Pinot Blanc, '13 Rosé (Grenache/Mourvedre), '11 Pinot Noir, '11 Tempranillo
The Wine Ghetto has been blowing up. Each time we visit, there are more tasting rooms. I'm starting to think that critical mass may have been reached. To me, the marker of a trend reaching critical mass is when there are newcomers to the trend, and the quality of the product created by the newcomers (those being recent converts to the world of the product) isn't quite as good. Newcomers see the trend, recognize the momentum, and hop onto the trend. But, because they are so new and haven't been within that world for very long, their product doesn't stand up to the trend starters. In this story, the longer term Ghetto wineries are the trend starters, such as Ampelos, Samsara, Flying Goat, Fiddlehead, etc. LaMontagne is a brand new tasting room. Kim Smith entered the world of wine recently, starting to take winemaking classes in 2006. Soon after that, she attended a wine event that Wes Hagen - the winemaking badass at Clos Pepe - she asked for an opportunity to study under him, he agreed, and she was off and running. By 2009 Kim Smith was producing wine under the LaMontagne label.I've got no authority to say it, but I think that winemakers need to be involved in the trade longer than that before they have their own labels. I guess they don't need to, but I'm going to say that the wine won't be very good after that short of a time in the industry.
Last time that we visited, the tasting room belonged to Joseph Blair Wines. Since then, Joseph Blair moved into the new wing of the Ghetto, across Chestnut Court. The room had undergone a huge decorating shift, and now a huge, old wooden bar had taken over the center of the room. Light snacks were on the table to accompany the wines. The lady in the tasting room was friendly, but not at all knowledgeable about wine.
Despite my earlier tirade, the wine was pretty good, though priced way too high for the quality. The Pinot Blancs were enjoyable, the '12 had nice baking spice, lemons and dry-roasted leaves - simple, a bit sharp. The Pinot Noir was fun to experience. The flavors were a bit sloppy, but there were very interesting characteristics - savory mushrooms, tart blackberries - nice spectrum. Finally, the Tempranillo was fine, very dense, hot, lacked all of the flavor profile you'd expect.
Experience: B- / Wine: C+
The lesson of the weekend is to allow plans to change. Even though we didn't get to our original destination on time on Friday, we were able to make a pit stop in the Funk Zone and enjoy AVA. Thank god we didn't have firm plans on Saturday, or there would have been no way we could have hung out and enjoyed the day at Martian Ranch. Each time I head up to Santa Barbara for wine tasting I feel like I need to rush, and cram in as many visits as possible. And each time, somewhere in the middle of the trip, I realize that there's no need to do so, that we're better off enjoying the journey and taking our time. Somehow I have to make that a mantra so I don't get worked up when the inevitable delays occur...
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