Htiching the SB Wine Wagon to Some Amazing Pioneers

I'm going to try to tell the story of an event in a single bottle. Last Saturday (11/23) was the Third Annual Heritage Tasting held by the Pioneers of Santa Barbara County, a fantastically temperate fall day at Pico in Los Alamos. (Quick digression--do you want Chef Drew's praline bacon with some Lindquist syrah? Well, do you want the taste equivalent of a millionaire dollar lotto card on your tongue?) And sure, the winemaking starpower was there, with Richard Sanford and Fred Brander and Karen Steinwachs and Doug Margerum, for instance, along one row of tables so tight they couldn't swing a wine bottle without conking one of their compatriots.

And that's just the start of all the goodness that Morgan Clendenen, organizer, cheerleader, wrangler, planner, rogue viral video content maker, promoter, brought together for this spectacular shindig to remind us of them that got us here. You can go read the list at the website, but we're talking back in the days before our AVAs were subdividing like mops for Mickey Mouse to fight.

What anyone there most learned, however, is pioneers don't just get encased in amber. Nope, this group just keeps pioneering--messing with hops in their Sauv Blanc, making one of the first Amaros in the U.S., figuring out how to tame, but only enough, the wildness of an extreme vineyard site like Radian.

That pioneering knows enough, though, not to forget. (Wise winemakers watch paralleling the folly of the tyro creative writer who ignorantly declares, "I don't need to read what's come before--I am new!") So look above at what Frank Ostini and Gray Hartley are doing now--a Chenin Blanc. Frank is quick to point across the tasting at Louis Lucas pouring his own Lucas & Lewellen Wines, saying he was smart enough to hang on to some 40 year old Chenin vines amidst the more profitable chardonnay (because, you know, give the people what they white want). And now Hitching Post is making Forerunner (a lovely forwards and backwards cap-tipping name, no?), a snappy blast of pear, persimmon and a zip of lime zest. Pioneering indeed.

Several Sips at South Africa

To be brutally honest, my knowledge of South Africa going in to a recent trade tasting if its wines mostly came from Breaker Morant, Peter Gabriel's "Biko," and that monumental world music highlight of the '80s, The Indestructible Beat of Soweto. And despite its Boer War setting, Breaker Morant is an Australian film, anyway. So, to put it bluntly, I had a lot to learn.

Luckily, as the billing went, "Jim Clarke [pictured above], former Wine Director at Megu and Armani Ristorante in New York, will put the wines in context, discussing terroir, traditions, and current trends." That was a lot to do in a bit under 2 hours, but at least now I've got a better sense of what's up in South Africa (it seems unfair they got beat to the moniker down under, in a way), plus the photos and discussion made me realize many of their wine regions are quite like Santa Barbara's, so that's fascinating too.

There's no point in running you through the whole story here, as it would be secondhand and more than you need. So the accelerated version: early fine wines, Napoleon thumbs up, phylloxera bugs down, WWI kills too many people to make anyone care about wine, apartheid means embargoes of everything. In the middle of all that, there's KWV, a business that controlled wine and led to a generally down to price not up to quality approach.

Since the end of apartheid everything has improved though--the magic of markets. Winemakers discovered you could grow fine cold climate grapes closer to the ocean (it's a place with cross-wind currents and diurnal temperature shift--hi, Santa Barbara!). Old vines started getting some care, but not too much, because you want to stress those vines and lower yield to concentrate goodness.

And you have a lot of Chenin Blanc--it's the most commonly grown grape there. (I won't make a joke they grow more white, I won't make a joke they grow more white.) Some of it is fascinating stuff; I can't say enough about the Luddite Chenin Blanc we tasted: think white peach and apricot, but more importantly some ethereal quality that makes it dance across the tongue and linger. A kind of perfume, in the best of ways, one that seems to want to unlock your best memories.

Some pretty unpleasant memories are often associated with South Africa's trademark red varietal, Pinotage. This cross of Pinot Noir and Cinsaut got a bad rap in the 1980s-90s as its low acids made it any easy home to all sorts of nasties, especially before all South African wineries kicked up their hygiene regimens. At the time Pinotage often had a nose of rusty nails or Band-aids, not exactly smells conducive to yumminess.

But times, and methods, have changed. Try, for instance, especially at $15 a bottle, Painted Wolf Guillermo Pinotage, with a bit of soul added with some new oak. Plum, red berries, a bit of pipe tobacco. Grown in the Swartland (the grasses there turn black in summer), so with a bit more heat in the growing season, and a bit more acid than most of its varietal. Plus sales go to help the endangered African wild dog and if you follow this link you'll want to save them, too.

The Wide World of Santa Barbara Wine White Now

Not to be one of those people who say, "Boy, you sure missed a good party," but if you didn't make it to the Grand Tasting on April 23 for the Santa Barbara Vintners Spring Weekend, well, you sure missed....

My joke, as I tasted and was repeatedly wowed, was saying, "_______ is the best winemaker in Santa Barbara!" only to say "No, _____ is the best winemaker!" after having the next superlative taste. Doing a wrap up of all the fine pours and tasty tastes would seem like rubbing it in, so instead, I want to focus on just one crucial thing I'm not sure people get about Santa Barbara wine--it contains multitudes. We all hear about how our positioning on the crook of the coast means the mountains aim east-west, not north-south, and what that means for growing regions and the ranges of temperatures our vines get to experience. But it's really really true, and not just some pleasing marketing come on (if there is such a thing as a pleasing marketing come on, and I say that as a person who does marketing for a living). As we begin to AVA-out, that, too, is not just wine geekery but a reflection that Ballard Canyon isn't Happy Canyon even if you'll end up happy drinking the wines from either spot.

A moment in the Connoisseurs Club tent crystallized the inspiring range SB offers right now. Dustin Wilson, Raj Parr, and Eric Railsback led a tasting (yeah, you could do a lot worse for presenters), finding wonderful pairs. One of those featured the Lieu Dit Chenin Blanc and Stolpman L'Avion. The Lieu Diet is acid and precision and lean and lively--invigorating citrus and stone. The L'Avion is lush and oily and rich--ingratiating tropical fruit and flowers. While heading away from each other at practically the speed of light in their styles, both remain balanced at the extremes, where balance becomes all the more important. That Chenin Blanc with Industrial Eats barbecued Morro Bay oysters was perfect, almost a mignonette on its own. Industrial Eats also offered the perfect bites for the Stolpman, too--lobster pasta, rich, unctuous, both hearty and the sea at once.

All this and Chardonnay too.

For, after all, Chenin Blanc was almost done as a varietal in California, except for what the Central Valley made for bulk wine. And Roussanne, so picky it often gets hand-turned so each angle of the grapes gets the sun it needs and no more than that, well, there's all of 324 acres of it in California (basically 1/3 of the UCSB campus, which might be a better use for much of campus, now that I think about it). But these grapes from the Loire and the Rhone, they grow in our county, and mighty well. Now that's something to toast to.