LOS OLIVOS & FOXEN CANYON WINE TRAIL

Day 3 of the Vines & Steins end-of-the-year tasting trip will take us out to the northern stretches of the Santa Ynez Valley, to the small wine-centric town of Los Olivos and out along the Foxen Canyon wine trail in the direction of Santa Maria.

I first visited Los Olivos back in ’97….I remember going to the Los Olivos Wine & Spirits Emporium and  meeting Bob Senn, who poured me several wines on my first very first tasting venture, including some Qupè Marsanne, of which I ended up bringing home a couple of 375 ml bottles.  Qupè didn’t have their own tasting room in those days, and Bob’s job was to highlight and promote the area’s best producers.  Bob Senn is no longer with us, and the Wine & Spirits Emporium is  no more, but Qupè  now has their own tasting room open in Los Olivos!

QUPE

Qupè is hands-down one of the best wineries on the Central Coast, period.  Proprietor Bob Lindquist was one of the original “Rhone Rangers” who eschewed the usual Cabernet/Chardonnay plantings that had (and still are) done to death in this state.  If you like some variety among your varietals, and enjoy a California Syrah or Viognier, then you owe a little gratitude to folks like Bob Lindquist and other Rhone Rangers who bucked the prevailing wisdom and planted grape types from France’s Rhone River Valley. In fact, Qupè was the first commercial producer of Marsanne in all of California, if not the entire country.  I’m a longtime fan of this winery, and looking forward to being able to visit their tasting room.  If Bob Lindquist is anywhere on hand, he had better sign my bottles! 

VERDAD & ETHAN WINES

Keeping it all in the family, Verdad is the winery of Bob Lindquist’s wife Louisa Sawyer Lindquist, and specializes in Spanish varietals like Tempranillo and Albarino, both of which I am partial to–Albarino would run a tight race with Marsanne for the title of white wine that I like that hardly any California wineries are making.  Their son Ethan has just gotten into the wine business with his own namesake winery, and it appears they are doing tastings in the same building.

CONSILIENCE – I have a 2-for-1 tasting offer for this small family-owned winery.  They make several Rhone varietal wines like Syrah and Grenache, plus a Pinot Gris and a Zinfandel, and they have a sister winery next door (TRE ANELLI) offers Spanish and Italian varietals.

From Los Olivos, we are going to hit the road and visit several of the best wineries located along the Foxen Canyon Wine Trail.

CURTIS –

Their website doesn’t mention it anywhere in the history of their winery, but I could swear I first visited Curtis at a location along Alamo Pintado Road between Solvang and Los Olivos, and I know that I purchased a dry Orange Muscat (aforementioned in the post about Mosby) from them.  (Possibly the current location of Lincourt?)  Shortly after, Curtis relocated to Foxen Canyon under the ownership of the Firestone family (Firestone Vineyard & Winery being one of the early upstart wineries in the Santa Ynez Valley).  Just like Richard Sanford did, the Firestones have sold off their namesake winery but have retained ownership of Curtis, which has been putting out great Rhone varietals under the expertise of winemaker Chuck Carlson for years.  I used to be in their wine club about ten or eleven years ago, and it was all good stuff!
ZACA MESA – Zaca Mesa is the original Rhone Ranger winery.  They were planting Syrah, Grenache, and Mourvedre back in the 1970s and this is where Bob Lindquist started out before he venture out with Qupe in the ’80s.  Good stuff, epic Central Coast winery.  ‘Nuff said.

RIVER BENCH – Now we are really getting out of the shadow of Los Olivos and coming into the Santa Maria area.  This is one of the older wineries in this area, and with the influence of cooler breezes and fog coming in from the Pacific, we’re back to cooler climate grapes like Pinot Noir and Chardonnay—which is all that they do here at Riverbench.

CAMBRIA – Their Julia’s Vineyard Pinot Noir is my wife’s favorite.  We’ve never been here, so hope to taste some good things and bring home something you can’t find in the local markets.

This post has been a long time coming….partially because I made some changes to the itinerary and partially because I’ve just been busy lately.  But the trip is upon us….Day 2 brings us to the Sta. Rita Hills AVA (American Viticultural Area), which is more of a sub-AVA located within the western portion of the larger Santa Ynez Valley AVA.  Sta. Rita Hills (the “Santa” got abbreviated to “Sta.” on the wine labels a few years back out of a settlement with some growers from Chile over use of the name) is Pinot Noir country, made famous in Sideways, with Miles (Paul Giamatti) even explaining in the movie dialogue about how the fog rolls in here from the Pacific Ocean, making for cool mornings and ideal growing conditions for this finicky grape.  There’s also quite a bit of Chardonnay and some cool-climate Syrah here also…but Pinot is king, and the winemakers out here know that…hence the ever-upward movement of the list prices for bottles.

Our day begins just outside of Buellton, where we will be heading in a westerly direction through the Santa Rita Hills, stopping by at select winery tasting rooms, before we finally make our way to the promised land of Central Coast Pinot Noir…the Lompoc Wine Ghetto!

Here is where we will plan to go:

MOSBY WINERY – The first winery on the west side of Highway 101, this is where Bill Mosby has been crafting Italian varietal wines (often called Cal-Ital) for years.  We will be checking out his Dolcetto, Sangiovese, Nebbiolo, and Primativo wines and sure to bring back a bottle or so since Mosby has very friendly prices!  I’m interested to check out a dry Orange Muscat listed on the winery page.  I once had a dry Orange Muscat (put out from Curtis, I think this was before they relocated and began to focus on just Rhone varietal) but have never found one since.  Muscat is mostly known as a dessert wine, and I just don’t go for the sweet wines.  If this is truly a dry (non-sweet) and delicious Orange Muscat, this is coming home to the wine fridge, to be uncorked on a random summer afternoon out on the patio.

ALMA ROSA – This one almost missed my attention!  I was noticing that Sanford Winery on Santa Rosa Road had been sold, and the new owners built a new and opulent tasting room whose map location just didn’t jive with my memory of where I’d gone before on previous visits to Sanford.  Turns out, Richard Sanford didn’t just sell his landmark namesake winery…he kept the original parcel with the old countryish tasting room and that is now the tasting room for his new winery, Alma Rosa.        Whatever label is put on the bottles, Richard Sanford is the O.G. (if you will) of Santa Rita Hills Pinot Noir.  This stop is a must stop!

SANFORD WINERY –

 The aforementioned birthplace of Santa Rita Hills Pinot, Sanford Winery was sold to the Terlato Family in 2005, a fact I was not aware of when I last visited the old tasting room (now Alma Rosa) in 2007.  I used to be in the Sanford wine club almost 7 years ago…I’ve had a lot of good juice bottled under the Sanford label, and curious to see how the new owners and winemakers are doing.  They still source their fruit from the Sanford & Benedict and La Rinconada Vineyards, both planted with selected clones of the Pinot Noir grape, and some Chardonnay.

Lunch in Lompoc, CA.  – Sissy’s Uptown Cafe?

LOMPOC WINE GHETTO

                      The Lompoc Wine Ghetto is bunch of rented warehouse and industrial buildings where some of the region’s best winemakers have set up shop.  There are no estate vineyards or million-dollar tasting rooms here….it’s just an asphalt jungle of ghetto-fabulous wineries and their storefront tasting rooms. We’ll try to hit at least these 4 tasting rooms before they all close at 5 pm:

FLYING GOAT CELLARS –   I’ve heard of this winery and seen their colorfully-labeled bottles in stores before.  They make a lot of single-vineyard Pinot Noirs from the best vineyards in the Sta. Rita Hills AVA, several priced over $40.  Gotta exercise wallet restraint!

PALMINA WINES – Breaking up some of the Pinot-monotony, here is another winery specializing in Italian varietals, grapes mostly grown in the eastern section of the Santa Ynez Valley and in the Santa Maria Valley.  I got a hook-up for 2-for-1 tastings at this place, and will be sure to check out their Barbera, Dolcetto, Savoia, and Pinot Grigio.

TASTE OF STA. RITA HILLS – This is not a winery, but a tasting room featuring wines from several area wineries that don’t have a tasting room or are only able to accommodate visitors by appointment.   My brother-in-law Terry (who is going on the trip) brought over a bottle of Brewer-Clifton Sta. Rita Hills Pinot Noir for Christmas Eve, which was my favorite wine of the evening.     After figuring we wouldn’t be able to visit Brewer-Clifton because they are closed on Thursdays, I’m now happy to discover that their wines are featured here at Taste Of Sta. Rita Hills.

Other featured wineries include Moretti, Clos Pepe, Diatom, El Rey, Gypsy Canyon, Huber, Ken Brown, Sea Smoke, Seagrape, and Thorne.  This tasting room should promise to be interesting and may occupy a greater part of our afternoon in the Ghetto.

ZOTOVICH CELLARS – This is a small, family-owned winery that produces Pinot Noir, Chardonnay, Syrah, and Viognier from grapes locally grown on their Sta. Rita Hills estate vineyard.  I’ve read some good reviews on their wines, and since they are such a small-production winery, a bottle of Zotovich should make for a rare pleasure.

That will probably wrap up our afternoon at the Lompoc Wine Ghetto.  We’ll head back to Solvang via SR-246, the highway route that would have afforded us visits at Dierberg/Star Lane, Melville, and  Babcock if we had gone that way in the morning instead of taking Santa Rosa Road.  Oh well…..decisions!!!

And because you can’t live on wine alone, we’ll stop off in Buellton for dinner will be at the FIRESTONE WALKER BREWING COMPANY’s TAPROOM RESTAURANT.  

I’m proud to say I was an “early adopter” of Firestone Walker beer back within their first year of opening their doors, discovering their brewery in Buellton during some of my first wine trips.  Their Double Barrel Ale was one of my favorite craft beers in the late ’90s.  They’ve moved their main brewery to Paso Robles, but this original location in the heart of the Santa Ynez Valley remains open.  Woodfired pizza and British style ales.

With the cancellation of America’s Finest Beer Festival, we at Vines & Steins have decided upon a low-key Saturday evening to sample a few of the beers and wines over at K’nB Cellars.  This is one of my favorite new places to hang out for some tastings, and their attached retail store is real go-to place for that beer you can’t seem to find anywhere.  They’ve also got a pretty big wine selection and may be the only place in San Diego that is selling Rogue’s liquors (whiskey, rum & gin)…that’s Rogue as in Rogue Ales, with all those cleverly titled painted 22 oz. bottles you see in the stores.

Head on over and look for Richard in the Russian River Brewing Damnation shirt.  We’ll be hanging out on the patio with a few cold ones, sometime after 8 pm.

K’nB Cellars is located at 6380 Del Cerro Blvd, San Diego, CA 92120

From Interstate 8, exit College Blvd. NORTH (opposite SDSU) and then turn right at Del Cerro Blvd.  It’s in the shopping center with Windmill Farms natural foods grocery store.

Cheers!