At 7a.m. on day two we drove south and west of Santa Maria Valley across the 101, and into the Santa Rita Hills. That's brutally early for a group of hungover sommeliers and wine journalists. We looped around highway 246 and back along Santa Rosa Road before arriving at Richard Sanford's La Encantada vineyard.

Meeting Richard Sanford and tasting his new Alma Rosa wines was one of the highlights of the trip. The Richard Sanford story is pretty epic with many ups and downs including a less-than-fairytale ending to his namesake Sanford & Benedict vineyard. That vineyard is in corporate hands now and is painfully viewable while driving to the top of La Encantada. Yet Sanford remains stoic and his new Alma Rosa wines were some of the most pure, cristalline, and honest that we tasted. Oh, and the wines are a steal. The Pinot Blanc ($18) will be our house wine this summer. 

Across Santa Rosa Road from the original Sanford & Benedict vineyard is Kathy Joseph's Fiddlestix Vineyard. There's a bunch of calcareous soil in the area, which along with the cooling winds, makes the Santa Rita Hills unique among California wine regions. It's called diatomaceous earth and resembles chalk but is much more friable. I wished I could've tasted more of this special soil in more of the wines. The soil at Fiddlestix is something different, mostly botella clay, and her wines seemed deeper, firmer, and with more base notes than La Encantada. Kathy is very enthusiastic about her work and her Pinot Noirs are very good. Her vineyard manager is Jeff Newton who's kind of a legend in his own right. Jeff is responsible for a good chunk of plantings in the Santa Rita Hills and from what I can tell, is pushing the appellation forward to even greater heights. 

It's apparently sacrilegious to visit the area and not taste an Arn’s Aebleskiver from the Solvang Restaurant and now I understand why. They're little Danish pancake balls stuffed with apples and dusted in powdered sugar. We devoured these puppies on our way to lunch at Jonata Winery in the adjacent Santa Ynez Valley. Jonata runs a little farm in addition to growing grapes and they slaughtered a lamb for and spit roasted it for our group. After lunch we squeezed in a comprehensive tasting of Ballard Canyon Syrahs before an over-the-top dinner prepared by winemaker Steve Clifton. Steve and his winemaking partner Greg Brewer are two of the most forward-thinking producers in Santa Rita Hills but Steve is also a top-notch cook. To go into the details of his menu and the wines that were served deserves a post of its own but I'll just say that Steve knows how to cook a goat!

jessebeckerMS

périphérique | selections

www.peripheriquewine.com

Elizabeth and I are mostly interested in European wines. The fully-charged California stuff makes us sleepy and we like the taste of acidity and minerals more than alcohol and fruit. We're always on the lookout, however, for those sensible (balanced?, interesting?, bizzaro?) California wines that occasionally surface.

I was surprised by what I tasted during the 2010 Sommelier Journal Terroir Experience last week in Santa Barbara. David Furer the famous wine writer, myself, and the rest of our colleagues from Sommelier Journal met in Solvang and toured vineyards in the AVAs of Santa Maria Valley and Sta. Rita Hills for three days. The locals, pointed out all the places where Sandra Oh smacked Thomas Haden Church with a frying pan, as well as the Ostrich Farm and the home of the Horse Whisperer.

Places like Santa Maria Valley are like negative one (-1) on the silly Winkler scale and happen to be perfect for growing the kinds of wines I like: athletic, focused, and precise. These areas are really all about Chardonnay and Pinot Noir, although Syrah seems to have some potential. They're making quite a fuss about Syrah in a tiny sub-zone called Ballard Canyon, but I think Syrah might be best in the Bien Nacido "letter blocks". During a seminar at Sierra Madre Vineyard the “2:15 wind” started to blow. The wind blows through the unusual west-east Santa Maria Valley at the same time each day.

Favorites from the first day of tasting included a lemony and bracing Chardonnay from Sierra Madre Vineyard, a black pepper-infused Syrah from Craig Jaffurs, Morgan Clendendon’s Cold Heaven Viognier, the incomparable Z-block Syrah from Bob Lindquist, and an impressive lineup of Pinot Noirs from Bien Nacido Vineyard. Some tasty barbeque ensued at the Clendendon family ranch.

jessebeckerMS

périphérique | selections

www.peripheriquewine.com

I’m in Santa Barbara for a few days as part of the Sommelier Journal Terroir Experience 2010. The group drove to the top of Bien Nacido Vineyard where people like Bob Lindquist of Qupé produces his famous “Z-block” Hillside Syrah. The Au Bon Climat facility can be seen below.

jessebeckerMS

périphérique | selections

www.peripheriquewine.com