Greetings members and subscribers! We are pleased to bring you another offering of amazing boutique wines from the Central Coast. We are honored to be able to find hidden gems just for you, and it is so rewarding to learn more with every experience. If you have any favorites from previous shipments and want to “revisit” them, just let us know – we still have a few in stock!

Reminder – if you are looking for a great thank-you gift for your business clients, we can put together a nice wine package for you!

Grimm’s Bluff 2015 Estate Cabernet Sauvignon
• Owner: Rick Grimm
• Winemaker: Paul Lato
• Happy Canyon AVA

Grimm’s Bluff 2016 Reserve Sauvignon Blanc

• Owner: Rick Grimm
• Winemaker: Paul Lato
• Happy Canyon AVA

Flying Goat 2013 Pinot Noir, Bassi Ranch Vineyard
• Owner: Norm Yost and Kate Griffith
• Winemaker: Norm Yost
• San Luis Obispo AVA

Happy Canyon is an up and coming AVA in Santa Barbara County. You may remember our Fall 2019 Shipment of Grassini Vineyard? We heard so much great feedback from you about those wines that we decided to feature a neighbor of theirs, Grimm’s Bluff! We were lucky enough to spend a few hours with Rick Grimm and Jeff Chaney out at the breathtaking ranch (just check out the photos!) So many things about this vineyard impressed us. The Grimms bought a beautiful piece of land and wanted to do everything top-notch. They have a top French biodynamic consultant, Phillipe Coderey, who not only ensures that their grapes are planted to perfection, but also helped them create an organic, certified biodynamic estate vineyard, with no chemicals used on their vines. I’ll explain more about this in a future blog post. They also hired Paul Lato as their winemaker, who has a stellar reputation in California winemaking. You can really see, smell, and taste this attention to detail in these wonderful wines. They are still very small production, so we were really lucky to get these for you.

The Estate Cabernet Sauvignon received 92 pts. from Matt Kettemen, who specializes in Central Coast wines at Wine Enthusiast. His tasting notes: “Rich but subtle aromas of red fruit are lifted by ample baking spice and a rocky minerality on the nose of this bottling. There is solid grip to the sip, where more lush purple and red-fruit flavors meet with touches of crushed graphite, roasted coffee bean and fine oak. Chalky tannins carry into the finish.”

Winemaker Notes on the 2016 Sauvignon Blanc: “Light straw yellow with a greenish hue. Now is complex and nuanced, with notes of grapefruit, melon, and gooseberry. Evolving after a little time in the glass, it is clean, refreshing and delicious on the palate. The wine is fine and complex, with gentle notes of lemon grass, lime zest and a touch of flintiness. The wine finishes clean and long, asking you to have another sip.”

Our third wine features a producer from the Lompoc Wine Ghetto. Have you heard of it? Lompoc is of course home to the famous Sta. Rita Hills, and the “Ghetto” is an industrial park full of great winery tasting rooms! Many of these are very small producers you will not have heard of.

One of these special producers is Flying Goat Cellars. Flying Goat specializes in Pinot Noir and Sparkling Wine (sparkling wine is rare in Santa Barbara!) and when a winery puts all their efforts into just a couple varietals, the result is delicious! Norm Yost is one of the pioneers of Sta. Rita Hills winemaking, launching Flying Goat Cellars in 2000. Norm sources his grapes from a variety of excellent vineyards to create many different Pinots. The grapes for this wine were sourced from Bassi Ranch Vineyard near Avila Beach in San Luis Obispo County, where the coastal climate and conditions are very similar to the Sta. Rita Hills. We found this wine to have a delicious balance of smooth, rich fruit with gentle tannins and some nice complexity. For food pairing, Norm suggests, “The texture with layers of this wine pairs well with pork and a Pinot reduction sauce or turkey with homemade cranberry sauce. Enjoy the flavors that linger on the palate with this full-bodied wine.”

Thank you for your support, and we wish you the best in 2020!

Cheers! Mike and Mary