Vineyards and Wineries in California - Riverbench in Santa Maria Liza's Secret Spot!

Welcome to Pat Patterson's Best of California. Today, Santa Maria Valley. Liza and I are set on our ATVs. We're going to take off, show you a winery, show you an incredible family farm, incredible places to eat here in Santa Maria Valley. So let's put our helmets on and let's get going. I'm Pat Patterson and I love California. Hi, this is Liza with the Best of California. I'm here at River Bench Winery with Grant Harmsen. He is the Tasting Room Director. Now tell me about that awesome job. Yeah, absolutely. Glad to have you guys. Thanks for coming by today. I get the privilege of sharing all the great wines that we craft here at River Bench with our guests. And what is one of your favorite wines, kind of the wine you push towards people that are coming out of the country? Absolutely. So great question. We actually have a really unique variety in the vineyard called Pinot Meunier. And we were the first winery to plant that here in Santa Barbara County back in 2014. And so that's something I love to share with with guests because you can't find it everywhere. In 1988, the decision was made to convert this section to Chardonnay. And so rather than rip up all of the vines and lose that nice established rootstock, the owners at that time came in and they did a process called head grafting. So they basically, yeah, not so great for people, but awesome for vines. And they just come in and kind of lop the top parts off and then stuck in little baby Chardonnay vines. And then the two became one. And now we have this beautiful sort of old vine Chardonnay that produces some of our best still Chardonnay and also sparkling wines. Now tell me a little bit about this wine. Yeah. So here at River Bench, we produce a number of different wines, but I've pulled out three of our most popular today, starting with what's in your glass. That's our One Palm Pinot, far and away our best-selling wine, almost by a factor of two every year. All clone 667, but really fruit forward, classic Santa Maria Valley style, big cherry, a little bit of spice in there as well. Now tell me a little bit about this beautiful little bubbly label over here. Yeah. So I've got a little sparkling wine here for myself. This is a style of wine that we're really known for here at River Bench. And we produce all of our sparkling wines in the same style as Champagne, the traditional production method. This specific bottle is our Cork Jumper Conveyance. I like to call this our homage to Champagne. It's an equal blend of Chardonnay, Pinot Noir and Pinot Meunier, which are the three main grapes used in Champagne France. Cheers. Thank you so much for having us. You're welcome. Looking forward to having you anytime. And to all of you watching, we look forward to seeing you at River Bench soon. Cheers. So when you're in Santa Maria Valley, you got to try Shaw's Steakhouse. Incredible tri-tip, Santa Maria style barbecue. They raise it up and down over the Oak Fire, Shaw's Steakhouse. Check it out when you're in Santa Maria Valley. What are you trying to get accomplished here? Oh, just getting this off the show. Oh, okay. Great. Thank you. Off the show. Well, that's good. Here. Thank you. Don't worry. It's fine. It's just... Grant just gave me this really unique idea, Dad. I guess you're here to stay. Oso Flaco Lake. Incredible hidden gem in the state park system. Oso Flaco, meaning skinny bear. Casper de Portola's guys came here, ate a skinny bear, and got very sick. The reason they got sick is the local Indians fed the bears tainted meat so that the bears would die and not compete for food. So it was a bit of a chain reaction. There's a causeway that goes out to the ocean and a walkway. We're going to go check it out and see where that ocean is. Come on. A little uneven sidewalk here, which is fun. Obviously, this is here to protect the dunes because they're very fragile. The snowy plover is protected here. It used to be that ATVs could run all over the place. They still can. They're still protected areas. We're going to check out an ATV, but this is all preserved like only the California state parks know how to do. We love the state parks. Wow, and this is the pre-dunes, which is just the part of the dunes before the ocean. Most of California had these dunes before they were developed. Amazing to come here and see what it used to be like. So we're getting fog, we're getting shade, we're getting sunshine. This is incredible. What an amazing natural resource we have here. And we are getting very close to the ocean and I am fine. It's not a very far walk. Oh my gosh, look at that. The Pacific Ocean, my favorite. Pristine, beautiful dunes. Level walkway all the way out. 1.5 miles. Easy access. You got to come up here. Santa Maria Valley. This is how the beachfront of California used to look before it got developed. And these dunes were everywhere. And this part has been preserved. It goes down quite a ways. Guadalupe to the south of us. You can see all of San Luis Bay. This is San Luis Bay going out to the point out there. Beautiful, beautiful. Santa Maria Valley, you got to check this place out. Are you ready for a more creative and fulfilling second act? I know I was. So I wrote a book about it. Creative U-Turn. Nine steps to your new creative life and career. It outlines my journey of leaving corporate America at age 55 to become a TV host, actor, and a senior model. It's an easy to follow plan that can get you where you want to go. Creative U-Turn. It's available on Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Balboa Press, and other places. Or go to my website, patpatterson.net, and sign up for our free monthly workshops based on the book. So join me. Make your creative U-Turn now. Order your book today and join Pat Patterson by registering at patpatterson.net for his free monthly workshop.