Santa Barbara Cabernet Sauvignon: Star Lane Vineyards & Grassini

Hello, hello, hello! Welcome back to Exotic Wine Travel. I am your host, Matthew Porky. Hi, I'm Shirin Tan. Welcome back to the show today. We are going to talk about Cabernet Sauvignon from Santa Barbara County today. Are you excited? Very much. You get really good Cabernet Sauvignon in Santa Barbara. Yeah, very good. So we're going to go through these wines. Before we get started, I want to let you guys know that this video has not been paid for in any way, shape, or form. But if you do like this video, check out our guide to the wines of Santa Barbara, a downloadable book called Sipping Santa Barbara, Recommended Wines and Producers. I will put that up there and put it in the description box. We have three Cabernet Sauvignons here. We use the Coravin to extract the wine from these. Coravin Mile 2 Elite. Thank you to Coravin for actually giving us a sample unit to test. And we're pouring into these beautiful Gabriel Glass Gold Edition hand-blown glasses, right? We will put actually a discount code for Gabriel Glass up at the end of the video. Ready to get started? Let's get going. Oh my gosh. So there is other great Cabernet Sauvignon in California besides Napa. I mean, one of the greatest Cabernets in the world, Montebello, is from outside of Napa. But when we were there, we were surprised to find a good Cabernet Sauvignon, right? Yeah. And these three are all from the Happy Canyon District. The most eastern part of Santa Barbara County was a little bit hotter. And what did you, the ones that you tasted, what did you, what was your opinion of Cabernet Sauvignon? Aromatic. It's really aromatic. Delicate, not super over extracted. That's why I liked it. So let's, without further ado, let's get in the wines. The cool thing about these two producers here, they are all estate grown fruit. In Santa Barbara, a lot of people outsource vineyard management, so they're buying fruit all the time. But these are all estate vineyards. So cool, right? The first one we get into, a wine that I really like, the Grassini Family Vineyards Estate Grown Cabernet Sauvignon 2014. I believe this spent around 20, 22 months in oak. Some of it new. I have had the 13 vintage. I have not had the 2014 vintage. So let's give this a go. First of all, this Cabernet is not inky, inky, inky, inky black, but it is darker in color. Plum, black fruit. Plum, black fruit. Cassis. Just a touch of but it would done right too. What else you pick out? A hint of black licorice as well. Me too. Maybe a little bit of tobacco. Let me give this to you. Maybe not licorice, I'm sorry. Star anise. It's a little bit spicy. Honestly, what you have to say. Whoa. I wasn't expecting the inhale. Chewy tannins. It's full body, but it's not humongous and superly overripe. Nice long tannic structure. This is young. This wine can age. 2014. There is a dip in the mid palate, but usually when you say that, it's like a negative connotation to it, but it's not. It's just a brief dip and all of a sudden. Boom. Exactly. Which is why it has such a shock. Wow. This is not super, this is not overly ripe or anything like that. Just good Cabernet Sauvignon. Complexity. Yes, you can drink it now. It can hold up with meat, but this is the kind of California Cabernet that you could drink out by itself. It's not just too humongous, right? Yeah. There is a little bit of floral notes on the palate too. Probably violet. Very nice. Very, very nice. I'm 4.3 out of 5 on this already. I think this is phenomenal. Very nice Cabernet. The tannins are very approachable right now as well. Let's move on, shall we? The winery that we are excited about. Dearburg Starlane. Well, Dearburg makes Cabernet, sorry, Pinot Noir and Chardonnay. The sister winery, Starlane, makes Bordeaux varieties. This is the Cabernet Sauvignon from Happy Canyon 2014. This rolled in at $65 US dollars. This rolls in at $50 US dollars. The owners are Mary and Mary Dearburg and who else? It doesn't matter. So anyways, but anyways, they hired winemaker Tyler Thomas, who is a superstar. These wines have been getting massive scores. This wine has a massive score. I'm not going to say it out loud so you're not swayed. Let's see if it lives up to the hype. This is more violet and kind of, it's not as, more restrained. Yes, exactly. It's more, it's kind of more elegant so to speak, right? It's very focused. A bit of chalky powdery nose to it too. It actually smells more red fruity than black fruity. Like if you had this blind, do you think maybe you would know that it's Cabernet Sauvignon? I think I would, but that's more plum and this is more black fruit and grapefruit to me. Let's give this a go. Oh, the beautiful chalky powdery nose. I'm going to swallow that one. Some dried herbs around the mouth. I get a lot of graphite. Beautiful, sweet fruit. Yeah. This is very, this Cabernet, this is, these tannins are very silky already for me, for 2014. What about for you? Not? Yeah, I would say, yeah, the tannins are ready. This is so funny. I think this is more approachable now. This I want to put away for a couple of years. The finish is really full. It covers all parts of the mouth. What do you think? Which one do you prefer so far? Um, different from you, you know, I actually would drink this now and this one I will age a little while longer because it's still really Thai. Okay. Uh, I'm gonna say the same score. I think these are definitely just different wines. 4.3, 4.3. Very good Cabernet Sauvignon. So, uh, what I like about this is these are not too jammy. They're not too big, not too over the top, right? Let you want to move on to the reserve. Let's go for it. All right. We have the Starling Vineyard Cabernet Sauvignon Astral from 2012. This is 22 months in oak. I think this saw more French new oak and it's a barrel selection. I believe of this, this is 2012. This has a little bit age on it. $120 US dollars. So we are not messing around here. Let's give this a little bit of a smell here. This is picking up some leather notes already for me. Tobacco as well. Tobacco. This is like the kind of Cabernet notes that I like to drink. The tobacco, like tobacco, sweet cedar, a little bit of herbs, leather, still get the black fruit. Anything else you want to talk? Yeah. A bit steely in a sense that it's, um, like savory notes to it. Okay. Let's give this a go. Silky smooth. Violets. The extra, when I said the violets came out, what do you think about this? Lovely, lovely, lovely, lovely. I was actually thinking, I think the finish is a little bit longer than on this one, than on this one. Actually. I like the flake. I like the tertiary notes in this and it's silky. The tans are developed. I think this has better fruit. I'm checking out. Oh, you like it. For me, actually, uh, we always differ in opinion. That's why Shereen doesn't like to score. I like to score to give a definitive opinion and for myself, but I'm going to say 4.2, 4.3, 4.3. I like these two wines a little bit more. Uh, I like, I like how this drinks a lot, a lot. Don't get me wrong. I think these just have a little bit more power on the back end. Anything else? Good showing by Cabernet Sauvignon. It's really spicy on the finish. Anything else you want to add? Starlane, Grassini? I think these three wines are really worth checking out if you're in Santa Barbara. It's almost like not to be missed. Yeah, I think these are by appointment only. Starlane, Dierburg, uh, Grassini, the tasting room is actually in the city of Santa Barbara. Uh, they have a lot of good stuff. Strong showing again by Santa Barbara County. Some excellent wines. Uh, check them out, especially, I think fans of a more old school Cabernet Sauvignon from Napa before it got too big will like these wines. Uh, I've had some beautiful Cabernets, I think, I think we've had in the mid nineties, early nineties from Napa, kind of like this style too. Anything else you want to add? I think you just like the wines. I'm going to put the discount code for 15% off the Gabriel, Gabriel Glass Standart and Alpha Decanter up on the screen. We are not affiliates, uh, we don't get anything from it. It's just an offer we extend out to you. Check out our Guide to the Wines of Santa Barbara, Sipping Santa Barbara. And if you like this video, please subscribe to our YouTube channel. Exotic Wine Travel. I will see you next episode.