Santa Barbara County Pinot Noir: Samsara

Hello, hello, hello, welcome back to Exotic Wine Travel. I am your host, Matthew Harky. Hi, I'm Shereen Tan. Welcome back to the show today. We are excited about today's episode. I know you are, especially. My favorite group and my favorite producer. So we're here talking about the wines, this video series about the wines of Santa Barbara County. I wanna let you know this video has not been paid for in any way, shape, or form. So if you find value in these videos, check out our downloadable book to the wines of Santa Barbara called Sipping Santa Barbara. Recommended wines and producers. So check it out here, it's on Amazon as well. I wanna thank, before we get started, you know, we have three beautiful wines today, all poured from Coravin, Coravin Model 2 Elite. I wanna thank Coravin for allowing us to, or giving us a sample unit. And we're pouring them into these beautiful Gabrielle Glass Gold Edition. Super light, thank you so much for providing these glasses. We will actually have a discount code to Gabrielle Glass Stemware at the end of the video. Let's go for it. Okay, if we talk about Santa Barbara County, we have to talk about Sideways, when it was filmed there in Santa Barbara County. And we have to talk about Miles's favorite grape, which is your favorite grape, which is? Pinot Noir. I'm gonna let you go, this is your whole realm. Tell me about why you like the Pinot Noir from Santa Barbara County. Well, first of all, it's because it's very structured. It also has great elegance, lots of different nuances, different expressions. I like to pick my Pinot Noir and Santa Barbara depending on the vineyard. I noticed that there is a lot of difference between the vineyard, more so than between the producers. So at times, if I'm drinking a Pinot Noir from two different producers from the same vineyard, I actually can get the nuances, similar expressions in both Pinot Noirs. So is there like, dare we say, burgundy-esque, actually? I would say that, yes, I'm thinking, in the sense that I think a lot of producers have found a way to capture the real essence of the place. Okay. Yeah. That's great. We're gonna get into one of your favorite producers. This is one producer, three wines, Appalachian-level wine, and two single vineyard wines, Sam Sara. For those who don't know, it was started by Chad Melville. He sold the winery just last year to his longtime customers, Joan and Dave Skutak. Is that, am I pronouncing that right? Skutak. Skutak. I'm sorry if I, they brought on Matt Brady, the former winemaker of Jaffer's, to make the wines. They said they're gonna keep the same style. They've been Sam Sara customers for a long time. So the wines are gonna stay the same way. Are you ready to start tasting some? First, we have an Appalachian wine, the Sam Sara, 2014 Santa Rita Hills, 40 US dollars. When I say Appalachian-level, it's Santa Rita Hills, so the grapes can come from different parts of the Santa Rita Hills, not necessarily a single vineyard. When we tasted this wine for the first time, we tasted an older vintage, the 2013, very good. I prefer the single vineyard efforts more. I'm gonna let you take this away. What do you think so far of the Santa Rita Hills, 2014? For my personal preference, I usually like the Pinot Noir from Santa Rita Hills as compared to Santa Maria, because I find that, again, it's more structured. I feel that they have better aging potential, but I'm generalizing here. And this shows as well, the nose is beautiful. To me, Santa Rita Hills, it's Pinot Noir, but riper. Like, I get, for Pinot Noir, a lot of times I would get more strawberries, but in Santa Rita Hills, I get more cherry. That's for me. Oh, sorry. Not the first time, won't be the last time. Cherry, earth, a little salinity going on. Anything else you're picking up? This is definitely a whole bunch of stem inclusion here. I don't know, well, that's how he made most of his wines. I don't know what percentage. This is beautiful. This is what's great about Pinot Noir. It's very nuanced. Anything else? You're just enjoying it. There's a bit of blue fruit notes to it. I can, some of, like, the kind of flavors that I get from carbonic maturation, in fact. It's a little bit peppery, too. Wow. I'm not gonna lie. The 2013 that we tasted, I didn't like as much. It was a little bit riper and almost kind of sweet. This is beautiful. What do you think? Excellent. This is everything you want from Pinot Noir. It's got a little bit of subtle power, ripe red fruit, soft tannins, beautiful acidity. Finish is quite spicy, I think. I think the tannin as well, it's there, but it's soft, it's fine green tannins. Pretty exciting for me. I'm 4.2 on this. I think I would, on Vivino, I would give it probably 4.2. I think it's pretty darn good. Anything else you want to add on this? No, that's fine. Okay. Next, we have the 2013 Samsara Las Hermanas single vineyard, 2013, 54 US dollars. Let's give this a little bit of a go, shall we? When we visited last time, I noticed a big step up in single vineyard wines from Samsara versus the Appalachian level. Let's see if that holds true with this vintage. There's a tang, there's... There's a citrus. Yeah, that's a tanginess, like an orange tang component to the red cherries. Folly, this is more perfumed. And it's also more earthy as well. The nose is definitely more intense. It's definitely better fruit, a step up. Wow. What do you think? The mid palate is very juicy and broad, and the finish is held together very nicely by the acidity and the tannin. It's got this beautiful citrus note, and the mid palate has power. That's what I really, really, really like about this. Finish is quite persistent, and you mentioned the floral note, it stays through to the end palate. Very good. Oh, you can put it in this one. You wanna keep it for later? How high? I am very high. You really, really, what are you thinking of? I am very high on this wine. Yeah, very much. I'm 4.4 on this. I think this is a beautiful wine. Let's see if we can get top, if the Rancho La Viña Vineyard, also a very famous vineyard from Samsar 2013. Let's see if it can top the Las Hermanas. I was really, I like this better than the Kargasackie Vineyard last year. It's hard for me to compare. I like both a lot, to be honest. Let's give this a little bit of a Rancho La Viña. There's quite a fair bit of similarities between both on first impression. Hold on a second. I wanna compare the Appalachian level. Sure. There's definitely more complexities in the two single vineyards versus the Appalachian. Well, we spend a lot of time in lesser known wine region in the ex-Yugoslavia and the Caucasus. And we have tasted Pinot Noir from a lot of different places as well. I would say for some of these lesser known wine regions, when they make the best Pinot Noir in their country, it's probably to that level, which is the single vineyard. I mean, not the single vineyard, the Appalachian level. And the single vineyard is just a whole new level and game. This has more stoniness and earthiness than us. Smell the Las Hermanas again, if you do wanna compare. This definitely still have some citrus peel, some red fruit, some earth notes. I think I get more red fruit in this than the previous one. Perfume. Okay. Let's give it a go. More green herbs in the mouth as well. Fresh green herbs, a bit grassy, strawberry. I like this. Rancho La Vina vineyard is actually a lot more earthy than this, which is fruity. And this is very fruity and easy to drink. Can I taste? Which one do you wanna taste? This is the second one. That's good stuff. I'm gonna recalibrate here. I'm gonna say 4.1, 4.3 for me, 4.4 for the Rancho La Vina. I think, wow, these are good efforts. I really can't decide because this is juicy and much easier, more accessible. But I would think that I'll go for this. You would go for that one? I like the earthiness. We always disagree. That's all, okay. Nice showing by Sam. Sorry. Anything else you wanna add on this wonderful producer before we move on? Well, if you are in Santa Barbara, go to Samsara. There's just no way around it. I mean, if you are there, Samsara is one of the- In Los Olivos, they have a tasting room. I think they used to have one in the wine ghetto, but I think it's in Los Olivos now, so. I tasted, was it the rosé? Even the rosé was very good, and the ganache, and yeah. So guys, we're gonna put the discount code for the Gabriel glass up on the screen now. Check it out. We will also put the link in the description box. Check out our book, Sipping Santa Barbara, and Samsara Wines. Anything else? It's so spicy. Mucho gusto. Guys, if you like this video, please subscribe to our YouTube channel, Exotic Wine Travel. I will see you- At the next episode.