Santa Barbara's Sauvignon Blanc

Hello, hello, hello! Welcome back to Exotic Wine Travel. I am your host, Matthew Horky. We're gonna have an exciting show for you today. We've got four wines here, three brand new vintages, and a wine with a year of age on it. Really excited to get into it. This is Sauvignon Blancs from Santa Barbara County. As you can see, I got my glasses on. I had a long night last night. I went to the Detroit Pistons basketball game. Had a lot of fun. I was third goal from the court. Saw Anthony Davis from the Pelicans up close. It was awesome. So I'm a little bit tired today. My eyes are a little tired. Shireen's a little tired. She didn't want to get dressed and be on the show today, so it's just me chipping away at it. She says hi over there somewhere. All right, let's get into the show. Guys, before we get started, I want to let you know that this video has not been paid for in any way, shape, or form. But if you do like these videos, if they add value to your life, check out our guide to the wines of Santa Barbara, Sipping Santa Barbara, Recommended Wines and Producers. It's on Kindle, PDF, and EPUB formats. It would help us out a lot. And let's start getting into these wines. We got these Sauvignon Blancs from Santa Barbara County. I used the Coravin to extract the wines with our Coravin Model 2 Elite. Thank you, Coravin, so much for giving us a test model to check out. It's been fantastic. We're pouring into these beautiful Gabrielle Glass Gold Edition hand-blown glasses. These are 95 grams, lighter than Zolto Universal. Beautiful glasses. I will put a discount code for Gabrielle Glass stemware in the video. Towards the end of the video, we are not affiliates in any way, shape, or form. It's just something nice for you to get. Okay, let's get into these wines. So, Santa Barbara County is really known for fantastic Chardonnay, but there's other great grapes grown there as well. Especially a lot of very good Sauvignon Blanc in the Ballard Canyon area. Actually, let me see. Some of these are from Happy Canyon as well. Happy Canyon. Sorry, Happy Canyon. This is Ballard Canyon. And this is from both of the parts in Santa Barbara. So anyways, it's a little bit further off of the Pacific Ocean. It's a little bit warmer than the Santa Rita Hills. And the Sauvignon Blancs here are nice. They're ripe. They became medium to full body, but not big and fat like the ones in Napa can get. I really like them. We come across Sauvignon Blanc so much in our exotic wine travels, traveling to all these obscure wine countries. I have to say it's very tough for us to be pleased by a Sauvignon Blanc. Right, she said most countries should just not plant Sauvignon Blanc. We have come across some very good examples in Pleševice, Croatia. A couple decent ones in Serbia. Yeah. Anyways, let's get into this. The first one we have is a wine that I tried the other vintage, an older vintage of, and I loved it. This is the Grassini Family Vineyards Sauvignon Blanc from the Happy Canyon of Santa Barbara, 2016. 28 US dollars. This is 4% of this wine is actually aged in French oak. I made it from less oaky to more oaky. This is 4%. This is 30%, 30% and 66% in oak. So let's try the Grassini ones. Most of the wine in stainless steel. Shoot, I got to take these glasses off because I can't, I can't sniff the wine. Let's get into this. So with the Grassini, you're going to get, you get a little bit of herbalness, but it's not super green, but you also get a little ripeness, but not super pungent like New Zealand Sauvignon Blancs that can be just full of kiwi. Let's see here. I'm liking this. I'm getting, I'm getting kind of like a cantaloupe component, a rock melon component, a little kiwi fruits, a little bit herbal, but not too much. A lot of lime, a lot of lime, like kefir lime, like they use in Thai food. Is that right? Okay. Let me give this a go. Oh, this one again is rocking my face. Oh, nice job Grassini. Wow. I love the 2015. The 2016 even has more acidity. If you like lime, kefir lime, you're going to love, this wine's awesome. I think I'm going to give 4.3 out of 5, very easily. Killer wine. Awesome wine. You're going to want to taste this. You want to taste this off the show? Awesome wine. You just go on, I'll taste it. Okay. You say kefir and I'm all for it. Kefir, that's killer wine. Oh man, it's good. Okay. Let's get, let's move on. Next we have one of the new rising stars in Santa Barbara County. This is the Starling Vineyard Sauvignon Blanc from Happy Canyon. This is from their estate vineyards. 22 US dollars. Tyler Thomas is the winemaker, superstar maker, really doing some great things with this winery. Uh, I really like this, uh, this winery because they use all, they use mostly estate fruit. Funny fact, Happy Canyon was named Happy Canyon because, uh, that's where old locals used to produce moonshine. Before I get into this wine, do you like that wine? I love the body. I love the flavors. It's, it's great. For me, that's about flavor, but I'm all about body. You like it? Okay. Let's get in the Starling here. Let's see if the Starling can live up to this. This is 30% aged in oak for six months. Let me smell this. This is a little bit more herbal. It's not as explosive as the Grissini. I still get more lemon than lime in this and cantaloupe. Some grass notes, but it's definitely not, uh, it's not Frenchy. It's still a little bit bigger embodied. Smells beautiful. Let me give, it's a little bit perfume too. Let me give this a go. I pick up no lime on the nose. On the palate, I pick up a lot of lime. This is a little bit bigger embodied than this one. This, the Grissini has a little bit more electricity than the Starling. I still think the Starling is very good for me. 4.0 out of five, easy, delicious, uh, drinks awesome by itself would be, would go really, really, really nice with some Thai food. I think it has the acidity. Uh, so let's check this out here. Hold on. I think you're craving Thai food. Why are you giving this right here? Hold on. I see the battery going off, so I got to change the battery real quick. Okay. Sorry. I had to switch the battery really quick. Stitch these two together. Uh, Shereen has my glasses. Once again, I'm really loving the wine so far. I really liked the Sauvignon Blanc from Santa Barbara County. For me, it's, it's ripe. It has body, but it still maintains acidity and freshness. Excuse me. So they don't become overly fat. Uh, let's move on. Shereen preferred the Starling more than the Grissini. I prefer the Grissini more than the Starling, but you know, that's what's cool. Don't take my scores as, don't take the scores as gospel. I actually just use them as self-reference for my Vivino account so I can keep track of what wines I like. Everybody's palate's different, right? Shereen's way different than mine. Let's move on. Next we have Stoltman Vineyard, uh, from Ballard Canyon from their Stoltman Vineyards. This is a Sauvignon Blanc 2016. They are more famous for Rhone grapes. Shereen actually loves their Roussin. I don't believe we've had their Sauvignon Blanc before. So this is the first time I'm going to be having this 2016. 30% in French oak. Sorry, no, not French oak. It is, I think if I looked at the website, right, 600 liter, uh, barrels, I believe. Let me, but there's a little bit of oak. Let me give this a smell here. This by far is the more grassier of the three. This also has, um, hold on a second, some basil notes to it. I definitely pick up the, the vanilla from the wood. This wood was like pretty much hidden. I couldn't smell that at all. And the nose isn't as explosive as these three, but still smells very nice. Let's give this a go. Tons of lemon lime. This was the biggest in body out of the three. This one has some nervy acidity. Like this one completely shocked me because the nose was a little bit muted, which made me a little bit sad, but on the palate, it comes back with some explosive acidity. Sure. You want to smell and taste this out. I really want to get your opinion on this. Shereen's palate for those. You don't watch the show or watching the show for the first time, much better than mine. I often look to her for some guidance. Uh, what do you, what do you tell me what you think of that one? Yeah, it's very good, right? Much less herbal and big. It has more restraint on the nose, but I really appreciate the flavors that taste like quartz and minerals. Yeah. Very. Oh, sorry. You're right. This is actually planted on limestone. Uh, I think Tom Stoltman planted the vineyard because obviously some of the best Sauvignon Blancs in the world are planted in limestone. Um, this, this, this confused me a lot because the nose is not as explosive as these two. Uh, but it's still very good, right? The body is good. I like the acidity. I think I'm going to go 4.2 out of five. I think, I mean, all of these are very good wines so far. I think I prefer, get a little more excited about the Grissini, but this is good stuff. This is my favorite. This is your favorite. Okay. Let's move on. Uh, a wine that I love and I'm excited to taste this vintage. This is the pair, the pairing 2015 Sauvignon Blanc. Cool thing about this one, a little bit of a wine geek fact about this wine. This wine is created by winemaker Matt Dees, who makes the wines for Honata and the Hilt. And Honata is the same wine. It has the same ownership as Napa Valley's Screaming Eagle Winery. Those classic cult Cabernet Sauvignons that go for over a thousand dollars a bottle. Uh, we've tasted some of the Honata wines before. They are outstanding. Actually, one of their Merlots was one of our favorite wines in 2016. The pairing is a cheaper wine, uh, $25. They also make red, Syrah, Pinot Noir, all these wines I have been so impressed for. They're made from young vines of the fruit that the, the vines that don't make it to the Honata wines. Uh, let's, I'm excited to this. One third new oak, one third used oak, and one third stainless steel, $25. I forgot to tell you the Stoltman was $22. Uh, let's give the pairing a little bit of a smell here. This is much, much, much more New Zealand in style. Kiwi. It's so funny. This isn't going to sound good, but it smells kind of good. Maybe it's the oak. I smell a little bit of a bacon, a little bit of bacon fat in this wine. Mineral, kiwi, lemon, and herbs. Those are probably the flavors I would go for. This is more viscous than any of these four. Let me give this, and I think it has a touch more color. The Stoltman one was actually lighter in color. Let me give this one a go. Taste this babe. Significantly more body. What did you like that? New Zealand. Yeah, very New Zealand. Significantly more body than these three right here. You get the body from the wood, but you get, yes? I don't usually like the New Zealand style of Sauvignon Blanc, but this is lovely. This is very good. Uh, bouncy acidity as well. Really limey, even of a basil like finish. I like this a lot. A lot of basil. Lots of basil. I think I'm going to go. Oh, let me see here. For my personal preference, because these are all different styles of wine too. I mean, this one is got more New Zealand like flavors. This one is the most mineral driven. This one has the most liminess. This one has a good amount of body from the wood, but still bouncy acidity. I think I'm gonna go 4.3, 4.2, 4.2, 4.1. So, uh, all about in the same range. Uh, what am I going to drink tonight? Jeez, that depends on what we want to eat. I don't know. I think I'll just, we have the Corvin, so maybe I'll taste a glass of all these. These are all really nice wines. Sauvignon Blanc, you should check out. I know the Sauvignon Blanc in Napa can get poo-pooed on sometimes. You should give these wines a shout out. So guys right now, I'm actually going to put the discount code for the Gabrielle glass up on the screen. You get 15% off the standard machine blown glass or the alpha decanter. Once again, we are not affiliates, so go ahead and buy with confidence. We have, we get nothing from it. It's just a discount code for you. Check out our guide to the wines of Santa Barbara sipping Santa Barbara. Anything else you want to add? You want to add anything on the Sauvignon Blanc from some, uh, I think it's cool that all four Sauvignon Blancs have very different styles. I think that's what's amazing because you can go to one place and you try different kinds of stuff. Which ones did you, which one do you like prefer? The best? Currently if you ask me right now, Stoltman is definitely my conventional style, but I think the pairing is interesting because it appeals to a style that I don't usually like, but I'm very attracted to it. And then the first two, Starley and Grassini are much fruity and bigger. Yeah. Awesome stuff. Good job. Check out Sauvignon Blanc from Santa Barbara County. Guys, if you liked this video, please subscribe to our YouTube channel, Exotic Wine Travel. I will see you at the next episode.