August 2024 – Power Tasting – The Wine Tasting Experience

Sanford Winery & Vineyards

Several years ago, Power Tasting published a review of the Sanford tasting room in Santa Barbara. That space now hosts other vineyards, but interested wine lovers can still visit Sanford (www.sanfordwinery.com) at their facility in the Santa Rita Hills. It’s a drive of an hour or so outside of Santa Barbara, and it’s a trip worth taking. [Elsewhere in this issue we discuss the attraction of the locale; here we’ll focus on the winery.]

The interior of the Sanford winery, with doors leading to the vineyards and outdoor tastings.

When you get off the road at Sanford, you’re immediately surrounded by grape vines. You are, in fact, in the midst of the Rinaconda vineyard and some of the wines you are about to taste were made from the same vines, just a few years prior. That sense of being surrounded by great grapes stays with you throughout the visit.

The winery and its tasting room are housed in a handsome adobe brick building, with Spanish roof tiles. It looks very much like a hacienda, an impression that is reinforced inside, with Southwestern décor. It evokes the missions that once dotted California in its colonial times. We suppose there are tastings in there on rainy or cold days, but if you can, have your tasting outside.

As we said before, Santa Rita Hills is a trip worth taking.

A capella tasting, at the “hacienda”

Visitors are seated at comfortable tables, spaced widely enough that you have the sense that you are the only ones there to taste Sanford’s wines. The pleasure is doubled by the vista, all the way to the horizon, of vines. Make that tripled pleasure, because the tables are placed within gardens of blooms and desert plants.

The server explains the history of the Sanford winery, which in brief is the history of wine production in the Santa Rita Hills. Richard Sanford and Michael Benedict planted the first vines there in 1971. Their first vineyard, called Sanford-Benedict naturally enough, was and is the most prestigious in the region. Today, Sanford is owned by the Terlato family, who also have several other top wineries in California.

And then the wines. They make Pinot Noirs and Chardonnays. Unusually, they serve the reds before the whites. When we questioned this practice, the server acknowledged that this is not the way others do it, but that the winery believes that the high level of acidity in the Chardonnays would affect the taste of the Pinot Noirs if served first.

The standard tasting menu includes their top single-vineyard wines, including the aforementioned Sanford & Benedict and the Rinaconda. The former is emblematic of Santa Rita Hills wine; the latter is somewhat richer, to our tastes. Also to our tastes, Sanford’s Pinot Noirs are among the most Burgundian of American wines made from that grape.

The servers are generous with their pour, which leads to a dilemma. Yes, there’s a bucket, but the wines are so good that we didn’t want to pour anything out. Still, we had to be aware that there would be driving ahead of us. As dilemmas go, this wasn’t a bad one. WE savored the wines but responsibly left some behind.

Santa Rita Hills

Generally, when Power Tasting recommends a place to visit, it’s a location near wine tasting, but not wine tasting by itself. We make an exception for the Santa Rita Hills, because they’re just so beautiful.

Interestingly, we shouldn’t be referring to the Santa Rita Hills at all. There is a large Chilean winemaker called Vina Santa Rita and they objected to the use of the same name as applied to wines. So the official name is Sta. Rita Hills. We don’t care; we’re sticking with Santa.

The area stretches from the town of Buellton to the east and Lompoc at the western extreme. It’s roughly 17 miles wide and 10 miles from north to south. And it’s in Southern California, which means it must be hot, right? No, Santa Rita Hills has a very unique climate that makes it ideal for the grapes of Burgundy: Pinot Noir and Chardonnay.

South-facing vineyards, with the Sant Ynez mountains behind them, and fog trying to climb over the mountains.

That climate is made by an ocean and some mountains. The ocean, of course, is the Pacific, which lies due south of the Hills. Now, California runs north-south, so shouldn’t the Pacific be west of it? But just to the west of Lompoc, the coastline hangs a hard left for about 75 miles, putting the Pacific to the south. Paralleling the coast are the Santa Ynez mountains. So when cool, moist air rises from the ocean in the form of fog, it is stopped by the mountains. Some does get over them, of course. You can see the clouds trying to make it past the Santa Ynez’ in the morning hours.

Because the southerly winds are blocked, there’s nothing stopping the east-west gusts. Thus the Santa Rita Hills have ideal conditions: lots of sun, but cool and breezy. The conformation of the Hills creates a valley with spectacular views wherever you look. Words, even photographs, don’t do justice to the Santa Rita Hills. We have enjoyed great vineyard vistas around the world: the Côte d’Or, Barossa Valley and Napa Valley closer to home, just to name a few. The Santa Rita Hills are far less developed than any of those and the vineyards that patch the views make it even more gorgeous.

We should point out that the drive to the Santa Rita Hills is almost as dramatic as the Hills themselves. There are two ways to get there from Santa Barbara, which is most likely the starting point for most wine tasters, or else from Los Angeles. One is Route101, which we have written about before. From Santa Barbara, it runs along the coast until the town of Gaviota, where it makes a sharp right turn. As you drive, you pass through a gap in the mountains where suddenly the morning fogs lift, as though a curtain is going up. Those mountain walls are quite a sight themselves.

The other route is via Routes 154 and 246. The latter is the main drag of the Santa Rita Hills. There are stunning views of the Pacific through gulleys in the mountains and equally spectacular views of Lake Cachuma on the inland side. You also pass through the quaint but touristy town of Solvang before reaching the Santa Rita Hills. We recommend 101 to go and 154/246 to return to Santa Barbara or back to L.A.

Oh, did we mention that there’s wine in them thar hills? If you go to admire the scenery, you ought to try some wine.

Let Us Now Praise Famous Vineyards

The sight of internationally famous vineyards in the course of wine tasting travels can evoke some contradictory responses. The most obvious is the sense of understanding that that’s where some really great wine comes from. But the other is that, “Oh well, it looks like every other vineyard, so what’s the big deal?” To us, it’s not so much about seeing the famous vines; it comes when we open a bottle from one of those vineyards and can picture the exact location.

Some of these vineyards are right next to the building – let’s call it a château – where the wine is made. Bordeaux law, for example, requires the vines and the winery to be in close contact. In many other parts of the world, the vineyards are free-standing. We have been fortunate enough to have seen many of these unique properties.

Sanford & Benedict vineyard. Photo courtesy of Sanford Winery.

Since this issue is focused on Santa Rita Hills, there are two vineyards that have enormous reputations. Sanford & Benedict is the flagship vineyard of the Sanford Winery and we suppose they keep the best grapes for themselves. But there are many other labels that boast wines from that vineyard, including Fess Parker, Au Bon Climat and even Gary Farrell from way up north in Sonoma County.

The other renowned Santa Rita Hills vineyard is Fiddlestix, which is virtually across the road from Sanford & Benedict. There is no Fiddlestix winery, but the grapes are widely sold. We’re most familiar with Etude’s wine from there. And speaking of Etude, their Heirloom vineyards are pretty special, too.

To Kalon Vineyard, with the Robert Mondavi winery at the rear. Photo courtesy of the winery.

The most famous Napa Valley vineyard is undoubtedly To Kalon. Although there is a To Kalon Vineyard Company, the vast majority of this vineyard’s production is owned by Constellation Brands, which in turn owns Robert Mondavi. Mondavi’s To Kalon Reserve helped establish Napa Valley as capable of making world-class wines.

The most famous European vineyards are in Burgundy. Due to the history and laws of this region, almost all vineyards are split among numerous growers, with individuals sometimes limited to a single row in a single vineyard. So, for example, the Clos de Vougeot in Burgundy (of which we have written before), is shared by many wineries including Jadot, Faiveley, Drouhin and many other smaller producers. They can all claim to have a Clos Vougeot wine, which by itself is a mark of quality.

Two other Burgundy vineyards stand out. Power Tasting has written about Corton-Charlemagne before. Supposedly, Charlemagne owned it back when. Today, it’s the only vineyard in the Côte d’Or that produces both red and white grand cru wines. And we can’t forget the Puligny-Montrachet vineyards. One right next to the other, there’s Montrachet itself, and Chevalier-Montrachet and Bâtard-Montrachet, plus several others. Connoisseurs differ as to which is the greatest. We’re not connoisseurs but we have walked in those vineyards.

Discovering New Places

There are two kinds of places: those you know and those you don’t. And every place you do know was new to you at one time. And some of those places you don’t know make wine, some of which you don’t know anything about either. This was our situation when we set off to visit the Santa Rita Hills, but the same could be said for our first times in any of the world’s winemaking regions.

We had a great time that day, as we have had on numerous other occasions when we have discovered new corners of Wine Country. There are certain tips that should be considered if you are going wine tasting somewhere you haven’t been before. We have written before about planning for such a trip, but these tips are about maximizing your pleasure while you’re there.

The Santa Rita Hills. Photo courtesy of Wine Spectator.

Getting there and coming back are parts of the trip. Pay some attention to the scenery, the homes, the stores, even the industrial sections. (Of course, pay more attention to the road, if you’re the driver.) The places you pass are the places where the wine people live. Part of the pleasure of visiting Wine Country rather than opening bottles at home is to get a sense of the people who live there, not just tasting the wine.
Geeting a little lost is okay. The only way you can have serendipity is if things don’t quite go as planned. Note that we say, “a little lost”. You might discover a great little winery just down the wrong lane. But if you find yourself on the highway with no vineyards in sight, maybe it’s a good idea to turn around.
Factor in the weather. In some ways the coldest, nastiest months are the best time to visit someplace you’re already familiar with. There are no crowds and tasting rooms have lots of space for walk-ins. If one of those months is when you are discovering a new place is in, say, January, make the most of it. Snow on the vines can make a pretty sight. Of course, you’d rather be there when the sun is bright and fruit hangs from the vines, so make every minute count at those times.
Open yourself to that particular experience. There’s no need to compare what you are seeing to what you have seen before. The Santa Rita Hills, for example, have their own beauty just as does Chianti or the Barossa Valley or St. Emilion or… Enjoying what you see and taste for its own merits will give you more pleasure than thinking that somewhere else is better.
Think about how you will tell the folks back home about your visit. Attempting to verbalize what you are seeing, feeling, tasting and doing helps to lock all those things into your memory. It is certainly the technique we use in writing the articles in Power Tasting. Try it out when you’re doing something fun in your own neighborhood. You’ll see how much more vivid it makes every fun thing you do.