{"id":3209,"date":"2026-01-31T18:36:39","date_gmt":"2026-01-31T18:36:39","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/powertasting.com\/?p=3209"},"modified":"2026-01-31T18:36:39","modified_gmt":"2026-01-31T18:36:39","slug":"barbieri-kempe-wines","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/powertasting.com\/?p=3209","title":{"rendered":"Barbieri & Kempe Wines"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

A visit to Barbieri &Kempe can seem like d\u00e9j\u00e0 vu<\/em>.  It can also be a little like double vision.  Let us explain.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Barbieri & Kempe has taken over the space in downtown Santa Barbara that once housed the tasting room of Sanford Winery.\u00a0 (They also have a tasting room in Los Olivos<\/a>, but we haven\u2019t been there.)\u00a0 Even though Sanford (and now Barbieri & Kempe) were located in a high-end outdoor shopping mall, there was a sense of refinement and exclusivity when Sanford <\/a>was there.\u00a0 Barbieri & Kempe brings a different vibe: friendly, inviting visitors to stay a while and enjoy the experience.\u00a0 Even though the interior is well-appointed, their terrace (with statues of laughing dolphins adding to the atmosphere) beckons to visitors.<\/p>\n\n\n

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The terrace at Barbieri & Kempe. Photo courtesy of Breezit.<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n

Once seated, you find out that the Barbieri & Kempe tasting room isn\u2019t for one winery, but two that share the space.\u00a0 Then you find out that Paolo Barbieri and Erin Kempe are a couple, with each producing and bottling wines under their own names.\u00a0 \u00a0\u00a0Paolo is also a Master Sommelier and began making wine in his garage.\u00a0 Erin worked in restaurants and met Paolo that way.\u00a0 She assisted him in his early winemaking efforts until she gained the confidence to put her own name on wines she produced. \u00a0Dinnertime at their house must be interesting: \u201cMy wine tonight or yours?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n

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The cheeses at Barbieri and Kempe.<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n

The wine tasting experience is enhanced by the possibility of ordering cheese with your pours.\u00a0 Barbieri & Kempe is also a cheese chop with a nice selection of California and international cheeses available as a tasting plate or to buy at retail.\u00a0 Perhaps in recognition of Signor Barbieri\u2019s Italian roots, there are also Italian salamis for sale.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

There\u2019s an openness to the way tastings are offered at Barbieri & Kempe that says, \u201cWe are what we are and we are where we are.  We hope you like our wines.\u201d    Overall, we did enjoy them, in particular the Grenache-Syrah-Mourv\u00e8dre blend from Ms. Kempe and in particular her Illumina Bordeaux blend. In general, they both cover a wide range of varietals.  There is a fair amount of overlap in the grapes each of them uses for their wines, with both of them offering ros\u00e9s, reds and whites. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

We have often praised in-town tasting<\/a>.\u00a0 You miss the sight of the vines, but you spend more time tasting and less time driving.\u00a0 The atmosphere at Barbieri & Kempe is very urban, with the hubbub of a shopping center and all the passers-by.\u00a0 Somehow, that seems to add to the experience, not detract.\u00a0 We found Barbieri & Kempe\u2019s wines enjoyable, if not the most representative of Central Coast wines that we have tasted. \u00a0But we at Power Tasting<\/em> are not wine critics; we comment on the wine tasting experience.\u00a0 And we enjoyed our time sampling this couple\u2019s wines at their Santa Barbara site.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A visit to Barbieri &Kempe can seem like d\u00e9j\u00e0 vu.  It can also be a little like double vision.  Let us explain. Barbieri & Kempe has taken over the space in downtown Santa Barbara that once housed the tasting room of Sanford Winery.\u00a0 (They also have a tasting room in Los Olivos, but we haven\u2019t … Continue reading Barbieri & Kempe Wines<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/powertasting.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3209"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/powertasting.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/powertasting.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/powertasting.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/powertasting.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=3209"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/powertasting.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3209\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3212,"href":"https:\/\/powertasting.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3209\/revisions\/3212"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/powertasting.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=3209"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/powertasting.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=3209"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/powertasting.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=3209"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}