7 Best Recent (& Forthcoming) Releases From Santa Barbara
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RP Digital
- 15 May 2018 | News & Views
Reviewer William Kelley tasted over 600 wines from Santa Barbara County in the latest Issue of The Wine Advocate, noting that the region’s best wines are “produced when site matches style—a lesson that winemakers are increasingly learning.” He continues, “Moreover, many of these wines represent excellent value when compared with their qualitative equivalents from California’s North Coast, so bargain hunters will find rich pickings galore.” (Kelley also provides a very handy buying guide in his latest report.)
Here, the seven top-rated wines from the region to put on your radar:
"While Parr and Moorman eschew such comparisons, it would be fascinating to pour this wine blind in a flight of great Burgundies."
"On the palate, the wine is medium to full-bodied, sapid and super concentrated, with rich velvety tannins, a layered mid-palate and a long, searingly intense, saline finish."
"The long, stony finish is unerringly precise."
"An opaque ruby-black in hue, the wine offers up a rich and complex bouquet of cassis, plums, figs, black truffle and creamy oak."
"It's certainly quite distinct this year, opening in the glass with a ravishingly ethereal bouquet of damson, strawberry, rose petal and peony, pure and ethereal."
"The concentration and depth that have been packed into this decidedly elegant, even delicate wine are incredible."
"In 2015, this is my favorite of the Sandhi Chardonnays."