Santa Barbara County Tasting Trip - Day 1 (Huber Cellars, Alta Maria, Kaena Cellars)
Santa Barbara County, CA
Tasted Friday, May 18, 2012 by PIntag with 610 views
Flight 1 - Huber Cellars (Santa Rita Hills, near Lompoc) (6 Notes)
Huber Cellars is run by a retired couple from Germany, Norman and Traudl Huber, and has been producing wines from their vineyard in the Santa Rita Hills for more than a decade now, but is really kind of an unknown on the popular wine message boards. This is too bad, because they are making some terrific, balanced wines. They are most known for their red wine made from the obscure German Dornfelder grape. They do a great job with it here - the typical German version of this grape is very light and simple - here, they ripen it a bit more and get lots more extraction from it. It makes for an interesting red, but is most notable because it is the inkiest, most opaque wine you're likely to ever come across. On this visit, my first to their small, cozy tasting room, I fell in love with both of their current Chardonnays -- really worth a try and a good bargain if you ever come across them. Their Pinots are also a favorite of mine.
Flight 2 - Alta Maria Tasting Room (Los Olivos) (5 Notes)
Larry Schaefer, the owner of Tercero Wines, suggested my wife and I pay a visit to this relatively new tasting room. I'm glad we did. Their efforts with Sauv Blanc and Pinot are right in my wheelhouse of balanced, interesting, and affordable wines. I really enjoyed all of the wines they poured except for maybe the unusually long oaked Cab, which I thought was just OK. My wife really liked it, though, so we did end up buying a bottle of it. They share a tasting room with native9 (I think run by the same group of partners). I absolutely loved the 2008 native9 Pinot, but it is a very polarizing Pinot if you go by the tasting notes on CT, which are wildly inconsistent in their characterization of the wine.
Flight 3 - Kaena Cellars Tasting Room (Los Olivos) (5 Notes)
I've heard that Mikael Segouin is a wizard with Grenache and the ones I tasted this day don't do anything to disprove that. Domestic grenache doesn't usually tickle my fancy, but the 2009s poured on this day (as well as the 2011 Rose) were outstanding. Unfortunately, Mikael seemed to be on his way out as we arrived, but we were in for a treat because his charming and lovely wife was there to guide us through the tasting (even though she was recently hobbled and in pain with an MCL tear - what a trooper). These were my first tastes of Kaena wines, and you can be sure I'll be coming back for more.
Closing
All in all, a fantastic first day of our little tasting trip. We ended up picking up multiple bottles from all three producers.
2008 Huber Cellars Chardonnay Non-Oaked 91 Points
USA, California, Central Coast, Sta. Rita Hills
Tasted at the winery. Really a very nicely balanced wine, showing nice aromatics, lovely full fruit, and a touch of minerality. Very nice job with this.
Post a Comment / Do you find this review helpful? Yes - No / Report Issue
2008 Huber Cellars Chardonnay Oak Aged 91 Points
USA, California, Central Coast, Sta. Rita Hills
Tasted at the winery. This was tasted after the unoaked version. I was prepared to hate this (being a hater of big oak Cali chards), but I was actually surprised and how well the oak treatment complemented the fruit. This was quite different, but every bit as enjoyable as the unoaked 2008. Very impressive effort in walking the fine line between too much oak and just enough to enhance the fruit flavors. Loved this.
Post a Comment / Do you find this review helpful? Yes - No / Report Issue
2009 Huber Cellars Pinot Noir Huber Vineyard 91 Points
USA, California, Central Coast, Sta. Rita Hills
Tasted at the winery. Aromatic with lovely fresh fruit scent. On the palate, nice up front fruit with good depth and, fortunately, not candied. Very clean and with good balancing acidity. Excellent new world expression of the grape. This is one of my favorite producers of Pinot in Cali.
Post a Comment / Do you find this review helpful? Yes - No / Report Issue
2007 Huber Cellars Pinot Noir Barrel Select Clone 667 89 Points
USA, California, Central Coast, Sta. Rita Hills
Tasted at the winery. A little funk on the nose, which I enjoyed. On the palate, the extra oak aging is showing itself in the form of spicy clove and herbal notes. Nicely balanced and easy to drink. I prefer the cleaner regular Pinot bottling, but this is quite nice, too.
Post a Comment / Do you find this review helpful? Yes - No / Report Issue
2008 Huber Cellars Dornfelder 87 Points
USA, California, Central Coast, Sta. Rita Hills
Tasted at the winery. My first taste of the 2008 regular Dornfelder bottling. It's pretty consistent with previous vintages that I've tried. Dark purple and extremely inky, of course, with somewhat unfocused grapey and some interesting herbal flavors. A nice change of pace from your standard red varieties as I think this would go very well with beef or pork.
Post a Comment / Do you find this review helpful? Yes - No / Report Issue
2009 Huber Cellars Dornfelder Charlotte's Reserve 90 Points
USA, California, Central Coast, Sta. Rita Hills
Tasted at the winery. A different beast than the regular bottling. This is richer and deeper due to the extended oak aging, but this grape seems to soak up the oak flavors quite nicely without presenting them in any overt way. This is really a very nice quality red that can be enjoyed with or without food. This would be a good wine to throw as a ringer into a blind tasting and see what kind of reaction it got. Loved this.
Post a Comment / Do you find this review helpful? Yes - No / Report Issue