Blind Santa Barbara pinot tasting

We wanted to compare a bunch of pinots from Santa Barbara in a blind setting to see which one would come out on top. We had someone label the wines with a colored sticker at the inside of the punt (so we can't see it), poured the wine and labeled the glass with the corresponding color. We proceed to taste, discuss and geek out. After tasting them all, we:

1. Ranked them from least to most favorite
2. Guess the wines

Warmed up our palates with La Pelle's Chardonnay and some awesome food.

• 2020 La Pelle Chardonnay Bien Nacido - Block 1 94 Points

  USA, California, Central Coast, Santa Maria Valley

  N: Dark yellow fruits, pineapple skins, awesome subtle creaminess, and a gentle note of salty rocks.
  
  P: Ripe yellow fruits, dark pineapples, good acidity to keep fresh, fresh grass and soft salinity to the minerals with a nice bitterness.
  
  This seems like it can flex a couple of ways: serve at a cooler temp for more fresh burg style with nice swiftness on the palate, or allow it to come up in temperature slightly for some nice curves without being too much. Should've just allowed it more air time, might have been a nice hybrid of both (maybe it is, just needed some air).
  
  This went really well with some cooked swai with rice, smoked salmon, baby otoro, hamachi and Hokkaido hotate nigiri.

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And the battle begins..

• 2020 Sea Smoke Pinot Noir Ten

  USA, California, Central Coast, Sta. Rita Hills

  N: Dark red fruits, whole berries, brown stems, dark earth. New eraser notes with time (a sharp left turn there) and gentle floral notes eventually surface.
  
  P: Similar dark red fruits like cherries, cola and spiced earth. Big stones that almost dilute the other flavors, strong minerals notes.
  
  This bottle ranked 2nd in the lineup.

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• 2021 Di Costanzo Pinot Noir Costa Bentrock Vineyard

  USA, California, Central Coast, Sta. Rita Hills

  N: Restrained red fruits, dark fruits but with the characteristic of a thin veil. The scent of young, small berries. The fruits become more forward with time, even coming on with a bit of creaminess. The restrained profile turns into something more fun with time as well.
  
  P: Soft pencil shavings, dark and bitter minerals, fruits are similar to the nose with the lighter profile. Gentle spice with time and also gains that creaminess from the nose.
  
  This bottle ranked 1st in the lineup.

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• 2021 Sandhi Wines Pinot Noir Sta. Rita Hills

  USA, California, Central Coast, Sta. Rita Hills

  N: Barnyard funk with damp earth, young fresh cherries, soft green stems, and mushrooms. Funk dissipates with time.
  
  P: Blue plums, spiced oak, gentle earth. Earth and fruits become more integrated as time passes. There is a bit of salinity to everything, enveloping the fruits, earth and spice.
  
  This bottle ranked 3rd in the lineup.

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• 2021 Domaine de la Côte Pinot Noir La Côte

  USA, California, Central Coast, Sta. Rita Hills

  N: Roasted shishito peppers and green bell peppers. This doesn't change even with a few hours of air time.
  
  P: Matches nose completely. With a few hours of airing out, the grilled shisito peppers loosens up only a bit, making some room for dark red fruits with strong a salinity to it. The shishito peppers covers up the other notes a lot, if there are any. I had to really dig for the fruit.
  
  This bottle ranked 4th in the lineup.

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Just for kicks, FermentedBeast pulled this to see how it would fair.

• 2021 Belle Glos Pinot Noir Clark & Telephone Vineyard

  USA, California, Central Coast, Santa Maria Valley

  N: Rich red fruit, bathroom fresheners (not my note but it's there), mothball notes (mine and it's definitely there).
  
  P: Similar rich red fruits but with some cloying manipulation. Fun and even has a bit of depth but it doesn't seem real.
  
  I see why some people like it and some people hate it. Gonna take the PC stand here and say I'm somewhere in the middle :P

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Not really.. this wasn't to compare with the rest because lets face it, you can't. Just a nice treat pulled by FermentedBeast after a hard day's work :)

• 2018 VHR Cabernet Sauvignon Vine Hill Ranch

  USA, California, Napa Valley, Oakville

  N: Intense black fruits that overshadow dark blue fruits, wet earth after a rainy day, and damp tree branches and stems.
  
  P: Black fruits, savory earth, dark and almost black graphite, dark bitter minerals.
  
  Rich and coating but that impression could be due to all the pinots we have been tasting before this. This would've done much better if given more air time but unfortunately, this was pulled a little later into the evening.

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A really fun tasting! Di Costanzo's pinot came out on top with Sea Smoke as runner up.

Out of the four bottles in the blind tasting, I've only tasted the pinot from Di Costanzo once, and it was a while ago. It was funny because I could NOT recognize it during the blind tasting. I thought I would but alas, it did not taste like it did when I first had it.

Our guesses on which wine was which producer/price was a bit all over the place. We all assumed the La Cote from Domaine de la Cote to be the least expensive one (funny how that works.. and humbling?). The only guess I got correct was the Di Costanzo's pinot, and not because I knew what it tasted like because I didn't at all, it was a completely lucky guess.

I've mentioned, and I think the rest of the guys agreed, that the one we ranked as our favorite, is most likely due to our preferences. I have a hunch there are others who will rank the wines we had the other way around, ranking our last place wine as first, third place as second and so on.

Shout out to FermentedBeast for hosting and pulling a VHR at the end as a treat! Good times as always.