Posts belonging to Category Santa Lucia Highlands

SoCal is burning up. 100 degrees every day. Only the Angels seem to like it (second best record in baseball). We took off for San Diego. That was a very good decision. Boogie boarding in Solana Beach. Gay Pride parade in University Heights. As Stuart Scott would say “cooler than the underside of the pillow.”

While we were waiting on the Borax 20 Mule Team to haul us away here is what were tasting.

2012 Bow and Arrow Pinot Noir Medici Valley Chehalem Mountains $33 (Eno Fine Wine): Purchased this in the past year. New World organic Pinot Noir that does not taste like most New World Pinots. Citric, acid notes. Like tasting the skins on which the wine was fermented. Natural wine from Oregon. You mention the Chehalem Mountain district and we think ripe over oaked fruit bomb Pinot. No wonder we gravitated to Ribbon Ridge where the living is more severe and the wines like Patricia Green’s have more spine. Not this wine. Welcome surprise. Domestic Pinot is not an easy sell among the snob family. We cleaned out Goldun’s remains. Look at the low alcohol. 11.5%

2009 Paraiso Pinot Noir $16: Picked this up at the winery in Santa Lucia Highlands about 12 months ago. Looked like a deal at the price. We did taste int eh winery but that is almost always tainted with expectations and sappy BS. Funk on the nose. Ripe without much oak. Light to medium weight. A bit ripe. Will wait another 6 months. U20. 14.2%

2010 Gravallon-Lathuiliere Morgon Cuvée Premium $18: “Real wine” as Senor Goldun puts it. Pure juicy Gama wine with acidic backbone to firm it all up. Big by little standards. Think US soccer player Michael Bradley with the quick feet and fine touch. World class if not at the top. Bright and muscular. Superb bottle that wold complement any Mediterranean summer meal. U20. 13%

Dining spot dining spot dining spot…we can all afford.

Culver City is the cultural capitol of LA’s Westside. When a decent dining spot – FIN – can open that serves fine cocktails, has a small efficient wine list and very good food, and has a speakeasy in the alley [ed. speakeasy?], and hardly any of the mega critics cover it… that means Culver City has arrived.

One dining room with 15 tables and a mezzanine for the overflow. The $35 prix fixe menu featured 3 plates that did the trick. Main course was a pan seared black cod with miso sauce. We were served a Pinot Grigio from Italy that had enough backbone to handle the salty cod.

Here is coverage from Urbandaddy. Checkitout. Washington and Grand View.

The North Coast of San Diego County is stunningly gorgeous, especially in the summer. Who needs Hawaii? This is from May 2014 at the beach we like to take out our boogie boards.

The Pinnacles National Monument is our nation’s newest national park where you can sip local Pinot Noir while searching for condors. The California condor has been pulled from the brink of extinction in this “lost island.” Condors are magnificent birds despite the fact they are giant vultures that survive on carrion. Like certain giant wine orgs. The Pinnacles is also the location of the historic Chalone AVA. tBoW turned a few pages of the book below, reading enough to become enchanted. Dreamers have been growing fine wine grapes here, a couple thousand feet uphill from the Santa Lucia Highlands floor, for more than 80 years. We learned a little about the beautiful western Santa Lucia range last May with vineyards climbing the hills towards Carmel. No surprise, we gave the Gavilan mountain range to the east short shrift. We did not even notice the incredible and magnificent Pinnacles peaks in clear view at the top of the chaparral covered hills. Ooops. Turns out the more compelling story – ad it’s a good’un – begins a few miles below those Odin-esque peaks in the eponymous Chalone AVA. (more…)

July 4th on a Wednesday is like a midweek Saturday. We watched as much baseball as we could tolerate, hacked around on the Internet during the day, and tasted wine in the evening. Without enough time to travel someplace but enough to dream about trips we want to take…we chose to do nuttin…like preparing this post and looking for just the right photos of Scarlett Johansson. Just wait. (more…)

Political statements are considered bad wine blogging. So are curse words however tBoW had a potty mouth in a recent post. Now read this. Healthcare reform is good for the nation. Justice Roberts stood up for the Constitution. Upholding the Affordable Care Act makes wine taste better! (more…)