 Oh, welcome back to Exotic Wine Travel. I am your host, Matthew Horky. Hi, I'm Shireen Tan. Welcome back to the show today. We have a special show. Oh, you're excited. I think so. We are, this is another video in our series about the wines of Santa Barbara County. Before we get started, I wanna let you guys know that this video has not been paid for in any way, shape or form. But if you do like these videos, if they add value to you, check out our guide, our downloadable guide to the wines of Santa Barbara, Sipping Santa Barbara. Recommend that wines and producers. Okay, let's move. We have Sera here today. We just, we Corvind, we Corvind the Sera into these glasses with our Corvind Model 2 Elite. Thank you to Corvind for providing a sample for us to use. We're pouring them into these beautiful Gabriel Glass Gold Edition hand blown glass. What are you chewing on? I'm not chewing on your hand. Hand blown glasses. We will have a discount code for Gabriel Glass at the end of the video. I just remember, we almost replayed the scene in Sideways, if I sit in the audience. Are you chewing on? No, I'm not, ah, I'm sorry, I'm not. Who would have known, yeah, so anyway, Santa Barbara County, where Sideways was filmed, who would have known what would have happened to the wine industry if it would have been about Sera or Grenache, right? But anyways, Sera is actually, Santa Barbara County is considered one of the epicenters of Sera in America. You know, Karen McNeil, the Wine Bible, wrote, she thought it was the best in California. There's lots of different microclimates and there's lots of different types of Sera's being produced there. What do you think about Sera and Santa Barbara County in particular? So, when we first went to Santa Barbara County, typical, you know, our focus was on Pinot Noir and Chardonnay and we're really blown away by the Sera. The Sera there, you cannot put it, you know, and say that it's old-world and style or new-world. It basically combines all the nuances of Australia, New Zealand, from France. Yeah, so really, and we have, you know, we have three producers here that we know we have not tasted these vintages yet, so I am very excited. You wanna get into the Sera first? You wanna get into tasting inside? First, we have the Stoltman Vineyards, a state-grown Sera from 2016, brand new vintage. Excuse me, Ballard Canyon. It's a little bit more off the coast than Santa Maria Hill, so it's a little bit warmer. Very well-known for Sera. Stoltman is a very respected producer. This is from their Stoltman Vineyards. A lot of people buy fruit from them. The owners are kind of like Instagram stars for wineries, because Jessica and Peter, I believe, because they're both good-looking, right? So they take really good pictures. Let's get into this. I have not tasted any 2016 reds yet from Santa Barbara. They're supposed to possess more acidity and energy. You're already in on it. What are you picking up? It's super fruity on the nose. It's got violets, too, for me. Violets, blackberry, black cherry, berry, fruity nose, right? It's not super meaty, though. Yeah, I don't get any of the savory things. I think I get a little bit of iron, like rusty nail-type deal. Let's give it a go. Let's give this a go. What'd you think? It is so spicy on the finish. I wasn't expecting it from the nose. I picked up no spice on the nose, and it is really spicy on the palate. Beautiful and have a lot of black pepper spice. But I think what's interesting, or to me, the most important thing about this wine is giving this a structure. 50% whole cluster. I actually, you know what? I was probably the least excited out of these three to taste the Stoltman. And this is 30 US dollars. This is kind of one of their entry-level, like staple wines. Not entry-level. This is kind of one of their staple wines. That's their single vineyard super premium. The tannic structure. This wine can age, right? Yeah, I really like how the tannins heat on the end palate. It's not, a lot of times on some tannins can heat on the mid palate, on the end palate, and it eats up the flavor, but this is like big, bright fruit. But it's not huge in the mouth. It's leaner, feels a little more cool weather, and then the tannins get, I mean. The tannins really stretch out the frugus on the finish. Beautiful. I like the, are you a fan? I tend to like the Syrah from the Allocannians. Yeah. I'm a little bit biased, but we'll move on and see how it's- 4.1 on Vavino out of five on this, and this is still really young, right? I hate when you drink vines and everyone's like, hey, it's too young. Oh yeah, of course, but we're drinking it. Okay, let's move on. I went by vintage, because we have three different vintages from three different parts of Santa Barbara County. Not by prices, this is the most expensive, no, sorry, 30, 35, 35. So all about the similar price range. Coupe. This is the Syrah from the Sawyer Lindquist Vineyard in Edna Valley, 2014. Coupe is an iconic producer. Bob Lindquist actually worked at Zacameza for a while before he started Coupe. He shares space with Auval Clamont. Sawyer Lindquist is a vineyard he started with his wife that is biodynamic. Anything else you want to say about Coupe? You like Coupe? I like Coupe. Yeah, and Syrah, Renault. Let's give this, let me see if this, anything else? Okay, let's give this a little bit of a go here. All these Gabriel glasses just feel so nice to hold. Whoa, okay, okay, okay, okay. Is it showing you something? The Sawyer Lindquist Vineyard is actually not in Santa Barbara County. It's, the Coupe winery is. This is actually north of Santa Maria Valley, but this is what they wanted to show. So let's give this a little bit of a smell. No, this is a lot more savory. Some dry fruits. Very herbal. This is to me a very under-controlled New World Syrah type deal. For me, the violet is coming off. Violets, blueberries, blackberries, herbs, meat. I get a little bit of meat in this one. I'm feeling, wow, I hope that these are all, I assume these are gonna be three different styles. Very nice finish. What do you think about that one? Like it, right? You know when your M-Palette, usually when you get an M-Palette, it's kind of like the meat-Palette stretches out and the flavor slowly dissipates. But for this wine, it kind of like was, I was going into the M-Palette for about five seconds already and then all of a sudden you get new flavors on your M-Palette. The nose is very pretty on this. I have to say, in my mid-Palette, I get a little bit too much wood, which I started to not like, but then the finish, the wood just cleared off. I like this a lot. I have to say, I have a lot of the wines that we have that we're checking out. This is one of the lowest scored wines by Venice. I'm Galoni's website and I disagree. I think this is a very good wine. I like it when the wine is so sweet, but it's sweet fruit, it's not with the usual sugar. Yeah, it's just bright and ripe. I'm 4.2 on the, maybe 4.2, I'm gonna go 4.2, 4.3. I think these are very good wines, very good effort, stuff that I really like to drink. I think you really- Two very different styles. I absolutely adore this one. Let's move, we have to move on, shall we? Ampelos, the Cera Gamma, the complex from 2013. This is from the Ampelos Vineyard, Pete and Rebecca. This is, sorry, that's the owner's names. This is the first vineyard in America to be certified organic, bio-dynamic, and sustainable farming. We bumped into this producer when we visited last time, very fruity, but not super over the top. I'm excited because this is from a very cool part. This is from the Santa Rita Hills, so they're always, Santa Rita Hills is constantly getting wind coming in from the Pacific. We were there in the summer and we needed jackets at night, right? It was really cool. Let's get started on this. Cool note, their son is the winemaker for Seasmoke. Yeah, then we like Seasmoke. Yeah, so beautiful, beautiful Pinot Noir. Wait, this is 2013. I'm getting a more tertiary note, a little bit of leather on this. But for me, the, yeah, the leather comes out, but the red fruit and the blueberries come in. For me, blueberries in Santa Barbara County, but I think Sarat's blueberries, right? Luffy, a little bit of coffee goes to it as well. Black raspberry, really complex. All these wines show a lot. Juicy on the mild. This one is leaner, not in a bad way. I'm just saying. It's not as burly or it's not a huge burly wine. It's a little bit more leaner, kind of more elegant, dare I say. What else do you want to pick up on this? I find this, in terms of profile, I find this the most accessible. I think a lot of people would like the MPLO style. I agree, it's fruity. Wood integration is there. It's present, but it's not ripping your folks, not ripping your face off. Tertiary notes have developed a little bit. Easiest to drink, like this one, because it's younger too, this had some serious tannins. Some big time tannins. That can go with distance. This wood, three very different sorrows here in my book. What's your personal favorite right now if you want to drink a bottle? I'm really curious to know what you think. You know, I'm glad you asked me that because every single, like, for me, I would like this with some bigger meat or in a few years. I like how this is kind of drinking right now. And this would be a little bit easier to drink by itself for me. What about you? I think this, I will bring to a party with people who know wine. I think this will be a crowd pleaser. I really like this. Yeah. And the stout linen is great as well, but I think that would require a couple more, couple years of aging. 4.3, 4.2, 4.2 for me. Like I said, it was gonna be hard to score wines in these videos because all the wines are just... Yeah. About standing quality. And it's not because, you know, just all our own opinions, but I foresee us scoring everything at least four for most of the wine. I mean, unless a wine really screws up. So, wow. Good job by Ampelos, Coupe, and Stoltman. I actually was really impressed with this wine because I wasn't super expecting much. So what I'm gonna do, sorry I've been ranting on and on, but I've liked the wines here, as you can tell. We are gonna put the discount code for Galbra Glass up on the screen. It's for the stand edition, the machine-blown glasses and the decanter. I'll put it up right now. I'll put in the description box. Check out our guide to the wines of Santa Barbara County. I will put that in the description box as well as these wines. I will put the links in the description box as well. Anything else you wanna say? That will be... Guys, if you like this video, please! Subscribe to our YouTube channel, Exotic Wine Travel. I will see you. I didn't make this episode.