 Hello, hello, welcome back to Exotic Wine Travel. I am your host, Matthew Horky. Oh, we're gonna have an exciting show for you today. We've got four wines here, three brand new vintages and a wine with a year of age on it. Really excited to get into it. This is Sauvignon Blancs from Santa Barbara County. As you can see, I got my glasses on. I had a long night last night. I went to the Detroit Pistons basketball game. Had a lot of fun. I was third row from the court. Saw Anthony Davis from New England Pelicans up close. It was awesome. So I'm a little bit tired today. My eyes are a little tired. Shereen's a little tired. She didn't wanna get dressed and be on this show today. So it's just me chipping away at it. She says hi over there somewhere. All right, let's get into the show. Guys, before we get started, I wanna let you 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 your life, check out our guide of the wines of Santa Barbara, sipping Santa Barbara, recommended wines and producers. It's on Kindle, PDF and EPUB formats. It would help us out a lot. And let's start getting into these wines. We got these Sauvignon Blancs from Santa Barbara County. I used the Corvind to extract the wines with our Corvind Model 2 Elite. Thank you Corvind so much for giving us a test Model 2. Check out, it's been fantastic. We're pouring into, ooh, these are beautiful. The Gabriel Glass Gold Edition Hand Blown Glasses. These are 95 grams, lighter than the Zalto Universal. Beautiful glasses. I will put a discount code for Gabriel Glass Stemware in the video at the, towards the end of the video. We are not affiliates in any way, shape, performance, just something nice for you to get. Okay, let's get into these wines. Sauvignon Blanc. So Santa Barbara County is really known for fantastic Chardonnay, but there's other great grapes grown there as well. Especially a lot of very good Sauvignon Blanc in the Ballard Canyon area. Actually, let me see. Some of these are from Happy Canyon as well. Happy Canyon, sorry, Happy Canyon. This is Ballard Canyon. And this is from both of the parts in Santa Barbara. So anyways, it's a little bit further off of the Pacific Ocean. It's a little bit warmer than the Santerita Hills. And the Sauvignon Blancs here are nice. They're ripe. They became medium to full body, but not big and fat like the ones in Napa can get. I really like them. We come across Sauvignon Blanc, so much in our exotic wine travels, traveling to all these obscure wine countries. I have to say it's very tough for us to be pleased by a Sauvignon Blanc, right Shane? They should just not plant Sauvignon Blanc over it. She said most countries should just not plant Sauvignon Blanc. We have come across some very good examples from Pleshevica, Croatia. A couple of decent ones in Serbia. Yeah, anyways, let's get into this. The first one we have is a wine that I tried the other vintage, an older vintage of and I loved it. This is the Grasini Family Vineyards Sauvignon Blanc from the Happy Canyon of Santa Barbara 2016, 28 US dollars. This is 4% of this wine is actually aged in French oak. I made it from less oakie to more oakie. This is 4%, this is 30%, 30% and 66% in oak. So let's try the Grasini ones. Most of the wine in stainless steel, shoot, I gotta take these glasses off because I can't, I can't sniff the wine dyes. Let's get into this. So with the Grasini, you're gonna get, you get a little bit of herbalness, but it's not super green, but you also get a little ripeness, but not super punch it like New Zealand Sauvignon Blancs that can be just full of kiwi. Let's see here. I'm liking this. I'm getting kind of like a cantaloupe component, a rock melon component, a little kiwi fruits, a little bit herbal, but not too much. A lot of lime, a lot of lime, like kefir lime, like they use in Thai food. Is that right? Okay, let me give this a go. This one again is rocking my face. Nice job, Grasini. Wow, I love the 2015. The 2016 even has more acidity. If you like lime, kefir lime, you're gonna love this wine, it's awesome. I think I have a V-nauget 4.3 out of 5, very easily. Killer wine, awesome wine. You're gonna wanna taste this. You wanna taste this off the show? Awesome wine. You just go and I'll taste it. Okay. You say kefir and I'm all for it. That's killer wine. Oh, man, that's good. Okay, let's move on. Next we have one of the new rising stars in Santa Barbara County. This is the Starling Vineyard. Seven year block from Happy Canyon. This is from their estate vineyards. 22 US dollars. Tyler Thomas is the winemaker. Super star maker, really doing some great things with this winery. I really like this winery because they use mostly estate fruit. Funny fact, Happy Canyon was named because that's where old locals used to produce moonshine. Before I get into this wine, do you like that wine? I love the flavors. It's great. For me, that's about flavor, but more about body. You like it, okay. Let's get in the Starling here. Let's see if the Starling can live up to this. This is 30% aged in oak for six months. Let me smell this. This is a little bit more herbal. It's not as explosive as the Grasini. I still get more lemon than lime in this and cantaloupe, some grass notes, but it's definitely not, it's not Frenchy. It's still a little bit bigger bodied. Smells beautiful. Let me give, it's a little bit perfume too. Let me give this a go. I pick up no lime on the nose. On the palate, I pick up a lot of lime. This is a little bit bigger and bodied than this one. This, the Grasini has a little bit more electricity than the Starling. I still think the Starling is very good for me. 4.0 out of five, easy, delicious. Drinks awesome by itself would go really, really, really nice with some Thai food. I think it has the acidity. So let's check this out here. Hold on. I think you're craving Thai food. Why don't you give me this right here? Hold on, I see the battery going off, so I gotta change the battery real quick. Okay, sorry, I had to switch the battery really quick, stitched these two together. Shareen has my glasses. Once again, I'm really loving the wine so far. I really like the Sauvignon Blanc from Santa Barbara County. For me, it's ripe. It has body, but it still maintains acidity and freshness. Excuse me, so they don't become overly fat. Let's move on. Shareen preferred the Starling more than the Grasini. I prefer the Grasini more than the Starling, but that's what's cool. Don't take my scores as, don't take the scores as gospel. I actually just use them as self-reference for my Vivino account so I can keep track of what wines I like. Everybody's palate's different, right? Shareen's way different than mine. Let's move on. Next we have Stoltman Vineyard from Ballard Canyon, from their Stoltman Vineyards. This is a Sauvignon Blanc 2016. They are more famous for Roan grapes. Shareen actually loves their Roussin. I don't believe we've had their Sauvignon Blanc before. So this is the first time I'm gonna be having this. 2016, 30% in French oak. Sorry, no, not French oak. I think if I looked at the website, it was 600 liter barrels, I believe. But there's a little bit of oak. Let me give this a smell here. This by far is the more grassier of the three. This also has, hold on a second, some basil notes to it. I definitely pick up the vanilla from the wood. This wood was pretty much hidden. I couldn't smell that at all. And the nose isn't as explosive as these three, but still smells very nice. Let's give this a go. Tons of lemon lime. This was the biggest in body out of the three. This one has some nervy acidity like this one. Completely shocked me because the nose was a little bit muted, which made me a little bit sad. But on the palate, it comes back with some explosive acidity. Shareen, you wanna smell and taste this out? I really wanna get your opinion of this. Shareen's palate, for those of you who don't watch the show, or watching the show for the first time, much better than mine. I often look to her for some guidance. You're all humble. What do you, tell me what you think of that one? Other. Very good, right? Much less elbow and big. It has more restraint on the nose, but I really appreciate the flavors that taste like quartz and minerals. Yeah, very. Oh, sorry, you're right. This is actually planted on limestone. I think Tom Stoltman planted the vineyard because obviously some of the best souvenirs in the world are planted in limestone. This confused me a lot because the nose is not as explosive as these two, but it's still very good, right? The body is good. I like the acidity. I think I'm gonna go 4.2 out of five, I think. I mean, all of these are very good wines so far. I think I'm more excited about the Gracini, but this is good stuff. That's my favorite so far. This is your favorite, okay. Let's move on. A wine that I love, and I'm excited to taste this vintage. This is the pairing 2015 Sauvignon Blanc. Cool thing about this one, a little bit of a wine geek fact about this wine. This wine is created by wine maker Matt Dees, who makes the wines for Honata and the hilt. And Honata has the same ownership as Napa Valley's Screaming Eagle winery. Those classic Colt Cabernet Sauvignon's that go for over $1,000 a bottle. We've tasted some of the Honata wines before. They are outstanding. Actually, one of their Merlot's was one of our favorite wines in 2016. The pairing is a cheaper wine, $25. They also make reds, sorrel, Pinot Noir. All these wines I have been so impressed for, they're made from young vines of the fruit, the vines that don't make it to the Honata wines. Let's, I'm excited to do this. One third new oak, one third used oak and one third stainless steel. 25 US dollars. I forgot to tell you the Stoltman was 22. Let's give the pairing a little bit of a smell here. This is much, much, much more New Zealand in style. Kiwi, it's so funny. This isn't gonna sound good, but it smells kinda good. Maybe it's the oak. I smell a little bit of bacon fat in this wine. Mineral, kiwi, lemon and herbs. Those are probably the flavors I would go for. This is more viscous than any of these four. Let me give this in. I think it has a touch more color. The Stoltman one was actually lighter in color. Let me give this one a go. Taste this, man. Significantly more body. What, did you like that? New Zealand. Yeah, very New Zealand, right? Significantly more body than these three right here. You get the body from the wood, but you get, yes? I don't usually like the New Zealand style of, so we don't belong, but this is lovely. This is very good. Bouncy acidity as well. Really limey, even of a basil-like finish. I like this a lot. A lot of basil. Lots of basil. I think I'm gonna go... Oh, let me see here. For my personal preference, because these are all different styles of wine too. I mean, this one has got more New Zealand-like flavors. This one is the most mineral-driven. This one has the most lime-iness. This one has a good amount of body from the wood, but still bouncy acidity. I think I'm gonna go 4.3, 4.2, 4.2, 4.1. So all about in the same range. What am I gonna drink tonight? Geez, it depends on what we wanna eat. I don't know. I think I'll just, we have the Corvins, so maybe I'll taste a glass of all these. These are all really nice wines. Sauvignon Blanc, you should check out. I know the Sauvignon Blanc in Napa can get poo-pooed on sometimes. You should give these wines a shout-out. So guys, right now I'm actually gonna put the discount code for the Gabriel glass up on the screen. You get 15% off the standard machine-blown glass or the Alpha decanter. Once again, we are not affiliates, so go ahead and buy it with Gabriel's. We get nothing from it. It's just a discount code for you. Check out our guide to the wines of Santa Barbara, Sipping Santa Barbara. Anything else you wanna add? You wanna add anything on the Sauvignon Blanc, from Santa Barbara? I think it's cool that all four Sauvignon Blancs have very different style. I think that's what's amazing, because you can go to one place and you try different kind of stuff. Which one do you prefer, the best? Currently, if you ask me right now, Stortman is definitely my conventional style, but I think the pairing is interesting because it appeals to a style that I don't usually like, but I'm very attracted to it. And then the first two, Stahlia and Grasini, are much fruity and bigger. Yeah, awesome stuff. Good job. Check out Sauvignon Blanc from Santa Barbara County. Guys, if you like this video, please subscribe to our YouTube channel, Exotic Wine Travel. I will see you in the next episode.