 Hello, welcome back to Exotic Wine Travel. I am your host, Matthew Orkey. Hi, I'm Sheree Tan. Welcome back to the show today. We are excited about today's episode. I know you are, especially. My favorite group and my favorite producer. So we're here talking about the wines, this video series about the wines of Santa Barbara County. I want to let you know this video has not been paid for in any way, shape, or form. So if you find value in these videos, check out our downloadable book to the wines of Santa Barbara called Sipping Santa Barbara. Recommend it wines and producers. So check it out here, it's on Amazon as well. I want to thank, before we get started, we have three beautiful wines today, all poured from Corvind, Corvind Model 2 Elite. I want to thank Corvind for giving us a sample unit and we're pouring them into these beautiful Gabrielle Glass Gold Edition. Super light, thank you so much for providing these glasses. We will actually have a discount code to Gabrielle Glass Stemware at the end of the video. Let's go for it. Okay, if we talk about Santa Barbara County, we have to talk about sideways, but it was filmed there in Santa Barbara County and we have to talk about Miles' favorite grape, which is your favorite grape, which is... You don't know a lot. I'm gonna let you go on, this is your whole realm. Tell me about why you like the Pinot Noir from Santa Barbara County. Well, first of all, it's because it's very structured. It also has great elegance, lots of different nuances, different expressions. I like to pick my Pinot Noir and Santa Barbara depending on the vineyard. I notice that there is a lot of difference between the vineyard, more so than between the producers. So at times, if I'm drinking a Pinot Noir from two different producers from the same vineyard, I actually can get the nuances, similar expressions in both Pinot Noir. So it's dare, we say, burgundy-esque, actually. I would say that years, I'm thinking... In the sense that I think a lot of producers have found a way to capture the real essence of the place. Okay. Yeah. That's great. We're gonna get into one of your favorite producers. This is one producer of three wines, Appalachian-level wine and two single vineyard wines, Samsara. For those of you who don't know, it was started by Chad Melville. He sold the winery just last year to his longtime customers, Joan and Dave Skutak. Is that in my product there? Skutak, Skutak. Skutak, Skutak. I'm sorry if I... They brought on Matt Brady, the former winemaker of Jaffers to make the wines. They said they're gonna keep the same stuff. They've been Samsara customers for a long time. So the wines are gonna stay the same way. Are you ready to start tasting some? First, we have an Appalachian wine, the Samsara 2014 Saturita Hills, 40 US dollars. When I say Appalachian-level, it's Centurita Hills. So the grapes can come from different parts of the Saturita Hills, not necessarily a single vineyard. When we tasted this wine for the first time, we tasted an older vintage, the 2013. Very good. I prefer the single vineyard efforts more. I'm gonna let you take this away. What do you think so far on the Saturita Hills 2014? For my personal preference, I usually like the Pinot Noir from Centurita Hills instead as compared to Santa Maria because I find that, again, it's more structured. I feel that they have better aging potential, but I'm generalizing here. And to show this as well, the nose is beautiful. To me, Centurita Hills, it's Pinot Noir, but ripe. Like, I get, for Pinot Noir, most times I would get more strawberries, but in Centurita Hills, I get more cherry. That's for me. Oh, sorry. Not the first time, it won't be the last time. Cherry, earth, a little salinity going on. Anything else you're picking up? This is definitely whole bunch of stem inclusion. Okay. I don't know. Well, that's how he made most of his wines. I don't know what percentage. This is beautiful. This is what's great about Pinot Noir. It's very nuanced. Anything else? You're just enjoying it. There's a bit of blue fruit notes to it. I can sum up the kind of flavors that I get from carbonic maturation, in fact. It's a little bit peppery, too. Wow. I'm not gonna lie. The 2013 that we tasted, I didn't like as much. It was a little bit riper and almost kind of sweet. This is beautiful. What do you think? Excellent. This is everything you want from Pinot Noir. It's got a little bit of subtle power. Right, red fruit, soft tannins, beautiful acidity. The finish is quite spicy. I think the tannin, as well. It's dare, but it's soft, but it's fine green tannins. Pretty exciting for me. I'm 4.2 on this. I think, on Vavino, I would give it probably 4.2. I think it's pretty darn good. Anything else you wanna add on this? That's my point. Okay. Next, we have the 2013 Samsara. Las Hermanas Single Vineyard 2013, 54 US Dollars. Let's give this a little bit of a go, shall we? When we visit last time, I noticed a big step up in single vineyard wines from Samsara versus the Appalachian level. Let's see if that holds true with this vintage. There's a tang, there's a... Does it see trust in this? Yeah, that's a tanginess. Like an orange tang component to the red cherries. Folly, this is more perfumed. And it's also more earthy, as well. It's with the nose, it's definitely more intense. It's definitely better for a step up. Wow. What do you think? The mid-palad is very juicy and broad. And the finish is held together very nicely by the acidity and the tannin. It's got this beautiful citrus note and the mid-palad has power. That's what I really, really, really like about this. The finish is quite persistent and you mentioned the floral note, it stays through to the end-palad. Very good. How? You can put in this one, do you want to keep it for later? How high? I am very high. You really, really, what were you thinking of? I am very high on this vineyard. Yeah, very much. I'm 4.4 on this. I think this is a beautiful wine. Let's see if we can get... If the Rancho, La Vina Vineyard, also a very famous vineyard from Samsar, 2013, let's see if it can top the Las Armanas. I was... I liked this better than the Cargo Saki Vineyard last year. It's hard for me to compare. I like both a lot, to be honest. Let's give this a little bit of a Rancho, La Vina. There's quite a fair bit of similarities between both on first impression. Hold on a second. I want to compare the Appalachian level. Sure. There's definitely more complexities in the two single vineyards versus the Appalachian. Well, we spend a lot of time in Las Ano wine region and the ex-Yugoslavia and the Caucasus. And we have tasted Pinot Noir from a lot of different places as well. I would say for some of these Las Ano wine regions when they make the best Pinot Noir in their country, it's probably to that level, which is the single vineyard. I mean, not the single vineyard, the Appalachian level. And the single vineyard is just a whole new level in game. This has more stoniness and earthiness than the Malacermanas again, if you do want to compare. This definitely still has some citrus peel, some red fruit, some earth notes. I think I get more red fruit than this than the previous one. Perfume. Okay. Let's give it a go. More green herbs in the mouth as well. Fresh green herbs, a bit grassy. Strawberry. I like this. The Rancho La Vina Vineyard is actually a lot more earthy than this, which is fruity. And this is very fruity and easy to drink. Can I taste? Which one do you want to taste? This is the second one. That's good stuff. I'm gonna recalibrate here. I'm gonna say 4.1, 4.3 for me, 4.4 for the Rancho La Vina. I think, wow, these are good efforts, anything. I really can't decide because this is juicy and much easier, I'm all accessible. But I would think that... I'll go for this. You would go for that one. I like the earthiness of it. We always disagree. That's all. Nice showing by Sam Sara. Anything you also want to add on this wonderful producer before we move on? Wow, if you're in Santa Barbara, go to Sam Sara, there's just no way around it. I mean, if you're there, Sam Sara is one of the best. In Los Alivos, they have a tasting room. I think they used to have one in the wine ghetto, but I think it's in Los Alivos now, so. I tasted, was it the rosé? Even the rosé was very good, the ganache, and yeah. So guys, we're gonna put the discount code for the Galvariel Glass up on the screen now. Check it out. We will also put the link in the description box. Check out our book, Sipping Santa Barbara and Sam Sara Wines. Anything else? So spicy. Much gusto. Guys, if you like this video, please subscribe to our YouTube channel, Exotic Wine Travel. I will see you at the next episode.