 Welcome back to Exotic Wine Travel. I am your host Matthew Horky. Hi, I'm Shireen Todd. Welcome back to the show today. We've got an exciting show with some exciting white wines today. Some other white grapes from Santa Barbara County. We have two Vionnes and a Gruner Veltliner from Santa Barbara County. Very cool, right? Before we get started on this video, I want to let you know this video has not been paid for in any way shape or form, but if you do like these videos, this video series, you find value in it. Check out our guide, The Wines of Santa Barbara, called Sipping Santa Barbara, Recommended Wines and Producers. I'll put that up on the screen here. So let's get ready to taste these wines. I've extracted these wines with our Corvind Model 2 Elite. Thank you so much Corvind for letting us use this. We're pouring into these beautiful Gabriel Gold hand-blown glasses. If you stay tuned to the video, there will be a discount code for Gabriel Glass at the end of the video. Ready to get started? Let's get started. First wine up, we have Amp for Vionne. It's a grape that we like very much. I love the great Candrieu from North Rome. I love those wines. I haven't had a ton of them, but what I've tasted, I've liked. We don't really bump up. We don't come across Vionne very much in our exotic when we travel to these exotic wine countries. Maybe Cyprus. And even when we do, I mean, even in Croatia, so you get maybe just one producer or two producers exploring or experimenting with it. Yeah, so we're really excited. We have three producers with a lot with really, really good track record. First is Amp for Vionne, the Golden Ratio. Is it Phi or Phi? Phi, Phi, Phi, Phi, the Golden Ratio. 2016, this is from their Ampelos Vineyard. The first vineyard in America to be certified biodynamic, organic and sustainable farming. Let me give you some of this. New release here. I'm really excited. The first time we visited Ampelos, when we were doing research for our guides to the Wine Ascent of Arbor County, I was pleasantly surprised. What about you? Yeah, I was as well because it has generalizing of their wines, right? It has very good amount of fruit, but it's very balanced with a little bit of savory tone to them. Let's give this a go. I can already smell it from here. This is very typical Vionne to me. Lots of yellow flower. Pineapple. Pineapple, lemon. Yellow peach. Mineral watery. Kind of Malvasia, estimate. That's a little bit of mineral tone to it, yeah. It's very pretty nose, right? Like floral, fruity. I think a lot of people are gonna like it. Let's give this a go. Now that you mentioned Malvasia, it does indeed have a little bit of that almond seed and bitterness to the nose as well. Good start to the show. What do you think? I'm liking Vionne, usually is it high in acidity? Just like a lot of those rum grapes, but this has a certain crispiness, a tank. Does it have like a crispiness, a juiciness, like a juiciness factor? Not uber complex, but to me very delicious. What do you think? I like the acidity. I think that should be quite a fabulous juice sugar, but it's very balanced by the acidity. It's still a dry wine. Yeah, that's why I love the tension between both. It's a very good balance. It's delicious. For me, this is gonna appeal a lot of people. Right fruit flavors, floral notes, crispiness, I'm really enjoying it. I'm gonna say 3.9 out of 5 on Vivino. Once again, I just score on Vivino for my own personal reference. Everybody's palates different, we think. Lovely. Yeah. It's a nice, nice one. I like the tactile feel in the mouth. Let's move on. We have an iconic producer, the Ohio Vineyard, from Ventura County, Vionne, Roll Ranch Vineyard, 2016, Adam Tomak and Fabian Castell are the winemakers. Adam is very famous, worked at Zac Amesa and helped Jim Clinton and start Obam Clamante. And you like this producer, right? Very much, yeah. Known for making more European-centric wines. This is his Vionne, so I am really excited. I have not had this vintage. Let's give it a smell. There's a lot more clarity in this one compared to the Ampalos. Ampalos was much more ripe fruit. This rolls into 25 US dollars. This is 28 US dollars. This has more yogurt. No, it's more contact-lease. When I say yogurt, for those you don't know, after the wine ferments and the leaves settle to the bottom, a lot of people keep the wine on the leaves to give it more of a creamy flavor, a little bit more texture. Do you know if this was an oak, I would think it is. Yeah, yeah, just a touch of it. I get quite a fable of spiciness on the nose. Really spicy. It's almost like you have these fruit flavors, but add yogurt and some cinnamon from the barrel-type deal. Yeah, I also get dried green herbs, probably dill or something. It's more viscous in the glass. This Vionne is actually pretty clear. Let's give this a pretty light color. A fable of salinity in the mauve as well. Good finish. Really long-finished. This is going to be for someone that wants something a little bit more fresher, crisper, fruitier. This wine has just a touch more complexity, both very good though. What would you say about you have a preference so far between the Vionne? I agree with you. I would have them for different occasions, but I think generally this is more of my style. But this is a Vionne that I completely understand. This is for I to be correct and more closer to what I know. For my palate, this is what I want to drink. For my family that enjoys wine, they don't know a time about wine, but they want something good, I would give them this. Let's give you a test later and see how. You're not going to disappoint anyone with this. We have 4.0 out of 5 on this. I think it's pretty darn delicious. You know what's funny about these videos that we're doing for Santa Barbara, right? I keep wanting to take a sip of the wine because it's so good. The wines are so good. Let's move on shall we? Okay. So the next one we have a winemaker that has been so kind to us during our entire process of writing the book, helping us get some of these samples. She's been very supportive. Kathy Joseph from the fiddle head sellers, the Gruner Beltliner, 28 US dollars, 2014 from her fiddle sticks vineyard. I am excited to taste this, right? You love her so much because even when I read her email, I can feel her stereo enthusiasm. And she was so excited to share with us that she has Gruner Beltliner, an Austrian grape that we are very high on. Cherine loves. We actually just got back from Slovakia where there was tons of Gruner Beltliner. Zelenac Veltinski, is that what they call it? And really good. Let's give this a little bit of a go. Interesting. It's snappy like Gruner Beltliner. It has pepper for me. Wow, I'm not sure if I sniff this, I would be able to immediately know that it's Gruner. No, it's riper. For me, like Gruner Beltliner has lime and pepper. For me, this is more kind of pineapple and pepper. It's not as rich in ripe as this, but lemon, lemon, white pepper, maybe like a green mango green pineapple where this is like full out ripe pineapple. This is typical very Gruner actually, very green on the nose. I'm liking the nose a lot. Gruner Beltliner from Santa Barbara. Let's give this a go. I love the integration of oak. Just really slight hint on the flavor, but it gives weight in the mouth. Snappy as in the peppery finish. Very good. This part of this was actually whole cluster fermentation. I think part of it was barrel fermented. Part of it was in stainless steel after it. Regardless, it's delicious wine. What do you think of it? I love the SVT in the mouth. Very typical Gruner. You almost get like a frisante feel in the mouth. It's got this tingling sensation. Just like her, this wine is snappy, acidity, has some energy. Anything else that you want to add on this? I think it's very good. To me, I'm 4.1, maybe 4.2 if you twisted my arm out of 5. So very good wine. We're talking about 4.2, 4.0, 3.9, and 5. All excellent wines today. Anything else? What do you think about these? Yeah, I like all these wines a lot. I mean, it depends on the occasion. I think you knew it just now that this wine has a lot of energy. This one is much more mineral driven whereas this is more accessible, more fruit front kind of wine. Strong episode today. Awesome. You know what's going to happen? I'm going to actually flash the discount code for these one for Gabriel Glass Stemware on the screen right now. You can get the standard machine blown glass decanter. We are not affiliates. It's just our offer up to you. One last note. So if you are going to Santa Barbara, don't just stick with Chardonnay for white wines. I know the Chardonnay from Santa Barbara is amazing, but there are a lot of other white wines that you can really enjoy. Yeah, and check out our guide to the wines of Santa Barbara, Sipping Santa Barbara. I will put that up on the screen right now. Guys, if you like this video, please subscribe to our YouTube channel, Exotic Wine Travel. I will see you at the next episode.