Santa Ynez, Day Two

We started the day at Alma Rosa, their still in the "Camp Alma Rosa" location until June 1st when they can move back into their tasting room on Santa Rosa Rd.

2005 Alma Rosa Pinot Gris La Encantada Vineyard
2005 Alma Rosa Pinot Blanc La Encantada Vineyard
2005 Alma Rosa Chardonnay El Jabali Vineyard
2005 Alma Rosa Pinot Noir-Vin Gris El Jabali Vineyard
2005 Alma Rosa Pinot Noir Santa Rita Hills
2005 Alma Rosa Pinot Noir La Encantada Vineyard

Wine of the tasting room was the 2005 Pinot Sta. Rita Hills.... the 2005's are the first batch of wines from winemaker Christian Roguenant (as opposed to the old Sanford winemaker Bruno d'Alfonso). I was pleasantly surprised with the 2005 Pinot Blanc La Encantada though ... very good fruit and acidity.

We then went to Artiste for a tasting... a little briefing on their style first: They don't have vintage dates on any of their wines and they are all blends ... they like to think of themselves as painters w/ the juice being the paint. The only dates on the bottles are the actual bottling date. They never make the same wine twice ...

NV Artiste Impressionist Rose
NV Artiste Impromptu
NV Artiste Perfecto
NV Artiste Kind Of Blue
NV Artiste After Work
NV Artiste First Dance

All of them were good, but nothing really jumped out as spectacular. We picked up a bottle of the Perfecto. While we were there we chance with one of the grape-growers whose grapes were in the First Dance, really nice guy (Keith) who actually told us a great little place to stop for lunch. We picked up a deli sandwich from El Rancho Market and then drove up Ballard Canyon Rd towards Los Olivos. A couple miles past Rusack was a gazebo on the side of the road where we stopped to eat. It was freezing outside so we only ate outside for a few minutes and then retreated to the warmth of our car to finish our sandwich. Great spot for future reference though ... bottle of wine, warm sun, picnic.

After our lunch break we headed to Epiphany where we we had arranged a free tasting of their wines.

2005 Epiphany Pinot Gris Goodchild Vineyard
2005 Epiphany Roussanne Camp 4 Vineyard
2005 Epiphany Chardonnay Fundraising
2005 Epiphany Grenache Rose
2003 Epiphany Revelation
2003 Epiphany Syrah Hampton Vineyard

Wine of the room was definitely the 2003 Revelation ... a blend of different varietals that is different w/ each vintage. Very tasty stuff ... we picked up two bottles.

We weren't too sure where to go next but we had heard of Carhartt before and had never been there so we gave them a try. Great little shack in Los Olivos and the husband/wife team of winegrowers were the only ones pouring ... great atmosphere and I love meeting the owners of little places.

2005 Carhartt Sauvignon Blanc Faith Vineyard
2005 Carhartt Pinot Noir Santa Rosa Ranch
2003 Carhartt Merlot Carhartt Estate
2004 Carhartt Syrah Carhartt Estate

Wine of the room was the 2004 Syrah ... picked up one bottle. A real tooth-stainer that could use a little time in the cellar to let the tanins and fruit balance each other out. At least decant the sucker for a couple hours first :)

And that was it for our two Santa Ynez birthday adventure. Wildly fantastic ... couldn't have wanted it to be any better. Well except when we woke up on Sunday morning and the water pipes had frozen. Had no running water ... luckily we just went to breakfast and came back and the pipes had thawed. Otherwise it would've been a day of wine tasting w/o a shower :)