Valentines Weekend, Day #3, Santa Ynez (revisited)

The weekend was coming to an end, and we were on our way back down to Santa Ynez to pick up club shipments from Beckmen and Sunstone. We stopped at Sunstone first.

2005 Sunstone Chardonnay, Central Coast
2006 Sunstone Pinot Noir, "Founder's Reserve"
2005 Sunstone Merlot, Estate
2003 Sunstone "Fred's INXS"
2003 Sunstone "Eros"
2004 Sunstone "Eros"
2005 Sunstone "Eros"
2006 Sunstone "Eros"
2004 Sunstone Cabernet Franc, Estate
2003 Sunstone "Milestone"

First of all, this was our last club shipment we would be picking up. Since we added D'Alfonso-Curran to our list, we needed to drop one and Sunstone was it. The Pinot was $80, are you kidding?! I could EASILY get a much better wine for half of that. I've always liked their merlot and the INXS is a good house wine, I think it's $10 a bottle or so. The Eros is always great and we always look forward to it, loved being able to taste the past 4 years of it. The Milestone was terrible, don't know if it was a bad bottle or what. It's merlot from their original merlot vines planted 17 years ago when the moved to Santa Ynez. Either those vines need some serious help or it was a bad bottle. Funny how the lady pouring the wine had never heard of it either. Maybe it wasn't meant for us. And now to Beckmen...

2007 Beckmen Sauvignon Blanc, Purisima Mountain Vineyard
2006 Beckmen Marsanne, Purisima Mountain Vineyard
2007 Beckmen Grenache Blanc, Purisima Mountain Vineyard
2006 Beckmen Cabernet Sauvignon, Estate
2006 Beckmen Grenache, Purisima Mountain Vineyard
2007 Beckmen Syrah, Estate
2006 Beckmen Syrah, Purisima Mountain Vineyard
2005 Beckmen "Purisima"
2006 Beckmen Syrah, Block Six, Purisima Mountain Vineyard
2001 Beckmen Grenache, Late Harvest
NV Beckmen Sauvignon Blanc, Late Harvest

I'm sure I am biased about these wines, but I loved them all. Favorites were the Marsanne, the Block Six Syrah, and both late harvest wines. Got a lot of coffee on the nose of the Estate Syrah.

We then tried to make our 2nd stop in 3 days at D'Alfonso-Curran, but they were closed. Bah. Thus the weekend ended, with only a measly 106 wines tasted.