Summer Party: Santa Barbara's Natural History Museum to Host City's Premier Wine Festival

by Gabe Saglie, Senior Editor, Travelzoo
photos by Bob Dickey
story published in the Santa Barbara News-Press on 5/24/18

The Santa Barbara Wine & Food Festival changed its name just last year. Organizers at the Santa Barbara Museum of Natural History, the storybook setting for this annual wine fete, added the Food reference to reflect the culinary wow factor. This festival has grown, in fact, to become a feast for the taste buds, as it’s where dozens of the region’s top chefs converge.
 
To name a few: Bob’s Well Bread; The Bear & Star; Barbareño; Hitching Post II; The Lark; Industrial Eats; Finch & Fork; Les Marchands, Loquita; and Via Maestra 42. Longtime faves like Brophy Bros. and new arrivals like Blue Water Grill will serve up, too. Local foodie celebs like caterer Michael Hutchings and confectioners Jessica Foster will also be there.
 
So, you won’t go hungry when you go on June 30th.
 
The setting alone -- the oak-shrouded grounds of the Santa Barbara Museum of Natural History -- is a major draw
But make no mistake: the Santa Barbara Wine & Food Festival stays true to its wine roots. This may be the one festival where winemakers show up because they want to, not because they contractually have to. It’s the interaction with the crowd – winemakers engage with a captive, cheery crowd that’s there as much for the gourmet extravaganza as for the dependably sunny afternoon, along a creek, under the oaks. For those who pout, it’s also a lot about comradery, in a relaxed setting, in the middle of the wine grape growing season, several weeks before the rigors of harvest come calling.
 
Doug & Marni Margerum and Richard Sanford
Consider: Santa Barbara County’s first winemakers have been attending this even – laying claim to the same pouring spot, actually – for more than 30 years. “That first year, I remember pouring wines from bottles that didn’t have labels on them yet,” Alma Rosa Winery’s Richard Sanford once told me; the man who instinctively planted his first vines near Lompoc in 1971 is a legend.
 
Guys like Jim Clendenen, Bob Lindquist, Ken Brown, Fred Brander and Doug Margerum are there. Drake Whitcraft used to come here as a kid, when his dad, the late great Chris Whitcraft, doled out pinot and chardonnay; he’s doing the doling out now.  Among the dozens of other labels in attendance: Kaena; Area 5.1; Babcock, Blair Fox; Brewer-Clifton; Casa Dumetz; Carr; Tatomer; Sandhi; Fess Parker; Folded Hills; Tercero.
 
You won’t go thirsty, either.
 
And you may not even go empty-handed. The Every Cork Wins raffle ensures everyone’s a winner: pay $40, pull a cork, and win a guaranteed prize valued at least $40 (some are valued in the hundreds).
 
Winemaker Matt Brady and Blair Fox
The 2018 Santa Barbara Wine & Food Festival takes place Saturday, June 30th, from 2-5pm.  Tickets are $100, or $75 for museum members.  For $125, upgrade to the VIP Lounge and get early admission, chair massages and exclusive food and wine pairings. Buy tickets through the Santa Barbara Museum of Natural History website, sbnature.
 
The money raised by this event, close to $100,000, funds enrichment programs for more than 40,000 California students who come to the Museum each year to learn about natural history.
 
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A Place to Pour: Iconic Santa Barbara Wine Label to Open First Tasting Room

by Gabe Saglie, Senior Editor, Travelzoo
story published in the Santa Barbara News-Press on 5/17/18

The Hitching Post label is one of the most recognizable brands in Santa Barbara County. Consumers order it at wine shops and restaurants across the country, including the famous Buellton restaurant that shares its name. It’s never had its own destinations tasting room, however, until now.
 
This week, business partners and co-winemakers Frank Ostini and Gray Hartley announced that Hitching Post Wines’ first ever tasting will open in July. Mr. Ostini, the well-known chef who owns the Hitching Post II restaurant, has leased property that abuts his eatery, expanding his real estate holdings along E. State Route 246 from one acre to 12. The parcel is mostly open land that drops into a river basin that borders the popular animal haven, Ostrichland, but it’s also home to a wine tasting room that, until recently, housed the Loring and Cargasacchi brands.
 
Gray Hartley & Frank Ostini
“We’ve always wanted to have a tasting room, just never a satellite one in a place like, say, Santa Barbara or Los Alamos,” admits Mr. Hartley, who’ll be entering his 39th wine grape harvest with Mr. Ostini this fall. “Having it right next to Frank’s restaurant, though – that’s a natural.”
 
The Ostini-Hartley team has been making wine in Santa Barbara County since 1979, focusing primarily on pinot noir and on sourcing grapes from premier vineyards in the Sta. Rita Hills and Santa Maria Valley. The Hitching Post label was born in 1984. The brand was propelled into the limelight by Rex Picket’s book, Sideways, and the Oscar-winning film it inspired in 2004. The restaurant is where the main character, Miles, comes to quench his sorrows – usually with Hitching Post pinot – and where he meets his love interest, Maya. The Hitching Post has been a household name among wine aficionados ever since.
 
“The wine business has always helped promote the restaurant, it’s always complemented it,” says Mr. Ostini. “But then it began to grow in a very organic way, so that now it stands on its own. And we’ve always been very serious about making it. So giving it its own tasting room just makes sense.”
 
Hear ye, hear ye
About 80% of the Hitching Post’s 17,000-case annual production is sold through distribution. The new tasting room will allow the winemaking duo to sell wine directly to consumers. “It’ll also help us grow our wine club,” adds Mr. Hartley, which ships wines out to members several times a year.
 
The Hitching Post tasting room, which will become the 10th wine tasting venue in the city of Buellton, will feature a patio and picnic grounds. Visitors will have the option to purchase food from a new limited lunch menu, which will be delivered “on foot or maybe by electric golf cart,” according to Mr. Ostini, from the famous barbecue-themed restaurant next door.
 
The signage for the new space, which will enjoy prime visibility near the Highway 101-SR 246 interchange, will also showcase a brand new look for the Hitching Post wine label.
 
“We just want to get people to the [Santa Ynez] Valley,” adds Mr. Ostini, “because it’s the true wine country.”
 
For more information, visit hpwines.com.
 
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For Mom, By Mom: Mother's Day Rosé Wines (Made by Moms)

by Gabe Saglie, Senior Editor, Travelzoo
story published in the Santa Barbara News-Press on 5/10/18

A rose by any other name is still a rose. Unless it's rosé.
 
You can’t go wrong with the thorny beauty, a perennial symbol of love and appreciation on any day, especially Mother’s Day. But you can say the same for rosé, the soft-hued quencher that’s finally earning the notoriety among American drinkers that it’s been chasing for years – it has its own trending hashtag, after all, #roséallday! With colors that range from salmon to crimson, and with aromas often aligned with berries and flowers, the easy sipper is as pretty as it is tasty, making it the perfect gift for any thirsty mother. Even better, some of the best rosé in Santa Barbara is made by winemakers who are, themselves, moms. These three options, each one priced at around $25, deserve serious consideration:
 
A Tribute to Grace, 2017 Rosé of Grenache, 2017
Angela Osborne has three young boys, ages 6 months to four years. And yet, this New Zealand native still finds time to craft a thoughtful portfolio of lovely wines. Her Rosé of Grenache is delicate on the nose and bursting with minerality and freshness. Grenache grapes were sourced from Santa Barbara Highlands Vineyard, 60 miles inland and at an elevation of 3000 feet. The wine was bottled under an Aries moon in February and released in March. Osborne’s label is a tribute to her grandmother, Grace.
 
Carhartt Vineyard, 2017 Chase the Blues Away Rosé
These days, Brooke Carhartt splits winemaking duties with her 29-year-old son, Chase – pretty much 50-50. This familial cooperation, which also includes husband Mike, the Carhartt label’s chief grape grower, has led to one of Santa Barbara’s coolest wine brands. The bouncy and refreshing Chase the Blues Away Rosé, also all-grenache and fermented in stainless steel, was released in mid-April. Aside from ordering it online, that poplar Carhartt tasting room in Los Olivos is the only place where you can get it.

Cambria Winery, Rosé of Pinot Noir
Denise Shurtleff is an empty nester these days, her two adult sons currently pursuing careers outside the wine business. That means more time to focus on vines and wines, a gig she’s had at Santa Maria’s Cambria Winery for more than 15 years. Shurtleff uses estate pinot noir grapes from Julia’s Vineyard for the label’s 2017 rosé, which is smooth and bursting with flavors of strawberry and watermelon.
 
Happy Mother’s Day!
 
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Mud Reimagined: Santa Barbara Winemaker Uses Montecito Mire as Fertilizer

by Gabe Saglie, Senior Editor, Travelzoo
photos by Mo McFadden & Fred Brander
story published in the Santa Barbara News-Press on 4/29/18


“It’s a pretty crazy idea,” admits winemaker Fred Brander, “but it’s a neat idea.”
 
For obvious reasons, there’s little more that the Montecito community likely wants to do with mud than to discard it. Dump it somewhere far away.
 
Mud, along with boulders and debris, thundered with deadly force through the luxe enclave on January 9th, and as cleanup and recovery continue, much of it remains.
 
Fred Brander at his Montecito property, post-mudslide
Mr. Brander and his son, Nick, were among those affected that morning, when they became trapped in their house just off Mountain Drive and along Oak Creek. “A culvert at the bottom of the road got plugged up with mud, and that made water and debris go over the road and into our backyard,” he recalls. Crews from Montecito Fire would rescue them soon after.
 
There’s an emotional connection to this property, since it’s a house his parents built in 1983, where they resided until they both passed away in recent years, and where Mr. Brander has been living ever since. “I have roots to this property,” he says.
 
There are also roots to Fred Brander’s namesake vineyard in Los Olivos, which is home to the first sauvignon blanc grapes ever planted in Santa Barbara County. His parents, Erik and Virginia, bought that land in 1974. The Brander Vineyard, established there in 1977, remains one of the most awarded wine labels in California today.
 
And in the vineyard, that mud suddenly offered opportunity.

“The disaster of the fires and the food was a really unusual event,” Mr. Brander says, referring to the Thomas Fire that roared through Santa Barbara in December – the largest in California history – and the Montecito mudslides that followed it so quickly.
 
“All that debris was unusually high in wood ash.”
 
Crews remove mud and rock from Brander's Montecito property
Mr. Brander set himself to study the potential benefits of ash in soil. It’s no secret, he says, that previous generations regularly used ash to fertilize their vegetable gardens. “Those veggies got nutrition because wood is high in potassium and other nutrients and minerals.”
 
He also learned that alkaline soils, like the ones that coat the mountains that embrace Montecito, could benefit acidic soils, like the ones across the Santa Ynez Valley. “It can increase the pH of the soil to beneficial levels, and that’s a plus,” he says.
 
So when construction companies came to clear the culvert by his house, Mr. Brander intervened. “’Where are you taking all the mud and rock?’ I asked them. When they said, ‘Los Alamos,’ I told them I had a place that was a lot closer.”
 
No less than 60 truckloads made their way to The Brander Vineyard. More than 900 tons in all. Most of it is rock, actually, which Mr. Brander has earmarked for decorative landscaping across his 52-acre property. But that mud – that mud's become fertilizer.
 
After drying out and going through a sorter and being cleared for toxicity, Montecito mud has been spread across three acres of cabernet sauvignon vines. “That was the most labor-intensive part, hand-fertilizing each plant,” he says. Another two acres of cabernet in the same block are being used as a control, and when harvest comes around this fall, Mr. Brander will be able to quantify the effects of his unique peat.
 
A sorter separates ash-rich mud from rock
Ash-rich mud is used to fertilize cabernet vines at The Brander Vineyard
“When we pick, we’ll test pH and acid and sugar to see if there’s a difference,” says the winemaker. “But we should be able to track progress during the growing season, within weeks even, if the leaves start to look healthier, greener.”
 
Mr. Brander believes that this may be the first time wood ash has ever been used as vineyard fertilizer, at least to this extent. The grapevines they’re nourishing were planted 10 years ago and generate fruit for Brander’s award-winning reserve cabernet program. “So we’ll make a good quality wine either way,” he says.
 
Mr. Brander is keeping a close eye on his vines
And when that wine is made and released sometime in late 2019, it’ll become a tribute to victims of the Montecito mudslides. The commemorative wine, with proceeds tagged for relief efforts, will even feature a label specially designed by “a top artist from Oaxaca” that Mr. Brander commissioned just last week.
 
“We all want to do something good to bring awareness and to help the community heal,” adds Fred Brander. “So it’s important to see that something good can come out of a bad situation. Even here, there can be a silver lining."
 
Brander Vineyard, 2401 N. Refugio Rd., Los Olivos. 805-688-2455. brander.com.
 
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