Chamisal Vineyard Revisited

I was back in Santa Barbara again this past weekend and took the time for a friend and I to head back up to Chamisal Vineyard.

It's still mid-march and many of the vines are still sleeping but I won't say the same thing about the wines that we got to taste. We got a bit of a later start than I had anticipated because we met some friends for breakfast.  We met at Joe's Cafe in Santa Barbara.

Joe's Cafe is a Santa Barbara classic.  Joe's is the oldest restaurant in Santa Barbara and it's a favorite of both locals and visitors alike.  And with good reason.  It's at a great location on State Street -- the main drag in Santa Barbara.

This morning I just went with Joe's Omelet. It's a basic omelet with Italian Sausage, mushrooms, bell peppers, onions and cheese. Your basic delicious omelet.

Only this morning I stepped beyond the basic and added the grits instead of the potatoes. It's been a long time since I've had good grits.  And these were good.  They were even kind enough to add some cheddar cheese to the mix.

After filling up on breakfast and getting a helpful hint on heading up to San Luis Obispo, we were off.  The last time I made this trek I took the 101 all the way up.  Perhaps not the most scenic approach.

My friends suggested we head up 154 through the Santa Barbara wine country. Besides, they said, the wildflowers are ablaze in the mountains.

We we couldn't resist the prompting and took the road less traveled. At least I think it was less traveled though there were a lot of cars on the road. The poppies and lupine were beautiful and the views were tremendous. We made the decision to travel straight up to SLO and then take our time heading back.

It was about 12:30 by the time we made it to Chamisal Vineyards -- about an hour behind my schedule but it was well worth the drive. The tasting room was full when we arrived but we found our way to the counter.  They had a lot of really nice selections on tap for the tasting.

Up until last year I never really thought about Rose wines. Frankly I had relegated them to the same pool as white zinfandel. And while my first wines were in large jugs over at my Aunt's house, I never succumbed to the really fruity wines.

I have now realized the error of my ways.

The first couple of wines we tasted would be perfect for Ravinia.  As a member I'm currently reviewing the lineup for early purchase in the next week.  I have 13 concerts I'd like to plan on. This means I have a lot of crisp, clean wines to select.

And among those is the Chamisal Vineyards Rose of Pinot Noir.  This amazing wine consists primarily of Pinot Noir with a little bit of Grenache added in for rounding out the wine.  This wine was crafted from a couple of Burgundian clones (clones 828 and 667 along with some Calerafor your grape growers!) It's a lot more information than I need.

But I discovered something else on this visit to Chamisal. I discovered my palate. For those of you who read my blog know that I generally taste wines and find those that I like and those that I don't like.  All the aromas, the various tastes (cigar box is my favorite . . . who has ever purposely tasted a cigar box?) are lost on me.

As I was tasting various wines this weekend I was picking up on both the aromas and the flavors.  I was intrigued by the various flavor profiles of wines produced from grapes within yards of each other still tasting significantly different.

One of the special pleasures in tasting this weekend was the Vintner's Quest 8-N from Chamisal.  This is a special wine crafted from grapes not on the estate.  These grapes come from a vineyard 8 kilometers north of the vineyard. If you visit the homepage of Chamisal Vineyards, you'll find a brief video outlining this particular wine.

While quite different from the flavor profiles of the Chamisal Estate Pinot Noirs, it was quite delicious. There was less of the spice profile that's found in the Chamisal wines and the fruit was more pronounced.  All in all it's a wine that's being added to my cellar.

And that's a problem. I've already taken four shelves out of my wine cabinet to make room for my current wines. Alas. I will have to remove a few more.  All that means is look ahead to an upcoming Mondays @ Mark's where I unleash some of my new favorite wines on my unsuspecting friends.

Though I suspect no one will be complaining.

Later this week, look to my next post about some really delicious wineries in the area. I found some things that I liked and some things that I didn't like.

Mexico, One Glass at A Time

Forgive my homage to one of my favorite celebrity Chefs, Rick Bayless, but part of my "work" for my week of vacation was to look into the wines just south of the border. I've had a number of wines from in South America like Chile and Argentina but never from Mexico.

I was pleasantly surprised by the quality of the band.

Now for this trip, we were staying at an all inclusive resort where all the house drinks were included ... including the vino tinto. Most of the time this red wine was a Malbec but I didn't really get a chance to look at the bottle. I suspect it came from an area on the Baja Peninsula called Valle de Guadalupe.

I say that because virtually all the bottles of Mexican wine I ran across while in Los Cabos came from this particular valley.  It started on Monday night. After spending a couple of hours of sitting through a timeshare presentation, we received a couple of free passes for a sunset dinner cruise and show. I have to say I wasn't expecting a lot.  I've been on several dinner cruises that seemed nothing more than a nice trip around a harbor and some very mediocre food.

El Arco, the view from the Pacific Ocean.

But this trip was worth every minute of the presentation.

The adventure began when we decided we'd take the local bus from San Jose del Cabo to Cabo San Lucas. Talk about moving me outside my comfort zone. But the truth is it was a cheap option from one town to the other. Instead of a taxi ride for around $50, it cost us less than $6.  It might have taken a little longer but the adventure was worth it.

The salad course was surprisingly fresh and delicious.

Arriving at the port, it took a little while until we found the spot for the launching point of our dinner cruise. This was a pleasant surprise.

Not only were the views spectacular, but the food was surprisingly good.  First, the views.  This trip took us past El Arco, the symbol of Los Cabos. The first part of the trip, while the sun was up, was touring the harbor. But it was more than a simple tour of the harbor with some city views.



We had the opportunity to see all of the many different sights around the area from Lover's Beach to Divorce Beach. One is on the Gulf of California (Lover's Beach) and the other is on the Pacific Ocean (divorce beach). Actually, you can walk from one to the other.

I found that to be a little ironic.

All the while a band was playing covers of classic and contemporary rock. I was surprised by the quality of the band. It was a lot of fun being on a boat with a lot of people I've never met and won't meet again.

After cocktails on the top deck, we came down for dinner.  We had previously selected the L.A. Cetto Cabernet Sauvignon to go with dinner. When selecting the cruise, we were given the option of fish, chicken or beef.  Now that didn't really set us up  for anticipating a delicious dinner. We selected one fish and one beef.  I assumed the fish would be a tilapia or other generic fish.

So as we sat down to dinner, I was thinking that the wine might be the highlight of the dinner.  I was wrong. Now don't assume the wine was bad. It wasn't. It was actually quite good. I was expecting something along the lines of a Two Buck Chuck. But this wine had a really nice, complex flavor.

The fish selection turned out to be a delicious sea bass with a shrimp cream sauce. The sauce was incredibly flavorful. Frankly, it was a big enough dish that it even stood up to the Cabernet. And that leads me to the beef. Or should I say ... side of beef.



The picture to the right says it all. This was not a simple Filet. This must have come from a giant cow. I ordered the filet to come medium rare. I didn't expect a piece of meat of this size which means cooking this to a nice medium rare all the way through was going to be tough.

Frankly, the chef nailed it. Wherever they sourced their food, this was no tough piece of meat. It melted in my mouth. The Cabernet was a great addition to the meal. It really complemented the beef.

Overall, everything worked well together. After the meal the cabaret show began. Again, I was impressed with the quality of the performers. When the evening ended, we even ended up buying a couple of the photos that were taken of us aboard the ship.

Taking the bus back to San Jose del Cabo, we made our way back to the hotel both pleasantly surprised by the quality of evening. The wine made me want to begin to look for sources for Mexican wines. Next up is our last dinner in Los Cabos.