You're listening to Barrel to Bottle, The Binny's Podcast. I'm Greg. I do communications at Binny's. I'm Jenna. I also do communications at Binny's. Hey, I'm Pat from the Spirits Department. I'm Alicia. I do wine education. We haven't had a really solid educational wine show in like, I don't know, a year and a half? Because we wanted to keep our listeners awake, Greg. Yeah, that's because when we do them, you say they're boring. I don't, do I? So we can just listen to your crass jokes. I just, yeah, I use words like fart, and you get mad, and then we move on to the next thing. Look how many bottles she brought today. I'm really excited about this. You brought 0.75 of a brofee. You can't tell the winemaker that their wine smells like farts. Well, he shouldn't make wines that smell like farts. This is our Director of Communications, admitting that he doesn't know how to communicate with specific audiences. Can too. Well, if you hear any of those descriptors today, we know it's the coffee talking. No, I wanted to tackle a region that I think more and more of our customers are becoming aware of and just drinking more of, and I'm reading this in articles as well, especially younger consumers. As we see, you know, anecdotes around, well, and data around price increases that are happening all over the world in wine, and some of the world's most famous regions becoming inaccessible from a price point standpoint, but a price point, the I'm glad you called in my expertise for this. I've been there once and I tasted like four wines, and I've been to a winery tasting room there. So, I mean, it's just this in Italy are just my wheelhouse of wine. Good to have Pat's expertise in here. Do you actually want to host today? Sure, sure. Yeah, let's go through. Yeah, so let's kind of get our mindsets in California here. We of course know most of the North Coast, and that's what people are familiar with, Napa Valley, Sonoma, of course, and California makes up 80 percent of US wine production. So there's a lot here beyond some of these big names. We're going to go kind of south of San Francisco, from San Francisco to Santa Barbara, runs this entire region called the Central Coast. Now, you can of course find super affordable wines if they're just labeled Central Coast because you have a lot of land to work with here. 280 miles San Francisco to Santa Barbara. We have along that kind of line of longitude, if you will, this kind of southern coast range, and there are small ranges that make it up, but essentially running parallel to the ocean is a mountain range. And some of our best sites are where we find breaks in that mountain range to allow some of the cool windy conditions. One of the things I learned on my visit to the Central Coast actually, yes. All right, point for Pat. I wanted to go kind of county by county and draw on some of the AVA's that are most popular on our shelves to help you navigate this very large wine region. And what I think the Central Coast exhibit so well, is when you look at California and your first thought about wine is, well, the further I get north or the further I get from the equator, the cooler it's going to be and somehow that latitude doesn't play. And the Central Coast really takes that out of play. It shows you that the main influences that we're working with in California from a climate perspective are altitude and proximity to the Pacific Ocean. We'll get down into Santa Barbara, for example, and we'll get some of the coolest areas in California, which is a little counterintuitive given its lower latitude. So we'll get into all of that as we work through the wines. Hopefully you're going to see some tremendous value here. I picked some really affordable stuff. We have nine wines. So let's get started on the wine. Yeah. We're going to start up north in Monterey County. So we're going through Monterey County, then San Luis Obispo, and then Santa Barbara, north to south. This is Crew Winery, Unoked Chardonnay 2021. So Monterey, this is embracing the cool air coming in off of Monterey Bay. And we do see a lot of inexpensive high-volume wines appellated with this broad county AVA. But specifically here, we're looking at what's called Arroyo Seco. And it's named after kind of the dry creek that it sits upon. But it plans a lot of Chardonnay and a lot of Riesling that is exposed to these cooler temperatures. And this is an un-oaked expression, so a fresher style that a lot of customers are looking for. And it sits on the shelf. It's on sale right now for $13.99. Nice. Okay. Call me crazy, but like if I had my eyes closed, I would guess this is like a rosé from the south of France. It has that like marshmallow and strawberry kind of smell. Or banana, I guess banana, banana candy. Interesting. With some crisp apple. So in my classes, when I do like a 101, I'm like guys, no wrong answers. Just say what's on your mind. And I say, but if you say something egregiously incorrect, I'm going to call you out. No, I don't smell strawberry marshmallow. I smell strawberry. I can get you on more like an orange creamsicle kind of tangerine. Yeah. I'll take up your banana, those types of tips. You're welcome. Oh yeah, man. It's all melons. It's all melons on the palate. Totally. You said strawberry. Yeah. That's not a melon. Okay. Yeah. Anyway, so this is 1399. What crew is doing? They're sourcing fruit from a variety of places. This is not from like their estate or something like that. So that's why we get such affordability. Again, stainless steel fermentation, really fresh. In Arroyo Seco, you have these cooler parts that I talked about with Chardonnay and Riesling. So look for those great varieties. Then warmer areas of Arroyo Seco that you can find Cab and Syrah and some zinfandel. You'll see this theme. Where we get cooling influences from the Pacific or from altitude, we can grow these cooler climate expressions. Then of course, in the warmer, more protected sites, we get those bigger, bolder red variety plantings. How much is this? Because it's absolutely delightful. 13.99. 13.99. That's fabulous. This is what happens when you have an episode without Roger or Chris. We have such insightful things about fruit as strawberry is not a melon. What if those guys would be like, well, actually. They probably discuss how somehow they're related. Yeah, totally. I think it's a bright, crisp expression. There's a little bit of that creamy mouth feel that sometimes we find with Chardonnay. Overall, I think a pretty accessible, widely appreciated, un-oaked Chardonnay. Arroyo Seco, that's what we're talking about here, Monterey County in the northern part of the Central Coast. Another dumb question. A lot of times we associate like vanilla and cream with oak, but is this malolactic fermentation? I'm going to assume that's going through partial malo because of that. Because of the creaminess, right? But there is no oak. It's an un-oaked expression. It would not surprise me if that creamy texture you're getting is from partial malolactic fermentation. Cool. It's amazing the number of different knobs that they can tweak to change the- Really is. Okay, so we're going to stay in Monterey County now, but we're going to go to the San Lucia Highlands AVA, perhaps a little better known than Arroyo Seco. Tatomer Riesling Steinhugel. Steinhugel? Yep. And this is sitting up at 1200 feet in elevation. So again, there's our cooling influence, that higher altitude. And as a result, we're going to taste a very crisp, precise, high acid Riesling from Tatomer. The Santa Lucia Highlands not only have the elevation I was speaking of, but where Monterey Bay kind of funnels in that cool air I mentioned earlier, it basically blows right into this AVA. And so the Riesling, the Chardonnay, and some Pinot Noir as well, can all be grown and acid is protected. So I want to hear your thoughts. I mean, it smells vibrant. There's a tiny, tiny, tiny bit of gasoline, but it's mostly like green fruit. I don't know what I'd guess if I tasted this blind. You don't think you'd get Riesling? I guess. I don't drink. I don't taste much Riesling outside of like the super wacky ones that Chris brings in, which are like young and sulfuric and stuff, right? Yeah. I mean, you can sense this is a very like linear expression. It's front to back. The acid is kind of piercing on the wine. It is a bone dry expression. It is. The person that might gravitate towards this is like an Austrian Riesling drinker, perhaps some Alsatian or even some chocolate examples from Germany, but it is bone dry and has really bright acidity, really clinging to your enamel here. But I think it has the marks of Riesling. I think there's a lot of citrus and orchard fruit. There's a lot of minerality. There's some florality. I would say it's not as floral as some of the German expressions. Yeah. But a really clean example. It's so polite. It's polite. It is. It's like this nice little guy who's behaving himself. All right. I was waiting for Greg to say something positive about the wine because they farm biodynamically, so. Okay. That's fine. That's fine. If they make good wine, they make good wine. Yeah. This is good. I like this quite a bit. It's very refreshing. I agree with Pat that I think in a blind tasting, it would throw me off a little bit in the beginning. Although, like you mentioned, I think the finish is very classic, dry Riesling. Yes. This is on the shelf for $18.99 on sale right now for a couple bucks off that. Nice. Good stuff. Okay. We're moving north to south through the Central Coast, yeah? Correct. Okay. Correct. Again, we have a lot of expressions, just Monterey, AVA, that is in itself then quite a large area and we're seeing a wide variety of grape varieties grown and that's where you're going to sit comfortably at that kind of $10 to $15 price point. How many AVA's are there within the broad Central Coast region? Well, there are about 140 in California alone. Wow. So of the Central Coast, maybe half of that, I'm guessing. So quite a few and you have very large ones and then a ton of nested AVA's then within that. They used to be drawn more kind of first political boundaries, as you see with the counties, then it would be by some like geographic kind of mountain ranges or sites. Then finally, we're starting to get more into soil type and microclimate. What's the ABV on that? Got to be like nine. Holy cow. Wow. I was thinking. Pretty high for, well, I'm sure dry reason. Yeah, dry reason. Okay, so we're continuing on. We're going to now move out of Monterey and go into San Luis Obispo County. And before we got to the famous AVA of pasta robo, we're going to first talk about Edna Valley. And I've heard of this. Yeah. This is Mount eden Vineyards Chardonnay, and this is specifically from their Wolff Vineyard, which I found Wolff Vineyard, the site of this wine, is the oldest vineyard in Edna Valley. And we're now tasting a single vineyard expression of Chardonnay from the oldest vineyard in the AVA for a sale price of $20.99. Really? Wow. Yes. And they're approaching this in a very kind of like premium wine making way. We're barrel fermenting in a combination of new two and three-year-old barrels. They're going to full malolactic fermentation and it sits in barrel for eight months. It sure smells like Chardonnay. It sure tastes like Chardonnay. It smells like Napa Chardonnay. It smells like a $65 bottle of Chardonnay. It's very malolacticky for me. Yeah. Like pineapple and then the caramel and pie crust kind of thing. Yes. Yes. Definitely. There's that nutty quality that we're getting from the oxygen from Time and Barrel, a little bit of that caramel and vanilla toast quality. But I will say, I think separating it slightly maybe from the Napa Expressions is the acidity. I think it's a little bit higher. It's not as fatty of a wine as some Napa Chardonnays. I agree. It's got an acidity. Like you mentioned with the Riesling how the acidity was clinging to you. It had that cleanness on the teeth. We're flirting with that with this. It's there and it's really balancing out the drinking experience. It's punctuated by the tropical nature of the food. Yeah. I dig it. It's like got a sour beer type thing where you've got this tropical fruit note and then this just- It's like puckery.... twang of acidity. You know that balance from ripe fruit, given where we are in a warm Mediterranean climate, but Edna Valley sits about five miles from the Pacific Ocean, so just all of that cool air and wind and fog helping to retain acidity in the berries. This is $20 wine. This is a $20 Chardonnay. That's actually pretty outrageous. Yes. It's too bad that the label looks like it came from 35 years ago. It absolutely does. Classic. They're just not paying royalties on a new label. So again, one of the oldest vineyards, but to your label comment, they have been planting this vineyard or managing it rather since 1985. So for this area of California, they do have some longevity here. The color scheme of the label matches my golden Girls bathroom. So the timeline checks out. Definitely looks like somebody's grandma's something. So again, Edna Valley, just for y'all at home, associated with the cool winds coming out of Morrow Bay, to orient you a little bit where we are, in San Luis Obispo County. In addition to this lovely expression of Chardonnay, of course they grow Pinot, you'll find those traveling the world together, but some Syrah, Sauvignon Blanc, like Alberino and Viognier as well, are the other big plantings. Well, that's three wines, I guess that's a wine episode. But wait, there's more. You can leave, Greg. I'm learning how to time my barbs when she has her mouth full, so she can't fight her back. Can I tell you an anecdote, a very recent anecdote about Paso? I was hanging out with some baseball advertising people because apparently that's part of my job now. And they were like, what do you like in line? I really like Paso Robles. So people completely outside of my particular echo chamber are also talking about Paso Robles. It's really starting to catch on. I'm trying to decide whether it would be nice or mean right now, and I couldn't make up my mind. No, but it's not a region that people talk about ever, it seemed. Like, you know, it's Napa, Sonoma, and then other stuff. Yes. I think sometimes you're right that we can be so immersed in the wine industry that Paso to me seems like very old news. Right. But we forget that, you know, it takes a while to trickle out. There are a couple of wineries, like historically, that have put Paso on the map. But like the exceedingly high popularity of Dao vineyards, I think people are, that's helping people be aware of the region. Yeah. And I mean, that's probably honestly the first one that comes to mind for so many people is Dao. And another pioneer of the region is now In Your Glass, which is Tablas Creek. And we'll talk about why they're important in a sec. But I've heard of this one. Yeah. So yeah, Tablas Creek. We'll just get into it. This is a partnership between the Perrin family in the Rhone of Chateau de Beaucastel and the Haas family with Vineyard Brands. They started this, I want to say back at like 91 or something about early 90s, a few decades ago. And they brought Rhone cuttings over and have really championed so much of the Rhone movement in Paso and frankly, in kind of just this part of California as a whole, and have helped Americans appreciate them. So we can't really talk about, I think talk about Paso without them. So this is their Patalin Blanc. This is at $24.99 on sale right now for $21.99. And this has kind of everything under the sun here. We have Grenache Blanc, we have Roussaint and Marsaint. Okay, we're adding those for kind of some texture to the wine. We're adding Viognier for the aromatic lift and the kind of perfumed quality and then a little more richness from Bourboulanc as well. So five white rhone varieties from five different vineyards. What was the last one? Sorry, Bourboulanc. What? Bourboulanc. Bourboulanc. B-O-U-R. Bour. B-O-U-L-E-N-C. Bourboulanc. Okay, I know Grenache Blanc, Marsaint, Roussaint and Viognier, but Bourboulanc, I'm confused. They're primarily adding that here for the more weight and texture of the wine. Yeah. It's only 1% Bourboulanc. They don't have to disclose that. I think you can identify all of these varieties. You get this waxy texture that the Marsaint and Roussaint are adding. You get the floral stone fruits and little tropical fruits from Viognier. Viognier, right? Viognier always got a lot of stone fruit out of it. Yep. Then we also find that a little bit of bitterness on the finish. That's Grenache Blanc. I mean, that's typical of white room blends just in general. Interesting. Collectively, all of these whites are just like it's spring, it's warm outside. These are just putting me in a very good mood today. Yeah. This one is noticeably different from the previous, I think. You need to be, I think, careful when pouring or recommending white room bridal wines because of the bitterness and because you get a little bit of that drop in acid that people are used to. For my palate, this is a much better $21 wine. Tablas Creek, we carry a number of their wines, but again, this entry-level white to me is actually the standout. If I were to buy one, this is what I would select. Jason Haas is buying this. Great guy and definitely a team player over there. He's like a seven foot tall ginger. Yes, yes. Nice. I think this winery is amazing. You're right, they suitcase down a bunch of Roman wines and they really led the proliferation of those vines in California and across North America. But also they're still trying to do cutting edge things. They came out with that, I think it was a Rosé or maybe it was one of these wines, one of the Petaline level, where they came out with a box of wine and they're like, yeah, it's three liters, it's the same wine. It was like 75 bucks, but it's still a savings and it's way more environmentally friendly. It sold out really fast. Yeah, he has quite the following and a lot of loyalty to the brand. He has been on the cutting edge of a lot of environmental initiatives in the region as well. He was the first to get some title that they wrote the rules for, so I don't really know what that means, but whatever. His vineyard has goats and chickens. Oh. Because of course. This is such a good food wine. Your entree there is with the crispness of the finish of this and the cleaning acidity that it has, seems like this would be amazing with fatty foods, cream-based pasta. I was going to say a fattier chicken dish. You tend to default like seafood or whatever, salmon or something. Oh my God, salmon, yes. Salmon. Well, salmon, yes. He's saying that's the simple answer, Greg. Yeah, but it sounds great. If it's a real fatty cut, yeah, why not? But I think something like a chicken with a cream sauce type of thing. Yeah. Yeah, I really want to highlight just the texture and weight of this wine, makes it a food pairing wine that you can do so much more with than some of your more obvious white pairing, white wine pairing foods. So go after some of the richer foods for sure. Sweet. I want to go to the next wine, and then we'll get into a little bit more of Paso, because it's a place, yes, definitely to watch, but it is a very, very large AVA. And in fact, it was the largest undivided AVA in California until 2014 when they divided it all up. So we'll talk about why it's special. We're going to stain the land of the Rhone, and we're going to now go to the Cherry House Redland by Villa Creek. So we're staying in Paso, we're staying with Rhone Varietals, but now kind of switching over to Red varieties with Grenache, Carignan, and Mouvedre, all farmed organically by Villa Creek. They're going to ferment in concrete, so in an inert vessel to preserve all the beautiful fruit provided. And then quite similar to producers in the Rhone, they'll put it in 500 liter punch-ins and age that. And so we're not going to get, we're going to get a little bit of oak, but no means a lot of it. So holy blueberry fruity. Yeah, this is like, what's that French jam brand that comes in the jar, the glass jars, little glass jars? Jam that comes in glass jars. Oh, yeah, I get that. I get that with the with the caps that have like the red and white checkerboard pattern. Smuckers. No, not smuckers. I said French. He's talking about the little ones that you get individually at a nice restaurant. Smuckers. No, B-O-N something, Bon something. Oh, it's like Balmari or something. Yeah, something like that. I don't know. We always have them in my house because it's like- You're so fancy. It's not, I don't know. It's just the jelly my wife buys. But their blueberry preserve smells exactly like this one. There's an edge of complexity underneath it. Oh, for sure. It's not just blueberry. Like literally a burnt piece of cedar or something like that. I agree. And then also beneath that, so we're getting so much purity of fruit. It is like fruit is the star of the show, no doubt. But beneath it, yep, I think a little bit of sign of oak. And then try and find, there's a florality that kind of rones spice too. The flowers are kind of desiccated at this point. But what is with the finish on this? This is, I don't think it tastes at all like it smells, or at least not finishes. Like you said burnt cedar, and now there's like this dry vegetation on the finish. It does finish very dry compared to it's fruitier on the nose. It's the tannins that are coming together at the back of the wine that kind of like seal it up. And yes, it is a very dry finish. You're talking about that herbal quality, that like herb de Provence thing, which I think is related to the finish that you're getting. Yeah. And the floral quality of the It's like a dried herbs thing on the finish that's just like, I don't know, it's freaking me out, man. This is like the potpourri you put in your fancy bathroom. Yeah. Next to the little soaps that look like roses. So point here with this Villa Creek expression, a very esteemed producer is some of their higher end wines as well. This is on the shelf for $22.99. It can certainly stand up to some food as well because of the fruit intensity. But the Rhone expressions are, I think, what's most exciting about what's going on in Paso. The very westerly side of Paso is going to be, of course, the most influenced by the Pacific, and that's where we're going to find some cool climate varieties, some cool climate, Pinot Noir and Chardonnay, those types of things. But it's really the Rhone varieties driving before we get all the way in and we see some more Cabernet and zimpandel, which we're about to taste. But Rhone and Paso is what I want you to take away. The other thing that we're getting with the freshness of fruit here, but also the ripeness is in a summer day in Paso, you can get 50-degree temperature swings. We're getting a ton of warmth, a ton of ripeness during the day, and then that retention of acidity with really cold nights. They call that diurnal, kids. Diurnal shift. You still know some things, Greg. Occasionally. Stopped clock. Stopped on diurnal. This gets weighty. Like it's so refreshing on the nose, and it's just kind of, it's not bad. It's just like heavier than you think it would be with the fruit that it carries. Totally agree. Totally agree. The fruit's all up front, and then it gets herbal and dried and earthy and toasty back. Okay, so I wanted to show one wine, because one theme of today is the value you find in Central Coast, but it's a serious wine region too. And so I wanted to show one, especially for those that are hunting around for Cabernets that are just shocked at where we're at price point wise right now in Napa. And so an alternative, but still a very elevated example. So the next wine is Vina Robles 2019 Cabernet Sauvignon, but importantly, their Mountain Road Reserve. You know, hold on the price, but we'll have a taste and tell you our thoughts. Sorry. Man, these cab bottles are like murder weapons. It was Colonel Mustard in the study with the cab bottle. Yeah. 2019. It is. That is a girthy bottle. Yeah. Jenna, you know what you said? You said with all these whites and even that that rhone red, everything is like nice and refreshing and springy. And it is too early in the morning for a wine this serious. It's like, I'm a proper wine. I work in a library. I work in a library. Well, like an old one with the, we have to use the ladder to get up to the top. Oh, right. I want one of those in my house one day when I win the lottery. Okay. We're about to go into this wine. And our third wine of Paso, and hopefully it's representative of the diversity of the region. Everything from high elevation sites up to 2200 feet, valley floor sites near the Pacific, inland, a lot going on. So you could literally just drink Paso for quite a while and be perfectly content. There are now, as I mentioned, 11 sub-AVAs. We'll start to see those creep up a little more. But for right now, most everything is just still labeled Paso Robles. So Vina Robles here, an entry-level cab from them is an excellent choice as well that we carry in the mid-20s. But this is a higher-end example and I want to know if you like it. This wine is awesome. I haven't even tried it yet. But if you like it, and I also want to know what you would pay for it. Yeah. Okay. So on the nose, it has the classic Napa cab nose, this wall of fruit, the vanilla from the wood, and then there's like black pepper, like cracked black pepper in there. It's also the first wine today that there's like just that hint of like alcohol burn in my nose a little bit, just because it's such a big wine. I don't know what the ABV is, but. It's polished. You are looking at 14.5 percent ABV. So what's really great about it is there's a lot of fruit on the nose, but there's still that kind of herbal quality that proper Cabernet in my mind should retain and have. The hint of bordeaux. Yeah. The memory of bordeaux and the herbs. Kind of reminds me of Chappellay's Cabernet. Which one? Not the crazy expensive one. The $80 one or the $115 one? Yeah, like the one that's like $60 or $80 bucks somewhere in there. What's cool is it's kind of like silky on the entrance in your mouth, but then you really get the tanic structure to frame the wine in. It's like, hello, I am here, and a lot of that is coming too. When you think about Napa, just to go back there, you think about kind of Valley Florida Mountain fruit, and we compare those AVA's. Well, here, this side is up at 1700 feet, and so we're getting, similar to those mountain AVA expressions in Napa, I'm thinking like Howell Mountain, for example, we're getting intense UV light to give us all the ripe fruit and really ripe tannins, and yet we're also retaining acid, so we're just amped up on power. But I think everything is really, really well balanced. It's a very young wine, so we can hold it for a while, but. Yeah, it tastes like it can go for a while. And I agree with you on like palate entry, I was like, oh, this is going to be a flabby boy, and then all of a sudden it just zips up the sides of your cheeks. Yeah. It's really, it's, even though it's drinking young, I think it still shows a lot of balance. It is really primal. I mean, the fruit is raspberry, raspberry, raspberry, and there's just like this little bit of chocolate, little bit of cocoa underneath it. For sure. They're adding in a little petit-fer-deux as well. That's adding to that structure that we're feeling. 20 months in French oak, again, adding for texture and tannin. How much would you pay for this? All right. Ready for the reveal? I would pay 60 for this. My guess is it costs more. This is 45.99. Wow. If you walk down the Cabernet Isle, you will be hard pressed to find anywhere near this quality, in my opinion, from Napa Valley for 45.99. Absolutely true. To us, sounds like a little bit of a broken record, but the serious wines coming out of Paso can fit that nice $50 price point that we have so many requests for, for California Cabernet. I honestly think this could be an old world, new world bridge when it comes to a Cabernet. Because it's not overwhelmed by ripeness. It has that structure. That's true with their entry level one, two. I always am impressed by the complexity, by some of the herbal qualities that the wine carries. Because they pick at the right time, they don't over-oak it, and they don't extract too much through punch-downs, etc. $45. $45? I can still taste it. It's been quite a while since I took my last sip. That finish just really hangs on. It's really nice. This is an outstanding wine. Take it to the steakhouse. Yeah. Here you go. All right. And most of this on calcareous soils, very rare in California. So, okay. You want to explain calcareous soils for- Just for sprinkling in calcareous there at the end. It's on the back of their label too. Oh, is it? They make a point. Because it's so rare in California. The rocky calcareous soils and southerly exposed slopes of these rugged hills contribute to exceptionally structured wines where they have extended cellular aging. I want to take a guess. I assume that it has something to do with old sea life. Yeah. Yes. At one point under water, so we get all of the deposits of the mollusks and the oysters and the urchins and all that. But very, very rare in California to find these pockets. I actually can't even tell you where else they are because Paso really promotes it and lays claim to it. But similar to some of these chalky limestones that we find in other places in France. The unique attribute this is giving us, not only a degree of minerality in the wine, but also it's this perfect balance of, it does store a little water, nowhere near as much as a clay, but yet balances it out with good drainage as well. We got a little bit of minerality and we also get this balancing act in terms of water retention and drainage that will help and allow for even dry farming in some places depending on where you want to go. Is that like Chablis? Yes. Do they do whites in this area too or is it only? Yes, they do do whites. I text a picture of this to my brother and I said, you should go buy this now and he said, not the usual overripe Paso? Question mark, I said, no, this is like old world in character still, on the back end at least. Completely agree and I would say that's the difference between this producer and say Dow, and they're both great wines, just different customers here. This is a restrained more old world style of Cabernet. They're picking it earlier and they're paying attention to tannin management and that alcohol, and Dow is looking for more opulent expression. This is like an insider secret. Maybe. It sure seems that way. We're not going to have $45 Cabernet every night, but I do encourage you to their entry level cab, same philosophy is regular $23 and on sale right now for $18.99. Nice. Have a look at that. That was Paso and hopefully we got out of that immense diversity, huge region, really some special attributes between soil types, between exposure to the Pacific, between warmer places inland, and all 11 sub-AVAs as we think about why they've drawn them because of all the different microclimates. A very cool place, one to watch and go for and especially for this wine. We're going to now move to Santa Barbara County, in the very south part of the Central Coast, and I have a couple of ones. What a gorgeous area. It really is. Yeah. You don't want to give anything Southern California that kind of credit or love, at least I don't. Well, at least it's not LA. I don't know if I mentioned, I mean, one time I visited the Central Coast, and I drove through- How much time did you spend at Firestone Walker? All of it, because we were there doing a collaboration beer with Firestone Walker. That's why. But we flew in and out of LA instead of Fresno or wherever we should have flown in and out of, and drove up through Santa Barbara. I went to the Turley Tasting Room in the Central Coast. Yeah. That was interesting. So I was just in the Central Coast earlier this year, and we also went to the Turley Tasting Room. There were these obnoxious suburban mothers drinking and just being so loud, and I'm a loud person, but whatever. But also obnoxious. When we went there, we flew out of the Paso Airport, and that is the most rinky dink ass airport I've ever seen in my life. You're saying this like it's a surprise. I've flown out of Omaha. Santa Barbara is beautiful. I mean, the food and wine scene just in the town is exceptional, and there are so many wineries with their cellar doors and tasting rooms right in the town, so it is a very easy visit. What is this, Matt? So this is Marjoram Sauvignon Blanc. Jenna's adding new meaning to the term table wine. I'll show myself out. This is a project. Do you know how to pour wine? You used to work in wine. When I was rinsing my glass, I went a little too enthusiastically. But now she only makes TikToks. My brain's turned too much. This is a project from Doug Marjoram and he- Doug. What a goofy name, Doug Marjoram. No offense, Mr. Marjoram. Sorry, Doug. That's rough though. See, I was expecting Marjoram spelled like the spice. Yeah. So he spells it differently. Does it matter? Middle schoolers don't care. No, it's true. Marjoram Sybarite Sauvignon Blanc. Happy Canyon of Santa Barbara. That's the name of the AVA? Yeah, that's the sub AVA within Santa Barbara. So there are six of them. And these you will certainly find a lot more of unlabelled compared to Paso that we just left. And the big difference here to really note is that we are kind of leaving that kind of northwest to southeast mountain range, those coastal ranges that flanked the other counties we just discussed. And you get a transverse range in Santa Barbara that runs east to west. And so all of the cool air from the Pacific is funneled inland. And so we're really primarily dealing with some cool climate winds until we get quite far in where we get to Ballard Canyon and some other places. And we'll kind of talk about those. But Santa Barbara, very unique location as a result of the orientation of the mountain. So Marjoram, Sauvignon Blanc here on the shelf for $17.99. It's so light in color. Yes. It's just interesting. It looks almost like water. I just took a bite at first. Pretty wild. It's pretty quiet on the nose. It's a little bit grassy. I like this. It explodes on the palate. I don't like a lot of Sauvignon Blancs we try. I really like this. He's trying to do a more Loire expression, that it doesn't slap you in the face. It's not kind of. It's not grapefruit water. Grapefruit and gooseberry, and he's making a restrained style here. I would say it's very restrained, but still has that zippy acid and a lot of that tart pithy fruit. Yeah, exactly. It really grabs you by the salivary glands. I really like this. I could drink this with a straw. So this, as Pat mentioned, is from the Happy Canyon AVA. You're probably going to leave this. I get it, Alicia, but we're seeing diversity from where you are within these AVA's. If you're exposed, whether because you're actually close to the ocean or you're in altitude, which is the case with this wine, we can grow these high acid expressions. But Happy Canyon also very well known for its Cabernet and Syrah and some Grenache too in the warmer places that don't sit as high as the source for this root. Happy Canyon AVA out of Santa Barbara. Here's some Sauvignon Blanc at $18. If you're tired of spending 30 and up for a Sancerre, and you want a more like weeknight expression, this is what I would do. Wow. This is actually a nice wine episode, and that we get to taste more than four things. I'm really enjoying this. We should do this more often. She couldn't help herself when she went shopping. Oh man. I'm very good at spending other people's money. Okay, so still in Santa Barbara, of course, but we're now going to go to probably the most famous AVA, which is Santa Rita Hills. And this has also very calcium-rich soils. We're very cool in temperature here. And this is kind of Pinot Noir country. The Chardonnay grown as well. Again, those travel together. But this is a project, Sandi Pinot Noir at 36.99 on the shelf. This is a project from Raj Par and Sashi Moorman. Raj Par from the Michael Meno Restaurant Group a while ago. But kind of a famous sommelier and now turned wine maker. And then Sashi Moorman, a very seen wine maker. So this is their project. And they're doing 20% home clusters. So we should see a little bit of that aromatic lift as a result. They're fermenting in all cement and then throwing it in oak for nine months. This smells fabulous. Absolutely fabulous. This smells like strawberry to me. Great. Yeah. But it's so earthy. I actually think the fruit is equal to the savory earthy components to the wine. This is so far from when you start learning about wine and like, oh, California Pinot. Yeah. I hate the generalization because especially in places like Tina Barbara, it shows so differently. And if that's all you've tried and you've dismissed it as a result, then I encourage you to try this wine. It's like a cherry Pepsi. That is so not flattering. It's not an insult. There's nothing wrong with that. Cola. That's the go-to beverage order at Taco Bell. Excuse me, wild cherry Pepsi. There you go. So it's like a Brambley. Yeah. Yeah. Okay. All right. Do you like it? I do. It's not what I was expecting based on California Pinot Noir, like you mentioned. On the nose, it's super expressively on fruit, but it's super balanced on the palate. Yeah. Yeah. So on sale right now for $32.99. Sorry, I didn't say that earlier, but we're finding a little bit of that old world expression. But I hate the overuse like, oh, we're Burgundian and it's like, well, you're not Burgundian because you're not in Burgundy, and just the terroir is different. But this tastes like old school. But they're going after that more restrained earthy, savoury approach. And that's typical for I think Santa Barbara. I'm going to make that claim. So Sandi Pinot Noir from Santa Rita Hills. I would honestly in Santa Rita Hills just check out any of the Pinot Noirs and Chardonnays. Spectacular. We have one more wine? One more wine. We've had like everything. We've had a rhone white, we've had a rhone red, we've had a Sauvignon Blanc, a Riesling, a Chardonnay, a Pinot Noir. We're all over the map here. A monster cab. A monster cab. And now Syrah. And now Syrah. Wow, they really do everything in the Central Coast. So you know what's funny is when we were talking about this episode, and if you were to drink wine from one region in the world, where would it be? You could only drink wine from this region. The Central Coast. I mean, I always said- That is not what I came to this episode saying I would do, but I just, the point is still the same of just there is truly something for everyone. Oh yeah. Yeah. I always said Spain because there's such an amazing variety coming out of Spain, but that's not a region, that's a whole country. Yeah. And there is, I mean, this is like 280 miles. Oh, you listened. And how many miles east to west? Four. Six. All right. Holy cow, the Syrah is serious. It's meaty and spicy and like the summer sausage, the deer summer sausage that my dad made when I was a kid. Yeah. Where's the Syrah from? This is from Ballard Canyon. That's the AVA? That is the AVA that's sitting within Santa Barbara. Okay. I don't want to say all the way east here. We're not, but we are tucked in into a protected warmer site, which is why we can grow Syrah here. Got it. They too are making Syrah that should still retain some of that savory, peppery, meaty, olive-y quality of the Rhone, but it is by no means as intense I think as the Rhone would be in those calls. This is an approachable Syrah. So this is from what canyon? Sorry. Ballard Canyon. Ballard Canyon. Who made this? Beckman Vineyards. Beckman Vineyards. Have we had a Beckman Vineyard on before? That name sounds familiar. I don't think so. Okay. They make a very approachable Cuvée Le Bec, sub $20 if you want to just explore. That's an easy go-to. The great wine, just you don't know what you're going to be having for dinner. But yeah, here we are, Ballard Canyon Syrah, so some warmer sites, inland in Santa Barbara, and we have this inky purple color, all the deep blue and black fruit, along with that savory touch of a meatiness that gives you. But if the road is too intense for you, this is perfect. Jason would like this one. So we're leaving Santa Barbara and we've now had awesome Pinot Noir, we've had Sauvignon Blanc, we've had Syrah to show again everything you can get here, and all the different sites and what they're providing, largely because of exposure to the Pacific and altitude is what is in play when it comes to what you're going to plan in different vineyard sites within the Central Coast. So what do you think? Tremendous variety and value. Yeah. These are half the price they would be if they were from Napa. 35.99 on the shelf. Nice. He is farming biodynamically too, Beckman is. Fine. 36 bucks. I like this Syrah. I don't know if I like it. Like I just spend an extra 10 and buy more of that cab. More of that cab. Yeah. I think the cab was the star of the show, no doubt. I mean, it was also the most expensive. The Riesling was really good. The Breesling was great. I know you're not a huge Chardonnay lover, but the Mount eden Vineyard Chardonnay is solid. This was fun. That's the Tablas Creek, White Room blend. There's not a stinker on the table. No, even the Cheapo Crew Chardonnay was great. Yeah, easy. Very good wine. Yeah. We know Paso and we know the Central Coast because we're in the business, but you're saying this is an emerging trend with consumers? Yeah. Paso is definitely on the radar of consumers. Yeah. We're hearing that in the stores. If you don't know it yet, please check it out and get caught up here. But hopefully to some of these other regions, especially Santa Barbara. If I'm as a Pinot Noir and Chardonnay lover, if I can't afford Burgundy and if I'm not going to Willamette, Santa Barbara is my next calling. How do you recommend? You don't think of serious Burgundy and varietals being grown in California generally, right? I mean, we're thinking Oregon and that, but- Certainly grown there, right? But you just need to be specific about where you're getting those from. Don't let people tell you that California is just all big extracted wines. Totally. Because it's just so untrue. Cool. All right. Alicia, thanks. Fun wine episode. Wow. He just likes that there was nine of them. It's just nine wines so it's just that. All right. Cool. Thank you for listening to Barrel to Bottle, the Binny's Podcast. Back in your feed next week, something beer and frosting. Until then, I'm Greg. I'm Jonah. I'm Pat. And I'm Alicia. Keep tasting.