March 31, 2004
Wildflowers and WineSaturday and Sunday, April 17 and 18 visit the wineries on the Foxen Canyon Wine Trail. "Passports" are available for $25 and cover the tasting fees both days for all 13 wineries on the Trail. It will be a great weekend experience for the serious wine lover. Meet the winemakers and partake in special tastings and hors d'oeuvres.
Winery members on the Trail are Andrew Murray Vineyards, Chimere, Rancho Sisquoc Winery, Byron Vineyard, Foxen Vineyard, Zaca Mesa Winery, Firestone Vineyard, Fess Parker, Koehler Winery, Cottonwood Canyon Winery, Cambria, Curtis Winery and Bedford Thompson Winery.
For tickets or more information you should call Bedford Thompson at (805) 344-2107 or any of the other winery members. The wildflowers are certainly a riot of splendorous color right now, especially the Lupine and the California poppy.
One of my favorite Sunday drives is out Foxen Canyon Road, especially this time of year. It's quintessential California-the way California was when it became a state and the turn of the last century, and the way it's supposed to be, I think.
Another nice Sunday drive is out Highway 135 between Los Alamos and Santa Maria-the oak-studded hills and Lupine in bloom are spectacular right now.
In other news, E. & J. Gallo Winery of Modesto, California has bought Bridlewood Winery in the Santa Ynez Valley. Bridlewood is that property out on Roblar Avenue, the old Mandysland horse farm. The winery is located in what was the old stable, a building that looks like a huge Taco Bell!
The winery has been plagued with financial problems from the beginning, going back to its inception in the late 90s. The winery had contentious relations with its neighbors too. The winery initially had plans to provide many public events like concerts-not acceptable to neighbors who had moved to the beautiful Santa Ynez Valley to escape, Los Angeles, urban sprawl, noise and congestion.
It's always gratifying to get positive feedback, and a lot of readers told me they appreciated last week's column on cork. In rereading the column, I notice I made an assumption I want to take a moment to clarify: When I wrote that wineries such as Lane Tanner and Buttonwood Farm were fed up with cork, I didn't take it one step further and explain that they have switched to synthetic cork and have gotten away from traditional "real" cork altogether.
In my own wine drinking career-going back to when I went to UC Santa Barbara and lived in Isla Vista-I have had many more years of experience with screw top bottles than with synthetic corks, a relatively new enclosure. I think screw top wine ages more like it would with a traditional cork enclosure than if it were corked with a synthetic cork. Wines age differently when they are bottled with synthetic enclosures. When young, they can sometimes be a bit "gassy," a condition which blows off once the bottle is opened.
By the way, what ever happened to those gallon jugs of "Red Mountain" brand with screw tops? Some of my favorite early culinary moments were dinners with my roommates, enjoying voluminous amounts of Red Mountain and homemade spaghetti and lasagna.
Bon appetit!
Wine lover and Santa Maria Times Wine columnist, Bob Senn, lives in the bucolic Los Alamos Valley and owns the Los Olivos Wine & Spirits Emporium.
