A day in Santa Barbara

A day in Santa Barbara

The fantastic guys at FineWineToMe.com have given me a lovely bottle of Lo-Fi wines Santa Barbara Cabernet Franc 2017 

In the glass an alluring purple and on the nose dark raspberry and black cherry, even a sour cherry note moving to green pepper with a wet gravel undertone. The palate is fresh (from the semi Carbonic maceration) with smooth tannins and perfectly balanced fresh acidity with a moorish medium length to the finish.

A day in Santa Barbara blog 

Please check out the 'Tasting Events' link, they have a fantastic event coming up on the 4th July New Wave USA tasting with Victoria Daskal. This wine from Lo-Fi will be shown and 6 more from California, Oregon, Utah and New York.

Lo-Fi is situated in Los Alamos California and is a partnership between two lifelong friends Mike & Craig, who believe in hand crafted, honest wines that are made for every day drinking.

They believe in neutral barrels, native yeasts and little to no sulfur additions. Using whole cluster fermentation and carbonic maceration also embracing a nothing added, nothing taken away philosophy, that gives birth to wines that are young and vibrant.

Hand harvested and organically grown; not de-stemmed or crushed. Pumped over once daily after which the top was again sealed and the fermenter was gassed using carbon dioxide. Fermented on the native yeasts, followed by full malolactic by naturally occurring bacteria. The wine was fermented for fourteen days then pressed to tank, settled, then racked to barrel the following day. Racked twice prior to bottling. A total of 35ppm so2 added without filtration in keeping with their minimalist (lo-fi) philosophy with a production of 365 cases.

After visiting parts of the central coast wine regions of California, I came away thinking there are two very different wine making styles. The low intervention wines or the famous big juicy Californian style reds and the oaky whites.

A day in Santa Barbara blog

For me, the new wave low intervention wines from Lo-Fi, Desparada and Field Recordings to name a few are the most interesting. This is not to say I don’t like or see excellent wines from the older style ... I just feel these low intervention wines are speaking to a new generation of wine drinkers who appreciate organic farming and produce.

A day in Santa Barbara blog

I was also struck by the amount of canned wines, not only in supermarkets but also in some wine tasting rooms. I tried a few and was taken aback by the taste of the wines and the overall quality.  I really believe that as quality improves and people become aware of the good wines you can get from cans this will start to take off in the UK market (if anyone else had any good canned wines they would like to share please do). 

A day in Santa Barbara blog

I would also love to recommend Santa Barbara itself and the amazing Phil Carpenter at Santa Barbara Wine Country for putting me in contact with some great tasting rooms and wineries.

Santa Barbara is a beautiful beach town and a fantastic place to try wines with over 50 tasting rooms and lovely restaurants in town including one on the end of the pier. The setting here at the Deep Sea tasting room is the perfect place to while away several hours. 

If anyone has any questions about these wines or my trip to California please get in contact and also please check out the website for more wines and their great events.

Blog posted by Brad - Follow him on Instagram

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