Sue Ray Uncorked

Casa de la Guerra Adobe Courtyard, 15 East De la Guerra Street, Santa Barbara, CA 93101, USA

Old Spanish Nights was the opening event of the California Wine Festival.  It was held on Thursday, July 16th from 6.30pm – 9pm and featured 18 Californian wineries and 9 restaurant and food providers.

Casa de la Guerra is an old Spanish colonial courtyard located just off State Street in downtown Santa Barbara.  It was a warm summer’s evening and as we arrived, we were presented with wristbands and wine glasses.  A band was playing Spanish music, which gradually increased in tempo as the evening progressed.  They were joined by flamenco dancers and by the end of the evening there were a few more dancers on the floor!

It was great to have the opportunity to enjoy some good wines in a comfortable and relaxed setting and have time to chat to the people who make them and/or promote them.  It was also nice to be able to sample some local restaurant offerings. 

I had the pleasure of spending time with the following:

Lucas Meisinger

Lucas works in production and sales at Lone Madrone, which is located in Paso Robles.  The winery was founded in 1996 and many of their vineyards are dry farmed.  Some vines are trained like those in the Southern Rhone; bush vines, which produce very low yielding deeply coloured fruit. They use only native yeasts and native malolactic bacteria, preferring to let the grapes express their natural flavours.  Brother and sister team, Neil Collins and Jackie Meisinger are the winemakers.

Kevin and Wendy Morrow

Kevin and Wendy own Tara Bella Winery in Santa Rosa, Sonoma County.  These guys produce some amazing wines and are the only Cabernet Sauvignon producers in the Russian River.  They are passionate about what they do and focus on producing very high quality limited production Cabernet Sauvignons.  They have also just released a 2011 Petite Syrah and a 2014 Rose.  They have 2 basset hounds – Presley and Thornton – and are producing a calendar of them in their various outfits!  They also run “The B”, their version of a B without the B, located above their barrel room, overlooking the vineyard.

David Parrish, Ethan Ray and Cecily Parrish Ray

David is President of Parrish Family Vineyard, his daughter, Cecily, is General Manager and her husband, Ethan is Assistant Winemaker/Vineyard Manager. The winery is located in Paso Robles.  I initially began talking to Ethan as I noticed from his business card that we share the same surname.  Coincidentally enough, he told me that his mother’s name is Susan.  I also spoke with David who told me he had previously worked with Robert Mondavi, amongst others.  The 2012 Zinfandel they had brought for tasting is the first Zin they have produced and they were careful to select grapes only from the north side of the vineyards as they receive minimal sunlight which helps retain their true flavours.