On June 24, the Santa Barbara Museum of Natural History held its annual S.B. Food & Wine Festival, an event beloved by winemakers, chefs, and patrons. The sold-out crowd of 1,100 enjoyed wine from about 80 wineries and food from about 20 purveyors, all of whom donated their offerings. The event raised $250,000 for the museum’s nature and science education programs. Continue »
Santa Barbara County's Margerum Wine Company and sister label, Barden, have unveiled a new tasting room in downtown Los Olivos, featuring a variety of curated wine and food tastings sure to delight foodies and oenophiles alike. Continue »
A mostly Grenache Provençal-style rosé that hails all the way from the California “Riviera” of Santa Barbara County, it beckons with light pearlescent pink color, abundant fruit, and a clean, crisp finish—the perfect wine for a warm afternoon par excellence. Continue »
92 - $68 Barden Pinot Noir Sta. Rita Hills 2019 This has a nice core of kirsch and black cherry pâte de fruit flavors that are still coiled up, while a bright mineral note provides spine and dried rose petal, black tea and savory hints flicker throughout. Best from 2023 through 2028. 182 cases made. James Molesworth Senior Editor and Special Projects Director, New York Continue »
Next up is Santa Barbara, which for all its glamorously skinny, tufty-headed palms — the supermodels of trees — has the slightly melancholy air of an out-of-season British seaside resort. The melancholy is dissipated by a wine-tasting at the Margerum Wine Company. I have always enjoyed wine tastings because my very limited knowledge and understanding of matters oenological means I am unable to distinguish between good wine and bad wine. To me it’s all good. There’s never that disappointing moment that proper wine people must get where they sniff a brimming glass and are completely crushed to discover notes of fresh apple instead of astringent summer meadows or whatever. A couple of upscale American gentlemen pour us glass after glass and purringly hymn the virtues of the Californian climate and the excellence of its vineyards. There’s a charcuterie board. There’s a “herbally enhanced digestif”. There’s ice cream which tastes of “herbally enhanced digestif”. I get carried away and start telling people I’m getting notes of blackcurrant from everything. It’s marvellous. Continue »
Join us for the annual Taste of Santa Barbara Wines at El Presidio de Santa Bárbara State Historic Park! Come explore, connect, and learn what makes Santa Barbara County’s wine scene unique. Continue »
"Terroir" is a term that's thrown around loosely at times, but you can't hear or read about Radian Vineyard and doubt that it applies to this site. Any uncertainty is tossed aside when you drink wines from the property. You can taste the Pacific in your glass and appreciate the struggle those grapes endured to get into the bottle. While this country does not formally classify our best vineyard sites as does France, Radian Vineyard would draw strong consideration for Grand Cru status if we did. Winemakers like Ken Brown, Bryan Babcock, Doug Margerum, John Dragonette, Brandon Sparks-Gillis, Matt Dees, Matt Brady, and others got into Radian Vineyard early on for a reason. The potential they saw in this site has been realized in their final products. Continue »
Winemaker Doug Margerum takes us on a tour of the city’s best vinos. Continue »
We welcome pioneering Santa Barbara winemaker, retailer, and restaurateur Doug Margerum to the studio for an episode all about Southern Rhône blends from beautiful, sun-drenched corners of the world. Doug shows off the latest vintage of his flagship red blend M5, while we answer with a stately Châteauneuf-du-Pape from Domaine Bois de Boursan. Continue »
"Margerum Wine Company produces limited quantities of wines made from grapes grown both our Estate Vineyard and grapes purchased from other top vineyards from in and around Santa Barbara County. The 18 acre Estate Vineyard is planted exclusively to Rhône grape varietals. The acreage is divided between limestone hillsides and gravelly alluvial flatlands along Alamo Pintado Creek. The wines are now made at their state-of-the-art winery located on Industrial Way in Buellton. Margerum carefully selects the vineyards with meticulous attention to detail in all factors influencing the ultimate quality of the wines, including pruning, soil, climate, and farming methods." Continue »
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