Wine Each Week ~ Folded Hills 2017 Grant Grenache

Though the Folded Hills Ranch has been around in Santa Barbara County for over a century, grapes were not planed until 2014. This makes the 2017 the first vintage and it is impressive. This Grenache offers slight bright fruit spicy character plum, pomegranate, cranberry, strawberry, Bing cherry, and pink peppercorn. There’s a touch of sweet oak and vanilla-infused tobacco and a nice mild acidity running through the length of the wine. Comprised of Grenache with 8% Syrah folded in, this is a delightfully balanced wine, made to accompany a diversity of food.

ORIGIN: Santa Ynez - Santa Barbara, California

ALCOHOL: 13.6%

PRICE: $38 /750 ml

SCORE: 91 POINTS

Folded Hills

A Heart for Franc

Cabernet Franc is one of those grapes that people either know and love, or say, “Cabernet what?” While the best-known expression of Franc come from the Loire Valley, California has long worked with the grape and there are over 300 wineries in the Golden State alone that produce a Franc. Many are rather under the radar and this is true of the 2016 Luna Hart Cabernet Franc. Winemaker Gretchen Voelcker made just 53 cases, sourced from Camp 4 Vineyard in the Los Olivos District of Santa Barbara County. She used native fermentation; a six-week extended maceration, then aged the wine in neutral French oak for 16 months.

This offers restrained blueberry and black berry, lingonberry, darker hints of resin and anise and it fills the mid-palate and extends well into the finish. The acidity hides until the end, being almost subversive. The oak treatment is there, but properly framed, and in fact offers a mature smoked note.  I prepared veal pork loin with apricot reduction for this wine. Imagine what you could do.  

ORIGIN: Santa Barbara, California

PRICE: $34/ 750ML

ALCOHOL: 13.7%

SCORE:  91 POINTS

If I Had A Million Dollars - Santa Barbara Wine & Direct Relief

Jenny Dore gives a really big check to DRI

The Barenaked Ladies had a friendly pop hit in 1988 with “If I Had a Million Dollars,” and they imagined all the things they would do with said million like, “Well, I'd buy you an exotic pet. Yep, like a llama or an emu.” They even consider the Elephant Man’s bones as a possibility. Sounds pretty cool but a million dollars can buy so many other things and in the case of the Santa Barbara Vintners Foundation, they just gave a million dollars to Direct Relief International. The money was raised from various silent auctions at wine events and over the last 15 years the Vintners Association has raised over $4 Million, all given to Direct Relief. For a small community, that’s pretty impressive.

We Love Santa Barbara Wines!

Based in Goleta, Direct Relief International (DRI) is a medical relief organization, active in all 50 states and in 70 countries, working with more than 1,000 health clinics across the U.S. to assist in emergencies and providing said clinics with free medications for people in need. And DRI has impressive charity ratings, including a 100% fundraising efficiency rating from Forbes and the No. 1 spot on Charity Navigator’s list of the “10 Best Charities Everyone’s Heard Of.” That’s important as we’ve all heard of charities that have ended up being less than charitable. The 2016 Santa Barbara Wine Auction, a joint effort by the Santa Barbara Vintners Foundation and DRI, exceeded everyone’s expectations. On a warm May day Jenny Williamson Doré (of Foxen Winery) presented a check in the amount of One Million Twenty-Two Thousand Dollars to Direct Relief’s President, Thomas Tighe. Nice job. “Because of their extraordinary efficiency, Direct Relief will leverage this money into more than $30 million in medical aid,” said Vintners Foundation president, Steve Fennell of Sanford Winery. “The vintners are proud to support the efforts of this outstanding organization headquartered right here in Santa Barbara County.”  

Which gets to the heart of the issue. No matter what our profession, no matter what our limitations, all of us, as individuals, families, associations, companies or corporations can all be involved to some degree in making the world a better place, alleviating suffering and simply being kind. That you can accomplish this and drink Santa Barbara county wine is mere icing on the cake. So get out there, taste new wines, support Vintners and DRI and help improve the world.