Tasting Notes: 2006 Melville Sta. Rita Hills Syrah, "Donna's"

This particular bottle has been sitting on my wine rack for at least 6 months, and though it's been ready to drink, I hadn't really had a reason to pull the cork. Melville is a charming, pretty winery located off of 246 in Lompoc, up in the Santa Ynez area by Santa Barbara. I had to dig out my fuzzy, scratched out tasting notes to remember my first impressions. Drinking wine is often contextually associated in my memory, and having a glass outdoors tonight while listening to old jazz and blues highlighted different characteristics from when I first tasted it in Melville's sunny and bustling tasting room, with The Pointer Sisters' "Fire" piped in on the radio (see, I told you, contextual).

The wine is a powerful blend of sweet, dark fruit and a lingering, pop-rock-like pepper finish that bursts across your taste buds. In the glass, it is a rich and inky, deep purple color. At first, I tasted more of blackberries & cassis, but as the wine had more time to sit, the acidity softened out somewhat and I tasted more of the earthy undertones mixed in with the fully expressed fruit flavors. Melville's tasting notes suggest it might be "sinister," I'd almost call it "lascivious;" the creaminess seduces the palate before that kicky finish teases you to take another sip - I'd even say the peppery borders on overwhelming, so this is not a wine for the faint-hearted. Certainly a delicious syrah with a shamelessly bold personality. Probably good to drink now and for another two years, at least. Enjoy.

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Tasted: 2006 Melville Syrah "Donna's"

bikes & flights

Santa Barbara wine country is a charmed area for multiple reasons in addition to its obvious draw as an epicenter for delicious, mouth-filling pinot noirs - from the established wineries along the Sideways wine-tasting routes to smaller, family operations, every vacant plot of sloping hillside is gradually filling with new wines to discover.

Over Labor Day weekend (yes, I'm a little behind on the updates), I took a trip up to Zaca Lake, a retreat also known as the location set for warm and fuzzy movies like the Creature from the Black Lagoon and Friday the 13th, part 3. We arrived at the gate just before midnight, learning something about what it means to be in complete, pitch-black darkness. After struggling with the padlock, we bumped over 5 miles of rough, narrow and winding road, traversing a couple of small, mostly dry creek beds and giving A, my backseat passenger, some mild car-sickness.

We woke up to find ourselves nestled between mountains on all sides, having stayed in the cabin above with 20 other strangers who would become our friends by the end of the weekend. We had all driven up variously with bikes loaded onto the backs of our cars, training for races the next week but eager to combine some pre-taper workouts with wine-tasting and outdoors relaxation over the long weekend.

I've been in the area several times for both tasting and cycling, and can't get over what a great place it is for both. The Solvang Century, held annually in early spring, was my first century ever and so beautiful, with one of the aid stations housed in a lot adjoining Fess Parker, at about mile 90 and just before the final (killer) hill on the road toward Los Olivos. This time, all 20+ of us drove our bikes from Zaca Lake to Los Olivos for a good long ride, combined with some tasting...and then disaster struck.

My tire had a pretty little hole in it from a ride earlier the day before, but figuring it would be a quick fix, I left it until we unloaded the bikes in Los Olivos. In a series of bizarre mishaps, we struggled for about 30 mins before realizing the poor wheel just had to be taken to a bike shop. I'd basically resigned myself to missing out on a great ride AND a full day of tasting, but A and I rolled into Dr. J's in Solvang where the friendly shop guys not only fixed my tire pronto, but a laid-back local hanging outside led us on a nice, 20-mile jaunt on the mostly flat roads around Solvang and Los Olivos. You can bet I'll drop back by there next time I'm in town, whether just to say hi or to find an excuse to buy something new for the cycling habit - they're the kind of local bike shop you want to have in every neighborhood. We were back in time for a late lunch at Panino before popping back into Los Olivos to try and reconvene with our fellow cyclists.

Los Olivos always becomes a bit of a mad house on the weekends, with the main square overrun by limousines and black cars chauffeuring groups around to tastings and a flood of other weekend visitors stopping in for a mid-day break from tasting. It's never so crowded that it takes away from the charm, however, and Saturday was no exception. I saw some riddling-rack wine holders for sale that I've added to my mental checklist of items for a future house, and A successfully procured various locally grown gourmet garlic varieties to save for future cooking endeavors.


There are numerous tasting rooms all over Main Street, which I've found to be hit or miss. The winery specific ones are generally better, and Saarloos&Sons was a pleasant discovery this time around. They fall into the family-run category, with Keith Saarloos pouring. He had this great trick of pouring just enough into the glass, then rolling the glass across the counter on its side, without spilling a drop. I've made a note to practice with some cheap wine and master as a future party trick. I guess I could also try learning to tie a knot in a cherry stem, but back to the wines -

They mostly grow grapes used by other wineries, but started producing small quantities of their own wines. Of the ones we tasted, I most enjoyed Daughter's and 194Five The Union. Daughter's is a fresh, sweet Chardonnay blended according to the tastes of the women in the family. I thought it was refreshingly different from most California Chardonnays I've tasted, with a soft and slightly creamy feel and light, fruity flavors that rush the palate before fading away like the champagne fireworks you see on the 4th of July. 194Five The Union is a Syrah-Cabernet blend that is a strong, masculine contrast to Daughter's, with its dark and smoky flavors and tannic finish.

This was unfortunately the only tasting we had the chance to breeze through, despite an ambitious schedule, but I'll likely be making another tasting trip in the next couple of months, with more to come at that point on some of my favorite wineries and tasting routes.