CORKAGE

There's something about the pinots from up here in Santa Barbara County that I really like.  Maybe it's because Patty and John live here, in Santa Ynes, and visiting them is such a pleasure.   Maybe it's because I feel at home in their home, as does my wife and 2 year old daughter, so these wines feel like my local wines.  Patty and John drink a lot of wine, enjoy it immensely, drink it uncritically, and yet will spend a pretty penny for a wine people are praising around town. The Lane Tanner 2006 Julia's Vineyard is about 35 bucks, and came highly recommended at the local market (where they're pretty darn serious about their wine)

patty, john, and my daughter, in Santa Ynez

Patty is from an Italian family in New Jersey, and not only is wine drinking second nature to her, so is cooking.  She does it like breathing.  This past Saturday night she cooked us Oprah's Favorite Turkey Burgers on a green salad with herbs from her garden.   She also served some homemade tortilla chips from the market, some good guacamole, Humboldt Fog Cheese ... and the Lane Tanner Pinot.  We ate and drank outdoors, in the midst of the farmland, under a sliver of moonlight, beside a fire.

This wine reminds me distinctly of the 2005 Santa Rita's Earth from the Hitching Post.  Both wines are "dark", in the sense of the term "the dark arts".  Dark, engaging, drawing you in.  In fact, "black" is the word that keeps coming to mind as I drink this Lane Tanner.  Black fruits, black olives, black mushrooms, black spices.  It's the witch's brew type of pinot -- to which I respond very well.  It's structured, but its tannins and its acidity are completely concealed.  And it has a certain appealing, dark density.  I doubt there's years and years of life in it, but that's part of its appeal:  it has a maturity that belies its age, like the very young child who astonishes you with her precocious depth. 

As I remember saying about the Santa Rita's Earth (which this same group drank four or five times), I could drink this wine every Saturday night.

NOTE:  Check out Palmnut's post on Santa Ynez.