Palmer Emmitt

Having lived in Los Angeles over 6 years, I'm embarassed to say that my first trip to the Santa Ynez Valley to drink wine came last summer. I was invited to board a party bus full of winos to celebrate our friend Shannon's birthday, and enjoyed an absolutely stellar day of food and drink.

Departing from Century City just after 9 am, we reached our first winery destination - Fess Parker - at around 11:30. This place immediately struck me as sort of the "Robert Mondavi" of Santa Ynez Valley. It's nice enough, but a little touristy and sterile despite their best efforts to give the tasting room a homey feel. The wines were underwhelming. I found the '05 Ashley's Chardonnay to be over-oaked and the '06 Santa Barbara County Riesling to be sweet and seductive with a nice mouthfeel, but lacking in enough acidity to back it up. The best of the whites in my opinion was the '05 Melange Blanc with it's beautiful honeyed pear nose and sauternes-like long finish. However, as you might guess from the description, it could be too sweet for many people's palates. As for the reds, I thought both the '05 American Tradition Reserve Pinot Noir and the '04 "Big Easy" Syrah were lacking in any appealing fruit or complexity. Disappointed in the reds in the regular tasting, I persuaded the pourer to pop a bottle of one of the single vineyard pinots from the Santa Rita Hills - the '05 Ashley's Vineyard Pinot Noir. Finally! Real wine! Signature SRH flavor profile, but still lacking the stuffing to justify it's $55 price tag.

Our next stop was Firestone , where our now half drunk and boisterous group was treated more cordially than at Fess Parker. Despite not having a reservation, we were ushered into a pleasantly rustic private room and treated to cheese, breadsticks and a well informed employee to guide us on a comprehensive tasting. The first wine ended up being my favorite, the '05 Reserve Sauvignon Blanc - a crisp, refreshing and very well balanced effort. Poured next, the '05 Santa Barbara Chardonnay was an odd murky rust colored mess of heavily toasted vanilla oak - bold and quite interesting but in the end unappealing to my palate. Most of the reds were good but unmemorable, with the '04 Santa Ynez Valley Merlot being the most appealing of the bunch. I bought two bottles of the sauv blanc and reboarded the now rollicking party bus.

Just a short jaunt down Foxen Canyon Road we came upon the oasis of Koehler Winery . The property is stunningly beautiful with wines and hospitality to match. Immediately perceiving the daunting nature of our group, the sales manager Megan ushered us to a nice patio out back overlooking the picnic area, where she and the vineyard manager poured us the most diverse and impressive group of wines we'd seen yet that day. The '05 Sauvignon Blanc Santa Ynez Valley was fresh with nice acidity but not quite the standout that was the '06 Riesling Santa Ynez Valley with its bright pear nose and well-balanced sweet and racy mouthfeel. To my chagrin as a viognier lover, the weakest of the whites was the '05 Santa Ynez Valley Viognier which had pale color, kind of a barky/mossy nose, and somewhat dull, subtle peaches on the palate. The last of the whites rolled out was the '05 Reserve Chardonnay Santa Ynez Valley. It was subtle and crisp with more of a sauvignon blanc flavor profile, other than the slightly buttery finish.

With apologies to the outstanding riesling, it was with the red wines that Koehler really left it's mark on our group - partly because of the high quality across the board, and partly because it was at this point that many in our group crossed over from happily buzzed to sloppily drunk. First was the '05 Pinot Noir Santa Barbara County, a classic pinot noir with light, subtle hints of spice, strawberry and cherry. Next came the biggest crowd-pleaser of the day - the '05 Grenache Santa Ynez Valley - with its violet nose and silky smooth blueberries coupled with a little pepper. The more earthy flavors of the '05 Syrah Santa Ynez Valley led to some disagreements over this wine, but I really enjoyed the attack of blackberry mixed with clove, tobacco and a little manure (my opinion was vindicated two weeks later by a 93 score from Robert Parker himself who compared it to top notch Hermitage...). While this was supposed to be the conclusion of the tasting, I again used my powers of persuasion to get Megan to dip into the '05 Reserve Pinot Noir Santa Rita Hills, which ended up being my wine of the day. It was unabashedly Burgundian in it's approach, with a profound nose of twigs and cherries, a hint of cinnamon to join the earth and red fruit on the palate, and a long well-balanced finish. I walked out of here with a mixed case of all the reds and some riesling and joined the wine club. Kudos to Koehler for the entire experience!

No trip to the Santa Ynez Valley is complete without a stop at the Los Olivos Cafe , where Dallas had reserved us a private room to celebrate Shannon's birthday in style. I was tasked with ordering the wines, which turned out to be a fairly easy proposition from the extensive and shockingly well-priced list. At this point in the affair, tasting notes became a bit of a struggle to keep up with, but I do remember the unmistakable mushroom and asparagus flavors on the '04 Wairau River New Zealand Pinot Noir, and the interesting contrast it made with a more fruit forward pinot from Tantara. I also vaguely remember a blonde girl on the opposite side of the table who raved about the first bottle of Benton Lane Willamette Valley Pinot Gris, so I ordered several more. The food was good and much needed after our afternoon of heavy tasting, and a fabulous end to a spectacular excursion. We returned once more to our trusty party bus, where several people dozed off into peaceful slumber, while still others let the afternoon segue neatly into night with plenty of ice cold beer.