Riding Santa Barbara’s Urban Wave

tran-scend-ent/  adjective 1. beyond and outside the ordinary range of human experience or understanding 2. exceeding or surpassing usual limits especially in excellence In 1990 I flew to Portugal with my father, Warner, to visit port producers on the Douro River. As was customary for him, he had brought a number of books about Portuguese…

[vc_row padding_setting=”1″ desktop_padding=”no-padding-tb”][vc_column width=”1/1″][vc_column_text] 2018 Harvest Notes [/vc_column_text][vc_empty_space][vc_column_text]In the past week, winter has finally set in along the Central Californian coast and rain is soaking the now-dormant vineyards. The harvest is officially in the bag, even for those vintners that like to let the grapes hang late. Lumen’s wines were tucked away in their barrels…

There’s a lot of geeky stuff on the back of a Lumen bottle – wine-geeky stuff. So why is it there? Not only are the basic facts listed – vineyard source, AVA, variety, clone – but also we share the pH, TA (titratable acidity), and Brix at harvest. What, you may ask, is the significance…

Thoughts on the Wettest of Vintages The vineyards are flooding.  Southern California is currently experiencing what the forecasters are calling “the largest weather event in the last six years.” (Let’s just forget about “Stormageddon” two years ago – too bad they used that one up already). Some of the vineyards in the Santa Maria Valley…

The Spanish and French have argued for centuries over which side of the border Grenache originates from.  In Spain it is known as Garnacha, and is the most widely planted varietal in the country.  In France it is Grenache, and is a major blending component of wines from the Southern Rhone, most famously in Chateauneuf-du-Pape. …

“I’m all lost in the supermarket, I can no longer shop happily.”- The Clash I remember being  a young twenty something and wandering aimlessly down the aisles of the supermarket – in a feeble attempt to choose a wine to go with dinner. There were just too many wines to choose from, and I had no idea…