Edible Santa Barbara Spring 2017

edible

ISSUE 33 • SPRING 2017

Santa Barbara

Celebrating the Local Food & Wine Culture of Santa Barbara County

ISSUE

4

We e k e n d

of July

Beer Garden at

Santa Barbara Maritime Museum Saturday, July 1, 2017

$25 advance ticket purchase & SBMM Members $35 day of ticket sales Presented by: SBMM & Edible Santa Barbara Purchase at sbmm.org or call 805-456-8747 Santa Barbara Maritime Museum 113 Harbor Way Santa Barbara, California 93109

Local Chefs and Breweries

lunch, dinner, late night eats

5 w. c a n o n p e rd i d o

.

santa barbara, ca

.

93101

.

805-705-0991

4th of July Weekend

COAST VILLAGE ROAD AND HOT SPRINGS

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More awards than any other hotel/resort in the United States.

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900 SAN YSIDRO805-565-1700 LANE, SANTA BARBARA, CA 805-565-1700

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SANTA BAR BAR A

®

COLIN QUIRT

C AROLE TOPALIAN

spring

page 22

page 28

Departments 8 Food for Thought

26 Drinkable Landscape

by Krista Harris

Another Reason to Love Wine

by George Yatchisin

10 Small Sips Wine for Beer Lovers

28 Winery Profile

Dark Chocolate Red Wine Truffles Amaro A Trio of Wine Films Santa Barbara County Wine Facts

Kitá Wines: Blending the Natural Elements of Life into Wine

by Hana-Lee Sedgwick

13 In Season

70 Event Calendar

14 Seasonal Recipes

72 Eat Drink Local Guide and Maps

Strawberry Rosé Sorbet Sorbet Brioche Canapés Chicken in Sauvignon Blanc Cherry Clafoutis

22 Edible Garden

32 Edible DIY New Life for Old Wine

by Rosminah Brown

80 The Last Sip Spring’s Don’t-Miss Dish

by Liz Dodder

page 14 4 | EDIBLE SANTA BARBARA SPRING 2017

ROSMINAH BROWN

Growing a Grape Canopy

by Joan S. Bolton

edible

SANTA BAR BAR A

®

spring Features

38 A Million Miracles in Every Glass

Bubbles Convey the Essence of

44 The Pursuit of an Ideal

The Pioneering Spirit that Defined the

page 69

Sta. Rita Hills

by Sonja Magdevski

52 Lompoc Wine History

From Mission Grape to Spectator’s Top Eight

by Kate Griffith

56 Making Wine Worlds Apart

South Africa’s Storm Brothers Find Their Passion

by Hana-Lee Sedgwick

60 Epicurean Harmonies

Composer Daniel Lentz Explores the Intersection of Music, Food and Wine

by Leslie A. Westbrook 64 A Story of Food and Wine

by Pascale Beale

Recipes in This Issue Salads and Sauces 36 Mignonette Sauce for Oysters 36 Pickled Red Onions 68 Warm Salad with Sauté of Leeks and Snap Peas with Burrata

Main Dishes 18 Chicken in Sauvignon Blanc 68 Savory Puff Pastry Tart with Roasted Onions, Goat Cheese, Olives and Pesto

Desserts 20 Cherry Clafoutis 67 Strawberry Ginger Pots de Crème 14 Strawberry Rosé Sorbet

Beverage ABOUT THE COVER

Wine from Santa Barbara County. Photo by Fran Collin.

6 | EDIBLE SANTA BARBARA SPRING 2017

27 The GB Cocktail

MEDIA 27

Santa Barbara County

by Laura Sanchez

A legacy setting reimagined for modern living.

Mela Contemporary Townhomes Up to 1,943 Sq Ft and 3 Bedrooms

Pera Courtyard-Style Homes Up to 2,143 Sq Ft and 3 Bedrooms

Limone Single-Family Luxury Homes Up to 3,239 Sq Ft and 6 Bedrooms

Amarena Single-Family Luxury Homes Up to 3,906 Sq Ft and 6 Bedrooms

4 New Home Neighborhoods | High $800,000s to mid $1 Millions | Community Pool and Clubhouse

No view is promised. Views may also be altered by subsequent development, construction and landscaping growth. Square footage/acreage shown is only an estimate and actual square footage/acreage will differ. Buyer should rely on his or her own evaluation of useable area. Plans to build out this neighborhood as proposed are subject to change without notice. The estimated completion date of the community clubhouse and pool is summer 2017. The date of actual completion could substantially differ from the estimated date. Prices, plans and terms are effective on the date of publication and subject to change without notice. Depictions of homes or other features are artist conceptions. Hardscape, landscape and other items | EdibleSantaBarbara.com SPRING 2017 7 shown may be decorator suggestions that are not included in the purchase price and availability may vary. CalAtlantic Group, Inc. California Real Estate License No. 01138346.

FOOD FOR THOUGHT The Wine Issue

DAVID FOLKS

There is something in a glass of wine that captures the aroma and flavor of a place. Most people refer to that quality as terroir. It is reflected in the helpful saying “what grows together, goes together,” which you often hear when people talk about pairing food and wine.

We cover food and wine in every issue of this magazine, but in this one we focus on the wine culture and the unique quality of place in Santa Barbara County.

You’ll find wine intertwined with food throughout these pages. I hope we can shine some light on something new for you, whether you’ve lived here all your life or are just contemplating a visit.

When I arrived in Santa Barbara in the early 1980s, I was immediately struck by the proximity of the coastal area to the inland valleys. Within minutes you could go from the ocean to the foothills and the interior just beyond.

I didn’t know anything about the transverse mountains and how they channeled the cool ocean breezes inland. But I picked up the feeling that the different areas of Santa Barbara County were linked. The more time I spent here, the more I learned about the area, its agricultural traditions and its cultural influences.

Early on I went wine tasting in Santa Ynez—it was summer and the wild fennel was blooming. More recently I was tasting wine in Alisos Canyon and the ground was covered with the bright green carpet that springs up after the rains.

I have been to picnics under oak trees in Ballard Canyon when it was sweltering.

And I remember wine dinners held outdoors at night when we were bundled up in down jackets. That’s because a hot day can turn into a cold night.

I imagine that the grapes soak up those temperatures and the influence of the flora and fauna that surround them when they grow. When I take a sip of wine, I think about the food and the flavors that I want to pair it with, the people I want to share it with.

It’s a pleasure to share with you the information that we’ve assembled in this issue. And I’d like to raise a glass of Santa Barbara County wine to thank and toast to the winemakers, vineyard workers and all of those who contribute their passion and dedication to this place and the wine that comes from it.

Krista Harris, Editor and Co-Publisher

Visit our website EdibleSantaBarbara.com Follow us on Facebook and Pinterest at Edible Santa Barbara and Twitter and Instagram at EdibleSB.

8 | EDIBLE SANTA BARBARA SPRING 2017

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SANTA BAR BAR A Member of Edible Communities

Edible Communities James Beard Foundation Publication of the Year (2011)

PUBLISHERS

Steven Brown & Krista Harris EDITOR

Krista Harris RECIPE EDITOR

Nancy Oster COPY EDITING & PROOFING

Doug Adrianson Julie Simpson DESIGNER

Steven Brown ADVERTISING & EVENTS

Katie Hershfelt SOCIAL MEDIA

Jill Johnson

Contributors Pascale Beale Joan S. Bolton Rosminah Brown Sherrie Chavez Fran Collin Liz Dodder Kate Griffith Sonja Magdevski Colin Quirt Laura Sanchez Hana-Lee Sedgwick Carole Topalian Leslie A. Westbrook George Yatchisin

Contact Us info@ediblesantabarbara.com

Advertising Inquiries ads@ediblesantabarbara.com Edible Santa Barbara® is published quarterly and distributed throughout Santa Barbara County.

Subscription rate is $28 annually. All rights reserved.

No part of this publication may be used without written permission from the publisher. Publisher expressly disclaims all liability for any occurrence that may arise as a consequence of the use of any information or recipes. Every effort is made to avoid errors, misspellings and omissions. If, however, an error comes to your attention, please accept our sincere apologies and notify us. Thank you.

edible Santa Barbara © 2017

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JEFFREY BLOOM PHOTOGRAPHY

Elevated Central Coast Comfort Food Extensive Santa Barbara County Beer + Wine List Winemaker Dinners • Private Events • Catering

Tuesday–Sunday Breakfast and Lunch 8am–3pm Dinner Friday Only 5:30–8:00pm Closed Monday 508 Bell Street • Los Alamos, CA 93440 Tel: 805-344-3020 • plentyonbell@gmail.com www.plentyonbell.com

THE

BRANDER VINEYARD

WILLIAM L. ALLEN

Producing Distinctive Bordeaux-Style Wines Since 1975

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EdibleSantaBarbara.com SPRING 2017 | 9

Small Sips

Dark Chocolate Red Wine Truffles Stafford’s Chocolates

It can be a challenge to pair wine with chocolate, so one solution is to incorporate wine right into your chocolate.

These dark chocolate-dipped red wine truffles are the perfect after-dinner treat. They have a soft ganache center that incorporates local Santa Ynez Valley red wine. A box of these makes a good hostess gift (and you might want to get some for yourself, too). Although you can order them online, half the fun is visiting the quaint tiny shop in Los Olivos.

A box of 12 chocolate red wine truffles is $20, and other sizes are also available. Stafford’s Chocolates is located at 2902 San Marcos Rd., Los Olivos. 805 688-2893; StaffordsChocolates.com

Amaro Margerum Wine Company

Wine for Beer Lovers Buttonwood Hop On Sauvignon Blanc

Karen Steinwachs, winemaker for Buttonwood Farm Winery, is a self-professed beer lover and hops aficionado. With what might be the first of its kind, she has made a hop-infused Sauvignon Blanc that will appeal to wine and beer geeks alike. Karen says, “I was inspired by a friend, Mike Guigni, who made a dryhopped cider a few years back and thought ‘why not wine’”?

Although it took months to get the label approved, she was not deterred by the requirement to call it “white wine with natural flavors” and she is already releasing her second batch. The new one even incorporates some local, fresh hops from Lompoc.

“We dried the fresh hops in our cold room, and then infused the Sauvignon Blanc,” she says. “That was the best-smelling cold room—what aromatics! The hops remained in the wine for a few weeks, then we returned the Hop On to neutral French Oak for a few months for some texture on the mid-palate.”

Bring it to a blind tasting and confuse everyone with the hoppy aromatics but without bitterness.

Hop On is available online and at Buttonwood Farm Winery & Vineyard located at 1500 Alamo Pintado Rd., Solvang. Open daily 11am–5pm.

805 688-3032; ButtonwoodWinery.com

10 | EDIBLE SANTA BARBARA SPRING 2017

In Europe it is customary to end a meal with a digestif, a fortified spirit that will aid the digestion.

The Italian digestif Amaro is traditionally made from grape neutral spirits and a combination of bitter herbs. The best of these are usually found from small producers in Italy, and now here in Santa Barbara County. Doug Margerum has been making Amaro since 2009. His recipe uses sage, thyme, marjoram, parsley, lemon verbena, rosemary, mint, barks, roots, dried orange peels and caramelized simple syrup, and it is aged in casks outdoors. The final result is 23% alcohol, so serve in small glasses. It also makes a great ingredient for a cocktail.

A 750ml bottle of Margerum Amaro is $50 and is available at wine and spirit shops and from MargerumWines.com.

A Trio of Wine Films Wine for the Confused, Sideways and SOMM

The wines of Santa Barbara County have found their way into a number of films over the years. The next time you’re looking for a movie to pair with your wine, consider one of these.

Wine for the Confused (2004) is a documentary hosted by John Cleese, a Santa Barbara resident at the time. It is a guide to wine for beginners or anyone who feels overwhelmed by choices, opinions and wine snobbery.

Cleese is reassuring: Don’t let others tell you what wine is good—if you like it, it’s good.

He guides us lightheartedly through Santa Barbara County, visiting popular spots including Foxen and Gainey Vineyards to discuss Wine 101 with local folks like Ken Brown and James Sly, to name a few. It feels a little bit dated, but it is informative and loaded with cameos of local people and places. Pair this with any wine you like.

Sideways (2004) is the awardwinning surprise hit that catapulted Santa Barbara County wines to stardom and made Pinot Noir a household name.

Directed by Alexander Payne and adapted from the novel by Rex Pickett, it was filmed on location and features many area wineries and restaurants, such as The Hitching Post II and Los Olivos Café & Wine Merchant.

But perhaps everyone’s favorite scene is when Miles explains why he is so into Pinot and Maya describes how wine is a living thing. Pair with a Santa Barbara County Pinot Noir or, to be contrary, a Merlot.

SOMM (2012) and the follow up SOMM: Into the Bottle feature Brian McClintic, co-founder of Les Marchands Wine Bar & Merchant in Santa Barbara’s Funk Zone.

SOMM follows four aspiring master sommeliers as they prepare for their exam. SOMM: Into the Bottle dives deeper into the components of wine, and takes you on a journey around the world. It features another sommelier with a local connection— Rajat Parr, partner/proprietor of Sandhi winery in Lompoc.

Pair with a Chardonnay by Sandhi.

In 1782 Father Junipero Serra planted Mission vine cuttings in what is now the Milpas District of Santa Barbara.

The 1960s saw the first commercial vineyard planted since the repeal of Prohibition by Uriel Nielsen and Bill De Mattei in the Tepusquet region of Santa Maria Valley.

Today there are over 200 wineries in Santa Barbara County and 27,000 acres planted with over 50 types of grapes. And there are currently six approved American Viticulture Areas with more in the works.

The most-planted white grape is Chardonnay and the most-planted red grape is Pinot Noir. Here are some of the more than 50 other varietals planted in Santa Barbara County:

Barbera

Nebbiolo

Cabernet Franc

Orange Muscat

Cabernet Sauvignon

Petit Verdot

Chenin Blanc

Petite Sirah

Cortese

Pinot Blanc

Counoise

Pinot Gris / Grigio

Dolcetto

Riesling

Freisa

Roussanne

Gewürztraminer

Sangiovese

Grenache

Sauvignon Blanc

Grenache Blanc

Syrah / Shiraz

Grignolino

Tempranillo / Valdepenas

Malbec

Teroldego

Marsanne

Verdelho

Merlot

Viognier

Mourvedre / Mataro

Zinfandel

Muscat Canelli

EdibleSantaBarbara.com SPRING 2017 | 11

in

Season this spring Spring Produce

Year-Round Produce

Spring Seafood

Artichokes Apricots and apriums Asparagus Avocados Basil Blackberries Blueberries Broccoli rabe (rapini) Brussels sprouts Cabbage Cardoons Celery Chanterelle mushrooms Cherimoya Cherries Cilantro Collards Cucumber Dill Escarole Fava beans Fennel Garlic scapes Grapefruit Green garlic Kiwi Kumquats Limes Loquats Mulberries Mustard greens Nettles Onions, green bunching Papayas Pea greens Peas, shelling and snap Radishes Raspberries Rhubarb Strawberries Summer squash and blossoms Tangerines/Mandarins Tomatoes, hothouse Turnips

Almonds, almond butter

Mussels Ridgeback shrimp Rock fish Sardines Spot prawns White seabass

(harvested Aug/Sept)

Apples Arugula Beans, dried Beets Bok choy Broccoli Carrots Cauliflower Chard Dandelion Dates

(harvested Sept/Oct)

Garlic

(harvested May/June)

Herbs

(Bay leaf, mint, oregano, parsley, rosemary, sage, thyme)

Edible flowers Kale Leeks Lemons Lettuce Mushrooms Onions, bulb

(harvested May/June)

Oranges Pistachios, pistachio oil (harvested Sept/Oct)

Potatoes Radish Raisins

(harvested Sept/Oct)

Shallots Spinach Sprouts Squash, winter

Year-Round Seafood Abalone (farmed) Black cod Clams Oysters Rock crab Sanddabs Seaweed Urchin

Other Year-Round Eggs Coffee (limited availability) Dairy

(Regional raw milk, artisanal goat- and cow-milk cheeses, butters, curds, yogurts and spreads)

Fresh flowers Honey Olives, olive oil Meat

(Beef, chicken, duck, goat, rabbit, pork)

Potted plants/herbs Preserves Wheat

(Wheat berries, wheat flour, bread, pasta and baked goods produced from wheat grown locally)

(harvested July/Oct)

Walnuts, walnut oil (harvested Sept/Oct)

Yams

(harvested Aug/Sept)

EdibleSantaBarbara.com SPRING 2017 | 13

seasonal

Recipes Strawberry Rosé Sorbet Use the best local strawberries you can find for this recipe.

And feel free to double the recipe if you have more strawberries. But as with most sorbets, it’s best to eat this the same day you make it. The rosé gives it a slightly softer texture and a little bright acidity since it is not cooked into a sugar syrup as in most sorbet recipes. And since you don’t use much, it’s an opportunity to use a good bottle of wine that you will enjoy drinking before or with dinner.

There are many Santa Barbara County rosé wines that would work well with this recipe. Try a rosé made from Pinot Noir, Syrah, Grenache or a rosé blend.

Makes about a pint 2–3 pints of strawberries, washed and tops removed

Egg Salad Sandwich

1

⁄ 2 cup sugar

1

⁄ 4 cup dry rosé wine What to do with your beautiful onion-skin-dyed Easter

Pinch of sea eggs? salt First on the list must be a classic egg salad sandwich.

You have many variations to choose from so you won’t get Purée the strawberries the even sugar, ifwine and sea salt until smooth. tired ofwith them, you’ve made dozens of eggs.

Strain into a container and refrigerater for several hours or overnight.

Makes 2 sandwiches Churn in an ice cream maker according to the instructions and then let it hard-boiled eggs, peeled and coarsely chopped firm up in the3freezer for an hour before serving.

2 tablespoons mayonnaise or 1 tablespoon mayonnaise – Krista Harris and 1 tablespoon crème fraiche Salt and pepper, to taste

Additions: • A tablespoon of something crunchy, such as capers, chopped celery, chopped pickled vegetables, chopped radishes or chopped onion • A sprinkling of chopped fresh herbs, such as parsley, basil, cilantro, chervil or tarragon • A dash of something tangy, such as lemon or lime juice, or the pickled juice or caper brine if you used either of those or a dash of white wine vinegar Additional mayonnaise and/or mustard (optional) Additional pickled vegetables (optional) Lettuce Combine the eggs, mayonnaise, seasoning and additions and mix until incorporated but with 14 | EDIBLE SANTA BARBARA SPRING 2017a still chunky texture. Taste and add more seasoning or additions if needed.

ROSMINAH BROWN

Bread (sliced bread, baguette, bagel, roll, croissant or slider bun)

Our 100% estate boutique winery is located in the heart of the Santa Rita Hills appellation. We are dedicated to growing and producing exceptional cold-climate Pinot Noir, Chardonnay, and Syrah.

Our wine is grown exclusively from our land with our hands.

Quality.

Purity.

Tours, Tasting, Picnic | Open daily 11am–4pm | 5185 E. Hwy 246 | Lompoc, CA | www.melvillewinery.com | 805-735-7030

Extremely limited production.

Vineyard-designated. Old-world meets new-world. Handmade. Whole cluster.

Native yeast fermentation.

All living in balance.

Come explore Chad and Mary Melville’s private label.

SAMsARA. The cycle of life.

Cold-Climate. Always.

Santa Rita Hills PINOT NOIR and SYRAH TASTINGS & BY THE GLASS | THUR–MON 11–5

2446 Alamo Pintado Rd | Los Olivos, CA | www.samsarawine.com | 805.688.8689 EdibleSantaBarbara.com SPRING 2017 | 15

seasonal

Sorbet Brioche Canapés Several years ago when I was in Florence, I was at an event where they served appetizer portions of gelato on small circles of brioche with other assorted ingredients, much like a canapé. Here’s a suggestion for re-creating that appetizer, but feel free to branch out and experiment.

Recipes

Glacier goat cheese from Drake Family Farm or a Camembert-style goat cheese Brioche, cut into small rounds Strawberry Rosé Sorbet (page 14) or strawberry sorbet

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eat. drink. read. think.

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Cut the goat cheese into small wedges and let them warm up to room temperature. Lightly toast the brioche rounds, and place a piece of cheese on each one. Assemble them all on a serving tray.

Using a teaspoon or a small scoop, top each with some of the gelato and garnish with an herb sprig. Serve immediately, accompanied by the wine you used in the sorbet.

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ROSMINAH BROWN

Small leaves of basil, mint or chervil, optional garnish

sweet. savory. brioche.

Featuring local, organic, high quality ingredients.

Wednesday to Friday: 7am to 3pm Saturday to Sunday: 7am to 2pm Closed on Monday & Tuesday.

1150 Coast Village Road Suite E, Montecito Breeosh.com 805 570-9151

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Recipes

This recipe is a variation of a traditional coq au vin, but it is made with white wine, and it is a simple one-pot meal meant for busy weeknights. It is also inspired by the braised chicken dish that my Romanian greatgrandmother used to make for me that I called Chicken Goulash (even though it bore no resemblance to goulash).

Choose a Sauvignon Blanc or other dry white wine from Santa Barbara County that is not so expensive that it will pain you to cook with it, but one that you will want to drink. The amount used in the recipe conveniently leaves you with a couple glasses to drink while cooking or with dinner.

Makes 4 servings Olive oil 1 chicken cut into parts or 4 thighs and drumsticks Coarse salt and freshly ground pepper Herbes de Provence 1 onion, coarsely diced 2 cloves garlic, chopped 2 carrots, cut in 1-inch-thick slices 2 ribs celery or 1 fennel bulb, cut in 1-inch-thick slices 1 pound fingerling potatoes, cut in bite-sized pieces or left whole if small 2 cups Sauvignon Blanc or dry white wine, room temperature Fresh Italian parsley or other fresh herb for garnish

Rub the chicken parts with olive oil and season generously with salt, pepper and herbes de Provence. Then set aside and let them come to room temperature while you prep the remaining ingredients.

Heat some olive oil in a large ovenproof deep skillet or shallow Dutch oven and sauté the chicken parts until golden brown on each side. Remove and set aside. Add the onion, garlic, carrots and celery (or fennel) to the pan and sauté for a few minutes, while seasoning lightly with more salt, pepper and herbes de Provence.

Add the wine and deglaze the pan and then add the potatoes and the chicken pieces. Cover and simmer for 20 minutes. Preheat the oven to 425° and place the chicken dish in the oven uncovered for another 15–30 minutes, until tender and cooked through (chicken will read 165° in the thickest part). Add a little chopped parley to garnish. Serve accompanied by some good bread and Sauvignon Blanc, of course.

– Krista Harris

ROSMINAH BROWN

seasonal

Chicken in Sauvignon Blanc

Egg Salad Sandwich What to do with your beautiful onion-skin-dyed Easter eggs? First on the list must be a classic egg salad sandwich.

You have many variations to choose from so you won’t get tired of them, even if you’ve made dozens of eggs.

Makes 2 sandwiches 3 hard-boiled eggs, peeled and coarsely chopped

FOXEN

2 tablespoons mayonnaise or 1 tablespoon mayonnaise and 1 tablespoon crème fraiche

®

Salt and pepper, to taste

V I N E Y A R D & W I N EAdditions: RY • A tablespoon of something crunchy, such as capers, chopped celery, chopped pickled vegetables, chopped radishes or chopped onion • A sprinkling of chopped fresh herbs, such as parsley, basil, cilantro, chervil or tarragon • A dash of something tangy, such as lemon or lime juice, or the pickled juice or caper brine if you used either of those or a dash of white wine vinegar Bread (sliced bread, baguette, bagel, roll, croissant or slider bun) Additional mayonnaise and/or mustard (optional) Additional pickled vegetables (optional) Lettuce

Wines of Elegance & Balance Since 1985

Combine the eggs, mayonnaise, seasoning and additions and mix until incorporated but with a still chunky texture. Taste and add more seasoning or additions if needed.

Create an open-faced or closed sandwich using additional mayonnaise on each slice if you love mayonnaise—or just mustard, or neither. Pickled vegetables make a great topping as well, such as a couple stalks of Pacific Pickle Works Asparagusto.

Solar powered. Sustainable wine growers.

OPEN DAILY 11– 4 | 7200 & 7600 FOXEN CANYON ROAD 805.937.4251 | FOXENVINEYARD.COM — Krista Harris EdibleSantaBarbara.com SPRING 2017 | 19

Recipes

Cherry Clafoutis A clafoutis (pronounced kla-foo-TEE) is a wonderful dessert to make when cherries are in season, usually in mid May. Invest in a cherry pitter to make quick work of pitting the cherries. Once the cherries are pitted, the dessert comes together very quickly. To make it glutenfree, you can use almond flour or another type of gluten-free flour. Pair with a late-harvest dessert wine.

Makes 6 servings 1 tablespoon butter 2 cups stemmed and pitted cherries 1 cup milk 3 eggs 1

⁄ 2 cup sugar

1

⁄ 2 teaspoon salt

1

⁄ 2 teaspoon almond extract

1

⁄ 2 teaspoon vanilla extract

1

⁄ 2 cup flour

Powdered sugar for garnish (optional)

Preheat oven to 350°.

Heat the butter in 9-inch tarte tatin pan or a cast-iron skillet on the stovetop until melted. Add the cherries and let them cook until just softened. Remove from heat.

In a large mixing bowl combine the milk, eggs, sugar, salt and extracts. Beat with an electric beater until frothy then add the flour and mix until just combined. Pour the batter over the cherries and place in the oven. Bake for approximately 30 minutes, until the top is slightly puffed and golden brown. Cool slightly and serve warm.

For an added flourish, dust with powdered sugar just before serving.

Refrigerate leftovers, if there are any.

– Krista Harris

COLIN QUIRT

seasonal

Artistry in Winemaking Since 1982

Longoria Winery & Tasting Room

415 E. Chestnut Avenue Lompoc, CA Open 11am– 4:30pm Daily LongoriaWine.com 866-759-4637

Demeter Certified Biodynamic Rhone and Spanish Varietals

LAMA DOG TAP ROOM + BOTTLE SHOP

ONLY GOOD

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9110 Alisos Canyon Road, Los Alamos 805.344.1804

BEER 116 SANTA BARBARA ST. 805.880.3364 LamaDog.com @LamaDogTaproom

EdibleSantaBarbara.com SPRING 2017 | 21

EDIBLE GARDEN

Growing a Grape Canopy

C AROLE TOPALIAN

by Joan S. Bolton

Concord grapes growing on an arbor in Los Alamos.

T

rain a grapevine up and over a pergola, and the space below may become your favorite outdoor room.

There’s the unfurling of fresh green leaves in spring, the leafy canopy for summer shade, the tasty dangling clusters of fruit and beautiful changing colors in fall, and the rugged character of gnarled, twisting vines during winter. What’s not to love about such an enticing retreat?

Getting Started Grapevines get heavy— especially when they’re loaded with fruit—so do construct a sturdy structure supported by posts measuring at least four by four or six by six inches. Pergola, arbor and gazebo designs can get complicated quickly. But regardless of the look, plan for at least 50 square feet of lath or rafters for each grape vine. For example, two vines will comfortably fit on a pergola that measures 10 by 10 feet, or 100 square feet.

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Vines need excellent drainage. Although a few roots may drill down 15 feet, most reside within the top three feet of soil.

A fast-draining loam is perfect; a gritty, rocky soil is fine. If you are faced with heavy clay, consider building a raised planter that measures at least three feet wide and one to two feet tall.

First, dig out at least a foot of the existing soil. Rough up the sides and poke holes in the bottom of the hole. Frame the new planter around the sides of the hole, then fill the planter with a mix of native soil and loose, vegetable-quality potting soil.

Vines will tolerate some shade near the ground. But the branches that clamber over the top should receive at least seven to eight hours of full sun. More sun may promote even better fruiting and an earlier harvest. More sun and good air circulation also inhibit mildew, to which some grape varieties are prone.

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Choose the most vigorous cane, tie it to the post, then remove all other growth. As the cane grows, continue tying it every foot or so, and snip or rub off any emerging buds or canes.

Gradually twist the vine around the post, if that’s a look you like.

Let the vine grow about two feet past the top of the pergola, then cut off the tip. This forces lateral shoots to break out about 20 inches back into the vine. These new branches, called cordons, will form the framework for subsequent growth. Train the cordons along the outer edges of the pergola, then direct secondary growth at a 90° angle and spaced two feet apart to create a grid. These secondary arms will produce fruit-bearing shoots the following year.

Grapes forming on vines overhead.

For the first few years, remove any flowers or emerging clusters of fruit to encourage the vine to spend its energy producing branches and leaves. Once the vine has fully covered the pergola, you can shift focus to the harvest.

Choosing a Grape

Ongoing Care

If you’re new to grapes and mostly interested in eating them, leave wine grapes in the vineyards and grow table grapes instead.

Irrigate your vine about once a week. Keep water off the leaves to guard against foliar disease. Every spring, apply a two-inch to three-inch layer of compost or loose organic material to provide a slow release of nutrients, retain moisture and hold down weeds.

Wine grapes (Vitis vinifera) are European varieties that typically mature slowly over a long growing season and bear small, thick-skinned fruit containing seeds.

Table grapes (Vitis labrusca), on the other hand, are American varieties, or hybrids resulting from breeding the best traits of both European and American grapes. They are easier to grow, less susceptible to disease and bear larger fruit with thinner skins.

Some are seedless, too.

Look for grapes suited to our coastal areas and inland valleys.

For example, the popular supermarket variety Thompson Seedless thrives in daytime and nighttime heat in the San Joaquin Valley.

Daytime highs in the Santa Ynez Valley may be similar, but nights are considerably cooler.

There’s an extra consideration when growing grapes overhead, which has to do with pruning. Spur-pruned vines are easier to tend and appear less messy than cane-pruned types.

That said, good spur-pruning choices for the Central Coast include Black Monukka, Canadice Seedless, Flame Seedless and Muscat. Cane-pruning choices include Concord, Himrod, Interlaken Seedless, Perlette Seedless and Suffolk Red Seedless.

Training Day On a conventional trellis or post-and-wire setup, branching begins within a few feet of the ground. However, on a pergola, it’s best that a single, unadorned vine winds up a post, then branches out only after it scales the top. If you site the vine midway along the side of your pergola, install a temporary post or wire that you can remove once the vine climbs onto a beam.

24 | EDIBLE SANTA BARBARA SPRING 2017

Prune just as your vines are breaking dormancy in late winter.

Fruit will be produced on new shoots that emerge from the previous year’s wood. Remove branches that have already borne fruit and thin any canes that have gone crazy. Spur pruning then calls for cutting back year-old branches (those arms that extend from the cordons) to two or three new buds; cane pruning calls for cutting back year-old branches to two feet to three feet. Detailed instructions can be found in the UC Cooperative Extension’s California Master Gardener Handbook or on UCANR.org and numerous other websites.

A Native Alternative If you love the look of a grape canopy but would rather fortify wildlife than eat the grapes, plant California wild grape (Vitis californica). The rambling native’s leaves emerge with a grayish sheen in spring, shift to green over summer, then turn yellow and red in fall, while the flowers and fruit nourish bees and birds.

Roger’s Red, a combo of Vitis californica and Vitis vinifera, retains that grayish-green color through summer, then turns an even more spectacular red in fall. The grapes are small and seedy.

But birds consider them a delectable feast.

Joan S. Bolton is a freelance writer, garden coach and garden designer who confesses to a lifelong love affair with plants. She and her husband, Tom, have filled their four-acre property in western Goleta with natives and other colorful, water-conserving plants. They also maintain avocado, citrus and fruit trees and grow vegetables and herbs year-round.

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ROSMINAH BROWN

DRINKABLE LANDSCAPE

Another Reason to Love Wine

by George Yatchisin

I

know, I know. A wine cocktail seems like an unnecessary invention: Why not just drink, well, wine? But consider this: Doesn’t tequila with lime juice and Cointreau make a mighty Margarita? Doesn’t rye love to dance with sweet vermouth in a Manhattan? Am I wrong, or doesn’t even that bit of a brute gin like a kiss of dry vermouth to make a lovely Martini?

So here we go— a wine cocktail. I figured that to strike out in this direction I needed a winemaker guide, and Larry Schaffer of Tercero wines was my willing accomplice. At one point we had six different varietals of his opened in my

26 | EDIBLE SANTA BARBARA SPRING 2017

kitchen—and that was limiting ourselves to whites. (We had to focus somehow.) The goal was to find the perfect spot on the sweet-to-savory continuum while still keeping the wine front-and-center. It would have been easy to just let the wine function as a very complex dry vermouth, but we hoped for something more than that.

We left scotch behind quickly—neither sweet nor complex enough—and while we dallied with gin and several of Schaffer’s whites (the Verbiage Blanc blend and the Outlier, which is Gewürztraminer) we didn’t find what we were looking for. This was hard work!

Then we settled on Grenache Blanc, specifically his latest release, a 2014 —yep, it was aged 15 months prior to bottling, the longest stretch for any Tercero white ever. That means incredible depth and it helps accentuate the trick the best Grenache Blanc can play: It’s a crisp, clean acidic wine first and foremost, but somehow it also manages a bit of creaminess, too.

Think of it as wine muscle, not fat, perhaps. (Schaffer thinks that contrast comes from the grapes being sourced from two different vineyards, Camp 4 and El Camino Real.) With its Meyer lemon edging to Valencia orange citrus character, plus hints of green apple and mineral, it creates a fun base to begin.

Wanting to run with the citrus, and open those flavors even wider, we opted to mix with Ascendant’s American Star Caviar Lime Vodka. Distilled in wine country (Buellton), this spirit is infused with locally grown caviar limes, those pointy little guys that pop. Sure enough, when mixed with the Grenache Blanc, the citrus and herbaceous qualities in both magnified. It’s also a very smooth drink, achieving a Martini-esque sophistication without gin or vermouth.

It did, definitely, need a bit of sweet at this point, though.

Sometimes that can come from the right citrus choice (Meyer lemon adds a surprising dash of sugar, say), but adding actual citrus into the wine never seemed to work in any of the test cocktails. We want wines to remind us of citrus, not be citric. So to push the sweet and herb character, we opted for a rosemarylemon simple syrup, just a half ounce per drink. But again, just the smell of this concoction is heavenly, as everyone in your house will learn when you whip up a batch. As with cooking, think about how you can keep layering flavor, and not just add sugar, but lemon and rosemary too. Such nuance matters.

The drink also calls for a bit of flaming flair with the presentation, and you might need to practice this move before you do it for discerning guests. Slice off some very fresh orange peel, and if you get a bit of pith that’s OK; this trick is easier with a thicker piece of skin. While it’s sort of instinctual to try to squeeze it from long end to long end, instead, hold the

peel by its narrow sides. Light a flame between the peel and the drink’s surface, and squeeze. The oil in the peel will spark through your flame to the cocktail. Cocktail fireworks! Do note that while matches might seem classier, that assumption crumbles as soon as you light one and everyone remembers that in this post-cigarette-smoking world when we smell matches, we think of bathrooms.

And does the flamed citrus, which you do drop into the drink, add a different flavor? It’s subtle, for sure—it’s not like you’ve smoked the cocktail. But some claim it mellows the twist, a bit, so there’s that.

Finally, while this drink certainly might work with other Grenache Blancs, Tercero has another advantage for becoming your bar’s go-to wine mixer. All of Schaffer’s wines come screwtop, and that makes them easy to keep fresh and refrigerate, if you somehow ever have bottles you’ve failed to empty.

The GB Makes 2 cocktails 1 ounce lemon rosemary simple syrup 2 ounces Ascendant American Star Caviar Lime Vodka 4 ounces Tercero Grenache Blanc

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3 dashes per glass of orange bitters 2 orange peels for garnish 2–3 rosemary flowers per glass for garnish

In a cocktail shaker combine the simple syrup, vodka and wine.

Add ice and stir. (This isn’t a drink to shake, as its crystal-clear look is part of its star features.) Pour into 2 coupe glasses that have not been chilled; the wine will taste better not bracingly cold. Add 3 dashes orange bitters to each drink (we went classic and used Regan’s). Flame each of the orange peels and add to the drinks.

Float a few rosemary flowers in each glass.

Lemon Rosemary Simple Syrup 1 cup water 1 cup sugar Peeled rind of 1 lemon Several chopped rosemary sprigs

Combine the sugar and water in a small saucepan and heat until it boils; stir to dissolve all the sugar. Take off the heat and add the lemon rind and rosemary (add more sprigs depending on your appreciation of rosemary). Let cool. Strain into an airtight container. Lasts for a month if stored in the refrigerator.

George Yatchisin happily eats, drinks and writes in Santa Barbara.

He blogs at GeorgeEats.com.

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WINERY PROFILE

Kitá Wines: Blending the Natural Elements of Life into Wine

by Hana-Lee Sedgwick PHOTOGRAPHY BY COLIN QUIRT

I

t’s not every day that a local winery makes history. The Santa Ynez Band of Chumash Indians is the first tribe to own and operate both a winery and a vineyard. And their Kitá Wines have helped them put their stamp on the wine world.

Kitá Wines, which translates to “our valley oak” in the Chumash native language of Samala, was founded in 2010.

That same year, the tribe hired Tara Gomez, Santa Maria native and daughter of the tribe chairman, as the winemaker. While many people most strongly associate the Santa Ynez Band of Chumash with their casino, I wanted to get to know another side of the Chumash: as players in the wine industry.

So, on an uncharacteristically cold winter day (we’re talking in the 30s), I set out to meet with Tara at Kitá’s winemaking 28 | EDIBLE SANTA BARBARA SPRING 2017

facility in the Lompoc Wine Ghetto. It’s early on a Sunday morning and two days before she’s leaving the country no less, but Tara opens the door with a smile and warmly welcomes me into the winery.

After a quick tour, I ask her how she got into wine. “As a kid, I loved exploring nature,” she responds. “I remember having a microscope and looking closely at things I would find outside.” It wasn’t long before that fascination grew into an interest in wine and later, with the help of a scholarship from her tribe, Tara entered the enology program at California State University Fresno.

While at CSU Fresno, she interned at Fess Parker Winery, where she was hired as the enologist after graduation.

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Kitá 2013 Kalaš and 2014 T’aya.

Kitá’s winemaker Tara Gomez.

After several years at J. Lohr Vineyards in Paso Robles and the launch of her own label, Kalawashaq’, she decided to spend some time abroad traveling and working harvests in Spain.

Upon returning to the United States in 2010, she was hired by her Chumash tribe to be the winemaker for Kitá Wines.

“That’s the same year we purchased Camp 4 Vineyard,” she tells me, referring to the Chumash’s 2010 purchase of the 256-acre vineyard planted by the late Fess Parker. “It was perfect because I had worked with Camp 4 while at Fess Parker, so I was already familiar with it.”

With over 19 varieties planted to mostly Bordeaux and Rhône grapes, a knowledge of the vineyard helped inform her decision of which grapes to start with for Kitá’s first vintage.

Tara, along with her assistant Tymari Lore, started with just three varietals—Cabernet, Grenache and Syrah—but have since expanded to work with over a dozen grapes.

While Camp 4 has been the main source of Kitá’s production from the start, they now also source from Hilliard Bruce Vineyards on the western edge of the Sta. Rita Hills.

Today, production is around 2,000 cases annually with 11 wines in the portfolio—from Chardonnay and Pinot Noir sourced from Hilliard Bruce Vineyards to single-varietal wines and blends from Camp 4 Vineyard. Regardless of the source, Tara says the goal at Kitá Wines is simple: to create wine that is a “true union between soil, climate, location and fruit.”

A connection to the land and ancestors is important to the Chumash tribe, so respecting the earth and spirit of the Santa Ynez Valley is what drives Tara’s winemaking philosophy.

“Growing wine grapes is truly a partnership with Mother Earth,” she says. “It’s not only about taking what we need, but giving back in sustainable ways so that we can preserve the land for the longevity of our future generations.”

30 | EDIBLE SANTA BARBARA SPRING 2017

As we taste through the wines, I ask about the significance of the names of the blends, like the white Rhône blend called T’aya, meaning “abalone shell,” and the red blend Kalaš, meaning “breathe.” “Those are meant to represent the natural elements of life in the native Samala language— air, water, land and fire,” she explains.

“Ah, so it all ties back to having that connection to the earth and the balance of life,” I say, as I take a sip of the 2013 Spe’y, a Grenache, Syrah and Carignan blend bursting with notes of blue-toned fruit and baking spices.

“Exactly. It’s all about balance. I try to take insights from my travels for the wines, like this one being influenced by the GSMs (Grenache, Syrah, Mourvedre blends) of Europe, but I still want it to feel like our wine and showcase the terroir of Camp 4 Vineyard,” Tara tells me.

Noticing that there’s plenty of space in the winery, I ask if there are plans to expand production. While there are no plans to expand, Tara informs me they’re adding a tasting room this spring.

Open on the weekends in the Lompoc Wine Ghetto, it’ll be a place to taste Kitá Wines or “pick up a bottle for your next barbecue,” she adds. “We have a lot of barbecues in our family and tribe… In fact, I may have to bring this Pinot home with me for our family barbecue tonight!” she says, referring to the elegant 2013 Pinot Noir in her glass.

Across the board, the wines strike a nice balance between acid, texture, fruit and alcohol— all with an approachable price point. It seems the Chumash tribe has found its true union of land and fruit with Kitá Wines.

Hana-Lee Sedgwick is a Santa Barbara native who writes about wine, food and travel. As a freelance writer, editor and wine consultant, she happily spends her downtime eating, drinking and wandering, documenting it on her blog, Wander & Wine.

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EDIBLE DIY

New Life for Old Wine

It’s Easy to Transform Unfinished Bottles into Delicious Vinegars

by Rosminah Brown

T

he dinner party is over. In fact, it was several days ago—and long after the guests have gone and dishes are done, there remains a leftover opened bottle of wine. You meant to drink it, but things got busy. The bottle’s contents have long passed the peak for drinking, yet it doesn’t need to end swirling down the sink drain. Old wine can get a new life: as vinegar.

In Santa Barbara County we are surrounded by miles of vineyards. We have the means and motivation at our fingertips to make wine vinegar that looks, smells and tastes better than the thin, pale yet confusingly expensive stuff at the grocery store. Demand for better-quality wine vinegar has increased and such vinegars are available at higher-end shops, and thank you for that. But considering our proximity to good, local wine, there’s no reason we can’t make our own.

If you are a winemaker, making vinegar is pretty much the last thing you want to do. A wine that has been lovingly raised and coaxed into a dreamy elixir is destroyed when it has been turned into vinegar. Any time I’ve mentioned wine vinegar to those in the industry, the words visibly pain them.

Larry Schaffer of Tercero wines helped set me straight.

He told me that winemakers generally frown upon vinegar production in any facility that produces wine. Winemakers try to discourage the bacteria that ferment alcohol into vinegar.

You may see vinegar produced alongside olive oil and similar condiments, but rarely, if ever, alongside wine. But in your kitchen, if you have a leftover bottle you can’t bear to throw out, feel free to make vinegar. The oxidation process has already started. It’s time to call in “Mother” to finish it.

32 | EDIBLE SANTA BARBARA SPRING 2017

A Trip to Italy ,

ROSMINAH BROWN

without the Jet Lag…

The Mother.

Mother of Vinegar Mother makes everything better. In the case of vinegar, wine plus oxygen left on its own will eventually convert to vinegar, if something else does not spoil it first. In the process, the alcohol ferments into acetic acid and, combining with cellulose, a bacteria mass forms on top of the vinegar. This is called the mother.

Its presence indicates that, yes, you have successfully made vinegar, and a thriving mother provides an extra boost of activity for future vinegar. A vinegar mother is similar to a kombucha SCOBY (symbiotic culture of bacteria and yeast) in appearance and functionality, but the bacteria that comprise each are different. They cannot be used interchangeably: I have tried dropping a kombucha SCOBY into my leftover wine and unsurprisingly failed to produce vinegar.

I acquired my first vinegar mother from Julia Crookston, at the Goodland Kitchen. It was a flimsy pale white thing.

I dropped it into a small jar with a cup of some leftover rosé wine during a summer month and within a week I had vinegar and a new mother forming on top. Success! Eager to ramp up production I bought an embarrassingly cheap bottle of red wine that cost about two bucks, and dumped in the new mother and most of the vinegar, consuming what remained.

That was a poor decision. The new batch was a failure, resulting in a jar of murky liquid that smelled sharply of nail

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size until I had several wine bottles full of tangy wine vinegar and new crops of vinegar mothers that have since spawned jars of red, white, rosé and sparkling all in states of ever-evolving vinegar to be poured off, consumed and shared with friends.

ROSMINAH BROWN

Wine Vinegar—Redemption Every few months, friends who hold wine tasting parties would pass off collected bottles of leftover wine for my vinegar project, along with a few empty bottles. I return them full of wine that has been given a second life as vinegar. My countertop is now a hodgepodge of jars covered in fabric secured by rubber bands, with floating gray, white and red matter quietly fermenting alcohol into acid alongside a jar of kombucha and maybe some lacto-fermenting pickles. Who wants a kombucha SCOBY or vinegar mother? I have plenty. It’s like Amish Friendship Bread or Audrey from Little Shop of Horrors. They need feeding, and they keep growing.

I’m even pondering taking pottery classes so I can make my own vinegar crocks—wider at the top to keep the mother in place and allow for oxygen flow, with a spigot at the bottom to harvest the vinegar without disturbing the mother.

It can get as crazy and specialized as you want. Yet it doesn’t take much to nurture vinegar. Old wine resurrects into new vinegar once it hits its stride. You just need a healthy mother, plenty of oxygen and an ongoing supply of leftover, forgotten wine. If you choose to devote a couple of entire bottles to vinegar, that is OK, too—but please don’t tell the winemaker.

Repurpose wine and decorative bottles for your homemade vinegar.

Making Wine Vinegar polish remover. Worse, I’d killed the mother. Everything was lost. I was convinced that I had used such bad wine that it was, in fact, not really wine. Instead, it was a vaguely sippable liquid substance engineered to taste like wine—much like the fast-food industry engineers edible food-like substances to taste like food.

It took nearly a year for me to return to Julia and admit I’d failed and needed a new mother. This time I put the jar of wine on my water heater, in the closet, using a better-quality white wine. Nothing happened. I added some apple cider vinegar that contained active ingredients, but the wine slowly evaporated until there was practically nothing left but an exposed disc of a mother, languishing and undoubtedly long dead.

Before trying a third time, I talked things over with Julia.

She suggested that in my second attempt that the wine and the mother had died from getting too hot on the water heater.

She gave me another mother, a thick piece from a thriving, active bottle of vinegar, with instructions to keep it at room temperature.

I added it to some leftover sparkling wine and it worked.

Champagne vinegar. This time I lowered my risk by dividing up the mother into four parts. One went into new sparkling wine, another into a local rosé, a third piece went offsite to a friend’s sparkling wine jar and the fourth I kept in its own vinegar as my failsafe. The rosé took off like wildfire, and I increased the batch 34 | EDIBLE SANTA BARBARA SPRING 2017

Vinegar made from wine and other fermenting fruits goes back thousands of years and its varied medicinal and culinary uses are noted across multiple cultures. Without delving much into the science behind it, alcohol mixes with acetic acid bacteria and is fed with oxygen to produce acetic acid, or vinegar. Making your own wine vinegar is easy, especially when the specific Acetobacter aceti can be introduced directly into the wine as either some starter unpasteurized vinegar (like Bragg’s Apple Cider Vinegar) or a mother of vinegar. Even without a starter, there is abundant Acetobacter aceti floating around in the air to eventually inoculate the wine, but this can potentially take a long time.

If you’re lucky and know someone already making vinegar, you can add a piece of an active mother to kick start it into action. The more active vinegar-producing ingredients in the mix, the faster the conversion will occur. You can also buy a vinegar mother as a liquid or in its cellulose-condensed form.

The conversion process requires ample oxygen, so pour your leftover wine into a wide-mouthed glass or ceramic jar (no metal or plastic) from a height to aerate the wine, and add some filtered water to the wine, approximately 10% of the volume of the wine you are using. It’s fine to mix red and white wines, if you don’t have much wine to work with. But if you plan to have different uses for your vinegar, by all means do separate batches.

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Use your vinegar in a vinaigrette for salad greens.

If you like, you can use a fancy vinegar crock, which has a wide opening at the top and a spigot at the bottom so you can add wine while harvesting vinegar without letting the mother sink. Once it sinks, it’s effectively “retired” and a new mother will form eventually. But for simplicity and small-batch production, Mason jars work fine.

Add the vinegar starter—either some living vinegar or a mother of vinegar or both—and cover the jar with cheesecloth held in place with rubber bands or string. The fabric will allow oxygen to continue passing through while keeping fruit flies out.

Store your wine mixture out of direct light in a temperature range from 65–80°—roughly your indoor home temperature— and be patient. Depending on how much active vinegar and wine you started with and the temperature, it could take a couple weeks or months to become vinegar. If things are going well, the wine will begin to form a gelatinous skin on top. This is the vinegar mother and it is best left undisturbed until the vinegar is ready.

As your vinegar progresses, it will have a sharp acid scent and taste. If it takes on a pungent smell like nail polish remover before the mother forms, it has gone off. Discard this batch and try again. Once the alcohol has been metabolized and the vinegar tastes satisfying to you, you will need to stop the oxidation process before it goes too far and breaks down into carbon dioxide and water.

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Strain your new vinegar into airtight bottles or reuse your cleaned wine bottles. For greater stability, you can pasteurize your vinegar by heating it to 140°–150° for 30 minutes. This is enough to keep a new mother from forming in the bottle—it is unsightly but harmless. Don’t forget to retain some of the unpasteurized vinegar if you want to start a new batch.

Celebrate Your Newly Made Wine Vinegar Congratulations! You have homemade wine vinegar. Now what will you do with it? First, you might want to share some with your friends. Put it in pretty bottles—they make very nice gifts.

And pass along some of the mother to friends who want to start their own batch.

When cooking, add a splash of wine vinegar to the pan after cooking to deglaze it and start a sauce. Drizzle vinegar over sliced vegetables before tossing them onto the grill.

Vinegar is also a good ingredient in marinades as it tenderizes the meat—marinate less time for delicate fish, more time for beef. And, of course, you can use it in vinaigrettes for salads. Its versatility is endless.

HEINZ LEITNER

Recipes Pickled Red Onions These are an all-round great condiment you can use to dress up tacos or cheese and charcuterie boards, to top a salad or add to a sandwich.

Some additional spices can jazz up the flavor.

Mignonette Sauce for Oysters You can use different types of vinegar for mignonette sauce.

Champagne tends to be milder, while white and red wine vinegar will be stronger.

You can also dilute red wine vinegar. Go with what you like best. After all, you have so much wine vinegar to work with now.

2 red onions, thinly sliced 1 cup red wine vinegar 11⁄ 2 teaspoons kosher salt 11⁄ 2 teaspoons sugar

OPTIONAL SPICES 1

⁄ 2 teaspoon black peppercorns

1

1 bay leaf

1 shallot, peeled and finely diced

1 pinch cumin seeds

1 teaspoon coarsely ground fresh black or white pepper

2 teaspoons coriander seeds

36 | EDIBLE SANTA BARBARA SPRING 2017

1 pinch salt

Mix all in a small bowl; leave for an hour for the flavors to develop. Serve drizzled over freshly shucked oysters on the half shell.

ROSMINAH BROWN

Place the onions and optional spices in a bowl. In a small saucepan over medium heat, combine the vinegar, salt and sugar and bring to a simmer. Pour over the onions and let cool to room temperature, then move to the refrigerator. Let the flavors develop at least 4 hours before using. Stored in an airtight container, these pickles should last for several weeks, if you don’t eat them sooner.

⁄ 4 cup champagne vinegar

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A Million Miracles in Every Glass Bubbles Convey the Essence of Santa Barbara County

by Laura Sanchez PHOTOGRAPHY BY FRAN COLLIN

38 | EDIBLE SANTA BARBARA SPRING 2017

T

hree aromas are more exhilarating to my senses than any other. They are the earthy smell of rain, the salt-infused scent of the ocean and the zesty spritz of sparkling wine. And all three have one mechanism in common: bubbles.

Bubbles are captivating. Their translucent architecture inspires wonder; their graceful buoyancy, pure delight. But perhaps even more intriguing is their role in carrying aromas and flavors to our senses. That is the unique gift of effervescence.

I learned recently that when a raindrop touches the ground, tiny air bubbles are momentarily trapped. They rise to the raindrop’s surface, carrying with them petrichor, the minerallaced scent of the earth.

Similarly, near the sea, the burst of wave-born bubbles releases molecules into the air that make the seaside smell briny and the air taste salty. Bubbles deliver the earth’s and the ocean’s microscopic sensory details directly to our eyes, tongue, nose and ears.

When a cork pops from a bottle of sparkling wine, and a glass is poured, an estimated one million translucent pearls begin floating to the surface. We’re mesmerized by the ascending bubbles—it’s like watching galaxies float by. But beyond beauty, bubbles act as vehicles for much of the scent, taste, sound and tactile pleasure derived in sparkling wine.

“They’re like little tiny aroma-carrying spaceships heading straight for your face,” says Brittany Zotovich of Dreamcôte and Zotovich Cellars.

Many sparkling wines are made from still wines that are fermented twice—once in tank or barrel and again in bottle.

As yeast consumes sugars during sparkling wine’s secondary fermentation, it releases carbon dioxide. This gas is trapped within the bottle.

“In our sparkling wines we use the traditional method of adding sugar to a still base wine which is then inoculated with yeast,” says winemaker Dieter Cronje of Presqu’ile Winery.

“Because the bottle is sealed, the carbon dioxide cannot escape and dissolves in the liquid, which then presents itself as bubbles.”

However some sparkling wines are made by capturing actively fermenting wines. “We made the decision to produce our bubbles using a method called pétillant naturel or ‘pét-nat’ for short, which translates to ‘natural sparkling,’” Zotovich explains. “Each bottle is filled with partially fermented grape juice, or in-process wine, still containing yeast and the natural sugars from the grapes. We then put a crown cap on and wait.

The process is imperfect and a bit of a gamble, but we dig the raw result. It’s kind of wild and unpolished.”

EdibleSantaBarbara.com SPRING 2017 | 39

Some of the trapped CO2 escapes when you pop the cork.

The rest finds itself in your glass, where it comingles with impurities on the glass wall. Microscopic cellulose fibers left behind by paper towel, cloth or airborne dust trap carbon dioxide inside their tiny, tube-like pockets. When the gas reaches about 10 to 20 micrometers in diameter, it outgrows the pocket and rises to the surface as a bubble.

“Bubble size is complicated,” explains Norm Yost, of Flying Goat Cellars. “Age, CO2 integration and wine chemistry play key roles in determining the dimensions—specifically alcohol, tannins and proteins affect bubble size. Proteins in the wine play a significant role regarding the surface tension of wine, which can affect CO2 release.”

Surfactants, or organic compounds, also affect the rate at which bubbles rise. As a rule, the more surfactants present in a wine, the slower the bubbles rise since they coat bubble surfaces and slow them down. Aromatic compounds also latch onto bubbles as they float upward. These compounds concentrate at the wine’s surface.

Higher levels of dissolved CO2 also affect a bubble’s rising rate. As bubbles ascend, they expand due to additional CO2 molecules that diffuse into them along the way—a process called Oswald ripening. Higher concentrations of dissolved gas causes bubbles to grow quickly. This helps them shed surfactants and rise faster.

Bottles of Riverbench sparkling wines enhanced with a glittered exterior.

In times past sparkling wine was often served in coupe glasses, then flutes became popular for preserving the bubbles. Now many in the industry find the shape of a white wine glass allows for greater development of flavors and aromatics.

40 | EDIBLE SANTA BARBARA SPRING 2017

The difference between beer bubbles and sparkling wine bubbles serves as an example of the role chemistry plays in bubble activity. Beer bubbles tend to be larger and float to the surface much slower than sparkling wine’s bubbles due to two primary differences in chemistry. First, barley contributes proteins during the brewing process that weigh beer bubbles down. In addition, sparkling wine has a higher dissolved gas content, which causes bubbles to expand more rapidly, shed organic compounds and float upwards at a livelier rate.

And yet bubbles are ephemeral. When they rupture the wine’s surface and release the gasses they’ve carried with them, bubbles create jet droplets that splash upward. These droplets create a misty aerosol spray with very high concentrations of aromatic molecules.

“The bubbles actually ‘jump’ off of the surface of the wine, intensifying the perception of the aromas,” says Laura Booras of Riverbench Winery. The spray fills our sensory receptors with the wine’s aromatic compounds. The effervescence also creates a pleasant tingling sensation on the palate.

But what affect do bubbles have on flavor? “For me, they highlight flavor,” says Yost. “CO2 carries compounds up and delivers them in a more expressive form. It magnifies the flavors present by lifting primary compounds—typically fruity esters—and releasing them,” Yost explains, emphasizing that the initial still wine has to be flawless since CO2 can accentuate any characteristic—even one that’s not necessarily enjoyable.

He also feels that effervescence amplifies the expression of site in the sparkling wines that he crafts from remarkable vineyards in Santa Barbara County.

“I do my best to capture the vineyard’s essence in the still wine. CO2 pushes these flavors up in the glass and lets people appreciate them.” As an example, he cites Flying Goat’s Clos Pepe Vineyard Blanc de Noir. “I’ve made sparkling wine from that site from 2007 to 2014. The natural vibrancy of the vineyard and the purity of the clone 115 fruit stand out year after year.”

Beyond flavor, bubbles influence texture as well. Laura Booras explains the effect of effervescence in terms of mineral waters.

“Think about drinking Perrier vs. Badoit,” she says. “Perrier has large bubbles like soda, whereas Badoit has fine, tiny bubbles.

They feel quite different on your tongue—the Perrier bubbles are almost aggressive. Our sparkling wines have refined, tiny bubbles, which lend to a creamy and soft texture.” The 2014 Riverbench Cork Jumper Brut Rosé is especially lovely, with rosewater aromas and layers of delicate fruit and savory notes on the palate.

Part of what makes sparkling wines special is the challenge of producing them. It’s a painstaking process that requires years of by-hand labor. “All of our wines are naturally carbonated and aged for three years—plus more time on the lees—which produces a much finer bubble that has very gentle texture,” says Dieter Cronje. “The understanding of how much time and effort it takes to make a bottle always gets understated. Now that we have started making sparkling wines, I recognize the hard work and passion involved. It’s always the first thing that crosses my mind when I sip a glass of sparkling wine.”

EdibleSantaBarbara.com SPRING 2017 | 41

The Sparkling Wine Guide created by Liz Dodder and designed by Bottle Branding.

But that doesn’t mean that sparkling wines should be reserved for special occasions. They complement any circumstance and are extremely versatile. “Sparkling wine is the most food-friendly wine on the planet,” says sommelier Cameron Porter. “The bright acid of a blanc de blanc is a beautiful accompaniment to foods that have some heat—say, Mexican or Thai cuisine—while sparkling rosé cuts through the richness of fried foods and can bring out savory elements. An aged vintage Champagne is one of life’s great pleasures. When matched with a great cheese such as Brillat-Savarin, it can be profound.”

Booras agrees. “Bubbles go with just about everything— but fried chicken, foie gras or caviar and bubbly are a few of my favorites.” Not only do they keep your palate feeling refreshed and lifted, the acidity and delicacy of sparkling wines make them an elegant complement to any dish—the epicurean equivalent of a little black dress.

42 | EDIBLE SANTA BARBARA SPRING 2017

Beyond versatility, winemakers and wine drinkers agree that bubbles have the extraordinary ability to make a simple moment sublime. “What I enjoy most about sipping a glass of sparkling wine is that it elevates your experience,” says Brittany Zotovich.

“Andre Simon wrote, ‘Wine makes every meal an occasion, every table more elegant, every day more civilized.’ To me, sparkling wine is a reminder of that, as well as an invitation to live in the present.”

The truth is, these tiny translucent spheres not only deliver aromas to our senses, they offer us a profound sense of appreciation. As I reflect on the bubble-conveyed scents of rain, of the salty mist of ocean air, and the citric spritz of sparkling wine, I realize that bubbles, for me, encapsulate pure gratitude. For each of these aromatic experiences, in its own way, makes me feel like I’m witnessing a miracle.

Laura Sanchez is a Santa Barbara–based writer with an appreciation for all things delicious and brilliant wine pairings—like bubbles and Tuesday.

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The Pursuit of an Ideal The Pioneering Spirit that Defined the Sta. Rita Hills

by Sonja Magdevski P H O T O G R A P H Y B Y S H E R R I E C H AV E Z

Alma Rosa Vineyard.

T

he story of the creation of the Sta. Rita Hills AVA is one of conviction, determination and faith intimately woven into the character of vintner Richard Sanford. Anyone in the Santa Ynez Valley wine world will tell you that one cannot be referenced without the other.

44 | EDIBLE SANTA BARBARA SPRING 2017

I have been waiting for this moment since last year, when I began this journey of writing on the origins of Santa Barbara County’s American Viticultural Areas (AVAs). It was a 1976 vintage Sanford & Benedict Cabernet Sauvignon from the “Coastal Hills of the Santa Ynez Valley in Santa Barbara County” that ignited my curiosity to explore this road.

I was speechless when tasting this wine, mesmerized by the label and the integrity of the wine. I had heard the stories that Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot, Chardonnay and Riesling were among the fashionable varietals originally planted at the vineyard in 1971. Today only the Chardonnay remains—the others are long gone, as is the Sanford & Benedict brand. Like all history, memories shift through time and truth becomes malleable. Yet here was undeniable proof in my wine glass that the past was alive and well and those accountable for it had stories to tell.

What is now the Sta. Rita Hills was once called the Western Santa Ynez Valley. When Richard Sanford first came prospecting for vineyard property in 1969, many local farmers considered this land too cold to plant grapes. While agriculture was diverse in the area at that time with ranching and row crops, grapes were thought to be better suited for warmer eastern areas. Local farmers, of course, thought he was nuts.

“There was a vineyard in the area,” laughs Sanford, recounting those early days. We are sitting in his current Alma Rosa Winery office on a cool, foggy September harvest morning

Thekla and Richard Sanford at the La Encantada Vineyard.

in 2016. Various maps decorate the walls and viticultural books line the shelves.

“It was the Nielson Vineyard planted in 1964 on the Tepesquet Mesa in the Santa Maria Valley.” Interest was building during this time for grape growing with tax incentives and the allure of premium pricing for product on the temperate coastal zone. “San Joaquin Valley grapes were $52 a ton for Thompson Seedless and out here it was $152 a ton for these fancy coastal grapes,” Sanford said.

It was during this time that other pioneering folks were also scouting land to set down roots. Within a few years, famed

vineyards such as Rancho Sisquoc, Bien Nacido, Zaca Mesa and Firestone would be planted. But at this moment in 1969 it was just Sanford—a Vietnam naval veteran looking to find a renewed space in the world after feeling rejected by the culture that drafted him— driving around Santa Barbara county in his 1959 Mercedes looking for peace.

“You are a product of the time in which you are living,” Sanford said. “The defining circumstance in my coming of age was the Vietnam War and everything that came with it.

I mean, to be spit on after coming back from a war… it was very confusing for young people.”

EdibleSantaBarbara.com SPRING 2017 | 45

Sanford is an even-toned, steady man. After more than 45 years in the wine business, he speaks reflectively as someone who has seen it all, with a resolute tone of someone who has earned it. He began telling me that his strategy for coping with this rejection was to rebuff the culture that sent him to war.

He needed to be involved in something more grounding and connected to the earth. Agriculture became his solace.

During this turbulent time he harkened back to a memory he describes as his threshold wine experience. His shipmate named Scott Wine, of all things, introduced him to a Pinot Noir from Volnay in the Burgundy region of France that would change his life. “I was thinking about that Volnay and the structure of the velvet,” he said. “Why couldn’t I be involved in creating a beverage like that?”

ocean—about 10 miles—creates a cooling maritime influence that is funneled in with morning fog and intense wind.

Coupled with poor marine soils deposited from tectonic shifts millions of years ago, these variables create complicated growing conditions for any crop. Those farmers questioning Sanford’s intentions were not wrong, they simply did not understand that these characteristics created a favorable environment for producing premium cool-climate grapes.

Identifying Place Before the war, Sanford graduated from UC Berkeley with a degree in geography and he used his education to analyze soil and climate data of Burgundy, France. His goal was to identify an area closer to home that best matched its characteristics. It is now legend that Sanford drove up and down Highway 246 from Santa Ynez to Lompoc with a thermometer taped to his car. He discovered that the temperature cooled by one degree for each mile he drove west. His original hope was to plant a vineyard near Lake Cachuma, though he soon recognized it was too warm for Pinot Noir. “You have to be where the grapes want to be,” he said. That is when he found the stretch of land conducive to his goals.

The Santa Rita Hills is an oval-shaped formation in the center of the Santa Rita valley. The transverse mountain range that cradles the area is its essential geologic characteristic, with the Purisima Hills to the north and the Santa Rosa Hills to the south.

In a transverse system, the range runs east and west, unlike more standard north-south configurations. The proximity to the

Sanford & Benedict Vineyard.

46 | EDIBLE SANTA BARBARA SPRING 2017

Winemaker Bryan Babcock.

It didn’t take long before others took notice, after Sanford and his then-partner Michael Benedict planted the abandoned bean farm that would become Sanford & Benedict with vine cuttings from the lone Nielson Vineyard in Santa Maria. Pinot Noir was planted a few years later.

In the span of just over 10 years Lafond, Sweeney Canyon, Huber and Babcock vineyards were also planted. By 1984 when Bryan Babcock started making wine on Highway 246 with his father, Los Angeles was a major market for wines coming from the newly created Santa Ynez Valley AVA. “The first real heads turning for wines from the Western Santa Ynez Valley were with the Pinot Noirs that Richard and Michael made in the late 1970s,” said Bryan Babcock of Babcock Vineyards.

“In an environment where the wine media concluded that you can’t make a Burgundy-style wine in the New World because the grape is too fickle, all of a sudden Sanford & Benedict is producing these dark, rich, expressive Pinot Noirs.”

Babcock soon planted Pinot Noir at his ranch and in the coming years more growth followed.

Chardonnay and Pinot Noir were recognized as the primary grapes to plant and new vineyards such as Cargassachi, Mt. Carmel, Clos Pepe, Fess Parker, Fiddlestix, Melville, Fe Ciega and Sea Smoke were listening. The energy was palpable. “The cat was out of the bag,” said Babcock.

Santa Maria 101

SANTA BARBARA COUNTY Santa Maria

Los Alamos

Lompoc

SANTA MARIA VALLEY A.V.A.

101

101

246 STA. RITA HILLS A.V.A.

154 246

1 1

Lake Cachuma

101

154

Santa Barbara

LO S A L A M O S VA L L E Y

L os Alamos

101

L o m po c

STA. RITA HILLS A.V.A.

SANTA YNEZ VALLEY A.V.A. 246

Lo s O l i v o s

BALLARD CANYON A.V.A.

154

LOS OLIVOS A.V.A. Sa n t a Y n ez

B ue llton

246

So l va n g 1

1

HAPPY CANYON OF SANTA BARBARA A.V.A.

154

Lake Cachuma

101

One major issue was conflicting these early adopters, particularly Richard Sanford, who by the mid 1990s was producing 50,000 cases of wine sold all over the world under the Sanford label with winemaker Bruno D’Alfonso.

“The perception in the wine media was that the cool Santa Maria Valley was the place for Pinot Noir, and the warm Santa Ynez Valley was the place for Cabernet Sauvignon,” said Sanford, who years earlier had grafted over his original plantings. “I wasn’t happy about that.”

When the Santa Ynez Valley AVA was approved in 1984, it was an all-inclusive effort to encompass the dozen or so vineyards south of the Santa Maria Valley. Now with 500 acres under vine in the western Santa Ynez Valley producing drastically different wines from the east, winemakers wanted acknowledgment for their distinct efforts.

The Santa Rita Hills Winegrowers Alliance was born with Sanford as chairman, Dan Gainey of Gainey Vineyards as treasurer, newcomer Wes Hagen of Clos Pepe Vineyards as

EdibleSantaBarbara.com SPRING 2017 | 47

COURTESY OF WES HAGEN.

Winemaker Wes Hagen.

secretary and Bryan Babcock as mapmaker. The goal was to define the appellation of the Sta. Rita Hills AVA.

The Beginning For years Wes Hagen was the unofficial spokesperson for the Sta. Rita Hills. First, because his energy is unstoppable, and second, he gives 100% to everything he does. On this harvest morning I am sitting across from him at Pappy’s Restaurant in Santa Maria near his current job as winemaker for J. Wilkes, asking him to recall the early association days 20 years before.

In 1996 he was a cellar hand learning the craft with Bryan Babcock. One day, after a wine writer had visited from Napa, Bryan began to get agitated.

“This guy drove down for two hours to write about some crazy guys making Pinot Noir on the west side and he was going to drive home and define who we were without us having any control over it,” Hagen said. “Babcock was in the mood of self-determination overlooking the valley and he said, ‘This is the Santa Rita Hills.’” That was the first time Hagen had ever heard that term used.

The group included about 30 winegrowers and winemakers in the area—“renegades,” as Sanford recalled—who met in his map room looking for qualitative markers to define their borders. They studied climate data, analyzed watersheds, shared their experiences throughout the area, visited vineyards and trekked (oftentimes trespassed) on properties from ridgeline 48 | EDIBLE SANTA BARBARA SPRING 2017

to ridgeline identifying the markers that created their unique microclimate.

There are photos of Sanford, Rick Longoria and others walking with geologist Thomas Dibblee, who lived in Santa Barbara and created the indispensible Dibblee Maps that documented soil data, among other things, along the hillsides in the Santa Rita Hills.

“We were all there because of Richard,” said Greg Brewer of Brewer-Clifton, started in 1996 with Steve Clifton, focusing exclusively on Pinot Noir and Chardonnay. “It was his world, his spot. He was the elder statesman.”

Brewer was the one who gave me the Sanford and Dibblee photos. If Hagen was the unofficial spokesperson for years, Brewer is the torchbearer who has traveled the world from Sweden to Japan and all across the United States spreading the gospel of the Sta. Rita Hills. “I have dedicated my entire career to an eight-mile stretch of land. This is my hometown.”

The goal of the Sta. Rita Hills appellation was to be a cohesive, structured and targeted area based on climate and geology. “The reasoning behind the expansiveness of the Santa Ynez Valley was appropriate back then,” Brewer said. “With the Sta. Rita Hills we wanted to do it right to create a meaningful, dedicated and specific AVA with a strong influence on our two most important grapes: Pinot Noir and Chardonnay. We were trying to get away from the broader Santa Ynez Valley message

that we can do it all. Through this process we became an aligned force of people important to the success of the Sta. Rita Hills.”

After a year of meetings and research, Hagen was chosen to write the AVA application, which he calls his watershed moment. When the petition was submitted in 1997 there were nine wineries in Santa Rita Hills. When the petition was approved in 2001 there were 20 wineries. Today there are 52 members of the Sta. Rita Hills Wine Alliance, with 2,700 acres planted primarily to Pinot Noir and Chardonnay. This seems to be only the beginning.

“The motivation behind the appellation was very sincere,” said Brewer. “The wines are carnal and very raw. There was no political weirdness or strained association for economic play. It was very grassroots, humble and honest and I think the wines continue to be that, too.”

A New Era Once the Santa Rita Hills AVA was approved, the Santa Rita Winery in Chile immediately contested it. As a 120-year-old, international winery producing 3 million cases annually, it felt the handful of wineries in the Santa Rita Hills would dampen its name recognition. As a testament to his diplomacy, Sanford met personally with the winery group in Chile and drew up an agreement without lawyers where the California AVA would abbreviate its name in writing to the Sta. Rita Hills.

This allowed the Chilean winery to keep its integrity while upholding the approval by the United States government.

Today, the Sta. Rita Hills is considered the most successful AVA in Santa Barbara County based on name recognition and cohesive consumer message.

“In terms of marketing dollars and reputation, we are the best guerilla AVA ever created,” said Hagen. “We make wine that is absolutely unique. We make wine that king-maker critics love because we can make the biggest, darkest, richest Pinots on the planet if we want to. We can also make the most mineralladen, elegant, acid-driven wines. We have built-in quality and support by first generations making kick-ass wines.”

It is also one of the most valuable AVAs for Pinot Noir and Chardonnay in the state, sought after by winemakers throughout California looking to create complex wines that garner premium pricing.

“We have the ability to make this incredible spectrum of wines,” said Mike Testa of Coastal Vineyard Care, while standing at the John Sebastiano Vineyard on the east end of the Sta. Rita Hills AVA. “You can never make a wine that is this concentrated from any other part of the state. Most of the Pinot Noir in California is grown between King City and Soledad with huge clusters and huge berries. Even in extremely ripe conditions they are still not producing a wine that delivers the concentration that we deliver from the Sta. Rita Hills.”

Testa said he has been lucky in his career to farm in every major growing region in California and the ability of the Sta. Rita Hills to produce super-low-yielding, small-berried clusters

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of Pinot Noir in some of the most extreme growing conditions is unparalleled in the state.

“Because of the soil, wind and drought conditions, there isn’t a point in the year when the vines are not stressed out,” said Testa. “The vine knows that and it is producing a small cluster, with small berries that it knows it is going to ripen.

We know we are going to turn that into wine with great extraction. Within this small stretch of space you have this incredible growing climate that suits Pinot Noir and also keeps great acidity, which is what make us different at any level of ripeness.”

For Brewer, access to grapes in the Sta. Rita Hills was hard to come by in the early years of Brewer-Clifton. Fruit was simply not available. He remembers writing handwritten letters to vineyard owners, asking for grapes. When a contract did come through, it wasn’t always a stable agreement for the following year.

“Fruit was definitely something that was hard-earned back then,” Brewer said. He and Clifton eventually decided to lease property and plant their own vineyards in the mid 2000s to secure their sourcing for their future.

Contrast that to current day, when a healthy portion of Sta. Rita Hills grapes are trucked out of county, primarily to larger Napa and Sonoma wineries who don’t want to be left out of

50 | EDIBLE SANTA BARBARA SPRING 2017

this growing system. While local consumption has stayed the same in recent years, outside demand keeps climbing.

“Some of the best parcels of land in the Sta. Rita Hills haven’t even been planted yet,” said Testa. “We are focusing the majority of our efforts in this area.”

Walking with Brewer in his Machado Vineyard parcel after harvest, with fruitless vines and browning leaves, I ask why the Sta. Rita Hills is so special to him beyond the transverse mountain range and the windswept landscape that is unique to everyone sourcing fruit in the area.

He smiles at me in a way to say I can’t truly understand if I have to ask.

“It is all of it,” he said. “It is the huge answer to that terroir question. It is the valley, the wind, the fog, the soil. It is Richard in ’71. It is us in ’96. It is Bryan and the nuns at Mt. Carmel. It is the history of it. How we mapped it in a couple of 4Runners buzzing around looking at ridgelines. It is all nourishing and enriching to this community. There is so much more to it than circumstance.”

Sonja Magdevski is winemaker/owner of Casa Dumetz + Clementine Carter, a tiny producer in love with Grenache, specializing in Santa Barbara County Rhone Varietals. She is also a journalist exploring the intricate world of wine.

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Lompoc Wine History From Mission Grape to Spectator’s Top Eight

by Kate Griffith P H O T O G R A P H Y B Y S H E R R I E C H AV E Z

La Purisima Mission in Lompoc, California.

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The Wine Ghetto is just one of the many locations along the Lompoc Wine Trail.

D

uring a memorable harvest lunch at Sea Smoke’s state-of-the-art winery in Lompoc, I swirled a glass of the 2009 Ten Pinot Noir and reflected on the evolution of the Lompoc wine community.

The 230-year history from Spanish mission to temperance colony to wine mecca has an ironic trajectory.

Accompanied by the Sea Smoke winemaking team, plus their harvest crew and a few other guests, I lunched on oven-roasted heirloom tomato soup topped with goat cheese, arugula corn salad laced with Padrón peppers and heirloom tomatoes, Waygu beef meatballs and flatbreads with beer-braised pork belly and chanterelles or roasted heirloom tomatoes prepared in the Full of Life Flatbread mobile oven. We drank unlabeled bottles of Sea Smoke Pinot Noir and Sea Spray while appreciating the area’s winemaking history.

The Lompoc Valley has a tradition of growing grapes and making wine that dates back to its Franciscan mission period. The city of Lompoc is located where La Purisima Mission was founded by Father Fermín de Francisco Lasuén in 1787. The mission had its own vineyards to produce wine for sacramental offerings, medicinal purposes and general consumption.

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While volunteering as a docent at the mission, I learned that the unique skills of Father Mariano Payéras expanded La Purisima’s material wealth; his mission pear brandy was prized worldwide. He arrived at La Purisima in 1804, and planted vineyards and orchards in nearby Jalama Canyon and San Francisquito because they were better suited for growing wine grapes. Payéras’s influence continued to grow as he oversaw the entire California mission system from La Purisima during his tenure as president from 1815 to 1819.

In 1874, the Lompoc Valley Land Company established Lompoc as a temperance colony similar to one in Vineland, New Jersey. Since Lompoc was on the stage coach route between Santa Barbara and San Luis Obispo, alcohol was ubiquitous and temperance was difficult to maintain.

Yet, Lompoc’s own “Carrie Nation” vigilante committee succeeded in pulling down a building in which liquor sales were taking place in 1883. The event is memorialized in one of the town’s public murals at 137 S. H St. When Lompoc was incorporated as a city in 1888, the temperance clause written into every deed was unenforceable, so temperance was deemed officially over. Temperance proved to be incompatible with the cultural traditions of the old West as well as the Portuguese and Italian immigrant garagistes, who were accustomed to their own home winemaking.

Nonetheless there was a long dry spell with temperance and then Prohibition. Then Michael Benedict and Richard Sanford pioneered wine grape growing in the area when they planted Sanford & Benedict Vineyard with Pinot Noir on Santa Rosa Road in 1971. The first vineyard planted in what would become the Sta. Rita Hills appellation, it supplied the cuttings for many of the surrounding vineyards planted over the next few decades.

The advent of new vineyards in the area and the petition for a nearby AVA led to the opening of Lompoc’s first winery in the Sobhani Industrial Park, affectionately known as the Lompoc Wine Ghetto. Rick Longoria launched the trend in December 1998. He was attracted to the availability of large industrial space with comparatively low rent in a naturally cool environment.

Sea Smoke launched their tradition of harvest lunches in 2002, to nourish their hardworking team. Chef Sonseeah Gil set up Sea Smoke’s kitchen in their original industrial park winery. Aromas from her cooking lured winery neighbors. The guest list was often serendipitous and frequently illustrious.

Founding owner Bob Davids generously shared his vintage Burgundian wine collection and Wine Spectator Top 100 Sea Smoke wines.

That same year I relocated to Lompoc to help grow the nascent wine industry as the city’s economic development specialist. My participation in the camaraderie at Sea Smoke lunches broadened my insight into the community and Above right: Artisan Uprising Wine Co. classic truck. Kate Griffith and Winemaker Norm Yost of Flying Goat Cellars. Middle: Tasting at Pali Wine Co. Below:

54 | EDIBLE SANTA BARBARA SPRING 2017

enlightened my wine palate. I was soon spoiled; I couldn’t go back to Trader Joe’s Fearless Flyer specials.

Lompoc was on the cusp of heady times. Robert Parker Jr. had just launched Lompoc-based Brewer-Clifton’s first buzz with wine lovers around the world when he wrote in his newsletter, the Wine Advocate, that their wines were “the single greatest revelation of my 2001 tastings.” Partners Greg Brewer and Steve Clifton quickly gained celebrity status in the wine world. Lompoc was suddenly on the international map in the context of handcrafted Pinot Noir.

In 2014, Brewer-Clifton’s 2012 Sta. Rita Hills Pinot Noir was named the number eight wine in the world in Wine Spectator’s Top 100. This Spectator accolade was not only a coup for the winery but for the Lompoc wine community as a whole. Brewer-Clifton has long been considered a top producer of Pinot Noir and Chardonnay from the Sta. Rita Hills appellation, along with Sea Smoke, Longoria, Pali and other Lompoc wineries. And, to this day, this is the highest Spectator rating received by any winery in Santa Barbara County.

Meanwhile, Flying Goat Cellars, another Lompoc winery in the vanguard, initiated production of the first serious inhouse sparkling wine program in Santa Barbara County in 2005. The following year, winemaker Norm Yost shared his new project with me. We married in 2010, and I’ve been chief philosopher at Flying Goat ever since.

Other Lompoc wineries following the bubbles trend include Brewer-Clifton, Fiddlehead, Kessler-Haak, Longoria, Loring, Moretti, Palmina, Sandhi, Sea Smoke and Zotovich.

According to Santa Barbara’s Sparkling Wine Guide publisher Liz Dodder, of the 40 wineries that are making sparkling wine in Santa Barbara, 25% of the producers are clustered in and around Lompoc.

“I predict Lompoc will be famous for its sparkling wine because of the quality of the grapes and vineyards,” said Michael Benedict, co-founder of Sanford & Benedict Vineyard. “There is not a better place in America for sparkling wine. No other wine region on this side of the Atlantic consistently produces such high-quality fruit appropriate for superior sparkling wine.”

No doubt, Lompoc has come into its own with a reputation for handcrafted winemaking that complements Sta. Rita Hills AVA. As of 2017, there are about 23 wine production facilities, each producing numerous brands, and about 28 tasting rooms in the city.

From mission grape to Spectator’s Top Eight, the Lompoc wine community continues to evolve, combining the sage expertise of industry pioneers with the exuberance of young entrepreneurs. Considering its unusual trajectory, it’s exciting to imagine what might come next.

Kate Griffith is chief philosopher/proprietor of Flying Goat Cellars, a boutique winery mastering Pinots and sparkling wines from Sta. Rita Hills and Santa Maria Valley vineyards since 2000. She enjoys living and working in Lompoc, where locavore food and libation abound.

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Above: Santa Barbara based winemaker Ernst Storm. Opposite: a photo of the two Storm brothers growing up in South Africa.

56 | EDIBLE SANTA BARBARA SPRING 2017

Making Wine Worlds Apart South Africa’s Storm Brothers Find Their Passion

by Hana-Lee Sedgwick PHOTOGRAPHY BY FRAN COLLIN

S

anta Barbara and South Africa might not seem to have much in common.

After all, one is located in Central California and the other in the Southern Hemisphere — pretty much the definition of worlds apart. Despite their distance, these two places are both notable wine growing regions.

They also happen to be the areas where two South African brothers have found success as winemakers—Ernst Storm, 37, here in Santa Barbara and Hannes Storm, 40, in South Africa.

Sandwiched between two oceans, South Africa enjoys a Mediterranean climate with cooling maritime influences that provide ideal growing conditions for grapes. Here in Santa Barbara, where we share a similar climate, our vineyards are located between two transverse (east-west) mountain ranges, allowing for cool ocean influences to funnel inland. Sure, these wine regions share some common ground, but that doesn’t explain how the Storm brothers found themselves on different continents making wine. So, I sat down with Ernst Storm to learn more about their journeys into winemaking.

Tucked into a corner table at Les Marchands on a chilly January afternoon, Ernst and I meet to catch up over a glass of Crémant.

Hannes and Ernst Storm grew up on the Western Cape of South Africa, located on the Southwestern tip of the continent.

While in their teens, their family moved to the town of Hermanus in the famed Walker Bay wine grape appellation.

Although a huge wine destination now, in the late 1990s there were only a few wineries in the area. Ernst and his brother always felt drawn to nature and spent a lot of time outdoors and The seventh course is slow-braised pork.

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on their sister’s farm, but winemaking wasn’t always the clear path for both of them.

Hannes, a few years older than Ernst, became interested in winemaking as the wine industry grew in Walker Bay, leading him to the University of Stellenbosch to study viticulture and enology. After graduation, he took an internship at Hamilton Russell Winery in South Africa, where he later became the head winemaker. Meanwhile, Ernst was about to pursue a law degree, but a bit of trepidation led him to take a year off between high school and college to travel and work on a farm in Scotland.

Soon, the decision to follow a career in wine became clear.

Ernst enrolled in South Africa’s revered Elsenburg Agricultural Training Institute, where he set his sights on becoming a winemaker. “I think you made the right choice,” I tell him.

“Yeah, me too!” he responds.

After graduating, Ernst worked at a winery in South Africa before moving to California to pursue an opportunity in the Sierra Foothills. In 2005, he made his way to Santa Barbara, where he worked at Firestone and Curtis before starting his own label, Storm Wines, on the side.

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With the goal of working for himself, Ernst soon ventured into making wine full-time for his Santa Barbara label, finding success working with Pinot Noir, Syrah and Sauvignon Blanc.

From the start, his goal has been to work with vineyards that show a lot of potential, diversity and personality. Wanting to transfer that sense of place into the wine, Ernst uses minimal intervention and a skillful touch to produce site-specific wines that communicate pure varietal character.

Hannes, who started his own label on the side in 2012, has since ventured out on his own after a decade of winemaking at Hamilton Russell. Taking the same approach to winemaking as his brother, Hannes works with sites that have unique personalities and terroir. For his own label, also named Storm Wines, he makes Chardonnay and Pinot Noir, with 80% of production dedicated to the latter. Hannes says he “fell in love with the variety early” in his winemaking career and hasn’t looked back. Both he and Ernst agree there are few varieties so challenging to master as Pinot Noir, and that challenge is what drew them to working with the often-finicky grape.

Today, the brothers talk regularly, bouncing ideas off each other and discussing sales and marketing strategies. Talking through things “makes us better winemakers,” says Ernst. “It’s a way to keep each other focused and authentic.”

Authenticity seems crucial. “I think it’s important to have a certain style and stay true to it,” he says as he pours a taste of his brother’s Pinot. “For me, winemaking is more than just making wine, it’s being a part of every aspect from start to finish.” This authenticity and hands-on approach to winemaking is what defines the brothers’ style.

While Hannes and Ernst cross-promote their brands and give each other advice, each is fully committed to his own ventures and respects the other’s decisions in winemaking. They want each label to truly be its own entity, but with common threads, which is evident when tasting their Pinot Noirs side by side. As we taste the 2015 Storm from Walker Bay Vineyard and the 2015 Storm from Duvarita Vineyard, it’s noticeable that the wines share a similar freshness and structure, but each speaks to the terroir of its respective growing area. Hannes and Ernst seem to be doing something right, as the wines are complex, naturally balanced and sophisticated examples of Pinot Noir.

I notice that both wines have structure but are lean and elegant, and I share this opinion with Ernst. He agrees in a humble yet proud way before sharing details about the clay rich soils and shrubs that surround Walker Bay. In winemaking, the Storm brothers have not only found a career, but a passion that is a lifestyle. It’s a lifestyle that lets them create something that they can share, but these two brothers have certainly found their own places in the world.

Hana-Lee Sedgwick is a Santa Barbara native who writes about wine, food and travel. As a freelance writer, editor and wine consultant, she happily spends her downtime eating, drinking and wandering, documenting it on her blog, Wander & Wine.

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Epicurean Harmonies Composer Daniel Lentz Explores the Intersection of Music, Food and Wine

by Leslie Westbrook

A

ward-winning composer Daniel Lentz is a gourmet home chef and oenophile with many compositions that have been not only inspired by food and wine, but have also incorporated the noble grape. Wine and wine glasses were the instruments used for a 30-minute piece called “Missa Umbrarum” that premiered at the Santa Barbara Mission in 1973. For this composition, eight singers, each with a wine glass, rubbed and struck the glasses, changing the tones.

In “You Can’t See The Forest… Music” (1971), three performers struck wine glasses filled with red wine using mallets made from champagne corks. Each time the performer sipped some of the wine, the sounds emanating from the glasses varied.

(As did the mood of the performers, we imagine.)

During his teaching years at UCSB in 1968–70, Lentz included a wine tasting component in his 20th Century Techniques music theory class, for upperclass and grad students.

“The Music Department funded the wine—entirely Californian, including the Cask F35 [1958 Cabernet Sauvignon] from Inglenook, another Cabernet from Heitz [Martha’s Vineyard], Martin Ray Pinot Noir (including one from the 1940s) and even the Baccarat glassware,” Lentz recalled.

For modern composer/colleague John Cage’s birthday in 1969 at UC Davis, Lentz prepared a mushroom-themed dinner for the concert hall audience; his “conceptual music” ensemble, the California Time Machine, supplied the music.

While living in Paris in 1998, Lentz composed the music for his CD Huit ou Neuf Pièces Dorées à Point, a set of “eight or nine compositions,” each based on a particularly wonderful dish Lentz had there.

“Alain Ducasse, Taillevent and many other restaurants and bistros contributed,” he said.

A Rockefeller grant in 2012 for a monthlong arts residency at Lake Como in Italy included “inspiring” gourmet meals and wines… and cigars!

Lentz, who resides in Santa Barbara, also creates sculptural “illuminated manuscripts” that are complex visualizations of his scores created during preparations for the recording of his

latest composition, “River of 1,000 Streams,” which will be performed by Vicki Ray in March for Cold Blue Records.

Lentz is also hand-copying his score of a concert-length composition for 21 pianos to be premiered in 2018.

We asked Lentz about inspiring wine and food pairings, including a few Santa Barbara favorites.

Edible Santa Barbara: Which comes first, the wine or the meal? Do you choose a bottle of wine and then devise a menu to match or vice versa?

Daniel Lentz: The meal always comes first. I don’t pay a lot of attention to having certain correct pairings, although there’s nothing quite like super fresh Puget Sound oysters with a fine, slightly aged Pinot Noir from Jim Clendenen (Au Bon Climat).

One of the most versatile dishes in regards to pairing with wine is a classic cassoulet, for which I would prefer an equally deep, rich Syrah from Qupé, or a well-aged Grange Shiraz from Penfolds would do nicely.

Any best pairing(s)?

Choosing a bottle or, better yet, being gifted a good one can absolutely trigger a “food-for-thought” thought. I once bought a 1985 La Tâche ($400 at the time) and even composed a piece that I titled “La Tâche.” I stored it in my one bottle cellar for several years. One afternoon I walked by, and then into, a butcher shop where they had Kobe beef, a meat I had not yet had. I talked them into grinding a pound into hamburger form and went home and made two burgers on the outdoor grill and served the burgers to a friend and myself with the La Tâche. (The 1985 Romanée-Conti Pinot Noir from Burgundy sells for well over $3,000 today).

In Santa Barbara, I’ve enjoyed meals paired with wines at Cadiz and Petit Valentien in downtown Santa Barbara and The Lark in the Funk Zone. I like the New York steak at Jane with a full-bodied Malbec.

Worst?

Too many to list here!

Opposite: Photo taken by Wayne Buckley in 1974 at a rehearsal for the premiere performance of 'Missa Umbrarum' at the Santa Barbara Mission.

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WAYNE BUCKLE Y

EdibleSantaBarbara.com SPRING 2017 | 61

STE VEN BROWN

Daniel Lentz on the steps of the Santa Barbara Mission.

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What about ethnic foods?

Thai pairing is not complicated, nor is Mexican or Szechuan.

I use ice cubes I make with cheap red wine spiced with ghost pepper essence to chill a glass of local Viognier. I won’t mention any names, for fear of retribution. But I don’t add ice cubes to Cold Heaven!

What food is usually in your fridge or pantry—and do you keep a wine on hand to pair with it?

I shop daily like I did when I lived in Paris. I go to one place for bread, another for veggies, a good butcher for meat and one place for wine. I don’t store wine anymore. But I will store wine for anybody who needs some stored and has an extra corkscrew.

•••

STE VEN BROWN

Lentz has earned six National Endowment for the Arts and numerous other grants and commissions from the Los Angeles Philharmonic, the Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra and many other ensembles and individuals. To learn more or hear Daniel Lentz, go to DanielLentz.com.

Leslie A. Westbrook is an award-winning journalist and music lover who enjoys the intersection of food and wine. A 2016 fellow of the Napa Wine Writers Symposium, Leslie picked Pinot Noir grapes last fall at Gloria Ferrer winery and anxiously awaits delivery of the wine made from those grapes.

Opposite and above: Daniel Lentz at the Santa Barbara Mission.

Do you have a wine/food pairing philosophy?

I don’t have a pairing philosophy, but I do have improvisational inspirations when I find an interesting item at the Santa Barbara Fish Market or Shalhoob Meat Co. Then, if financing is favorable, I will try to find a wine that might (or might not) fit the main dish. Local cod likes sitting alongside a glass of Flying Goat bubbly, for example.

If it doesn’t, I’d switch to an 8- or 9-year-old Whitcraft Chardonnay. If it is a simple pork chop, trimmed to look like a golf club, a good Pinot Noir from Sta. Rita Hills appellation pairs nicely.

Salads and desserts paired with wine generally don’t fly with me. Exceptions: an inexpensive sparkling Cava with a simple mixed salad; a ruby port with a chocolate-based dessert— cake, sorbet, ice cream, mousse, most anything dark and chocolate.

What’s your wine pick for certain types of cuisine and why?

Italian and French cuisine both evolved alongside their wine culture. When I cook with wine (and am not drinking it while prepping) I do try to use good wine. If I have two bottles of wine, one quite good, and the other an ordinaire, I use the good one in the cooking and the lesser to drink.

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A Story of

Food and Wine

by Pascale Beale

“Food without wine is a corpse; wine without food is a ghost; united and well matched they are as body and soul, living partners.”

—Andre Simon (1877–1970)

O

nce I reached the grand age of 8, my grandmother are blended, in California I discovered single varietals. finally deemed me old enough to prepare the table This added a whole new dimension to food pairing. When for a dinner party without constant supervision. going out for dinner I would hear someone ask for a glass of I considered this a huge honor and set about the serious task Chardonnay or Pinot, something I had never heard of as we determined not to make a mistake or have her correct my asked for a Chianti, Burgundy or Bordeaux depending on what placement of a particular fork, plate or glass. we were going to eat. So, what were the parallels? How was I going to navigate all of this?

My mother looked on indulgently. She knew, as I would soon learn, that my grandmother was incapable of inspecting A quick review of Old World regional specialties revealed the final table setting without making infinite little adjustments. their equivalent (roughly speaking) Californian varietals: She was a perfectionist in l’art de la table.

Burgundy and Pinot Noir, Bordeaux and Cabernet Sauvignon, Chianti and Sangiovese, Sancerre and Sauvignon Blanc, Barolo For special occasions, she would bring out her hand-cut and Nebbiolo, Rhône Valley wines crystal glasses from the 1930s. Each would be polished until it glistened in like Châteauneuf-du-Pape and “A meal without wine is like a Grenache, and so on. This general the evening light and placed on large mother-of-pearl inlaid trays to be taken guideline helped for a while, but day without sunshine.” to the dining room, where they would it required in-depth knowledge of —Jean-Anthelme Brillat-Savarin, the varietal makeup of different be aligned with regimental precision in front of each person’s plate. regions of Bordeaux, for example The Physiology of Taste (1825) (Saint-Émilion, Margaux, Pomerol, Water glasses, white wine glasses, to name a few) to find an equivalent red wine glasses, glasses for dessert here in California. wines, glasses for port and glasses for digestifs. Each served a purpose. I was intrigued by the delicate balancing act of One other important factor influenced these choices: Most choosing the right wine to go in the appropriate glass, to “Old World” wines were created to be enjoyed with food, complement what was being served. She always planned her which was not necessarily the case in California. I also found menus with the utmost care and the wines were chosen to that wines here had a much higher alcohol content. Some wines enhance the dishes. I had to understand why! would knock your socks off, such as big Cabs with 13.5–14% alcohol—something rarely, if ever, seen in the Bordelais. They The basic rules of wine pairing—red wines with meat, made for interesting and impressive wine tastings but were hard lighter reds with poultry and white wine with fish—were to pair with all but the most robust red meat dishes. quickly explained, but it seemed to me that there was a lot more to it than that. There were classic combinations: duck pâté with At some point I realized that trying to match wines from Sauternes, port with Stilton, a Bordeaux with red meat. But Europe to a Californian counterpart was a disservice. Like many what should one pair with an endive salad, asparagus or fondue? people I was wowed by these big wines, but I found that they A decade or so later I was hosting my own dinner parties overpowered a lot of the food I cooked. There had to be a way and quickly learned that not all red wines are created equal. I to break this down. made some dreadful mistakes and often stood bemused in wine My meanderings through different wine regions and their shops faced with daunting selections. tasting rooms and through trial and error taught me that the It was, in fact, only when I came to California that my flavor and structure of wine is comprised of five components: understanding of wine and food pairing deepened as I tried to fruit, sugar, acid, tannin and alcohol. Food has similar flavor unravel a conundrum. Whereas in France and Italy many wines profiles—acid and sugar—with the addition of saltiness, fat, 64 | EDIBLE SANTA BARBARA SPRING 2017

MEDIA 27

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EdibleSantaBarbara.com SPRING 2017 | 65

sourness and bitterness. The key to pairing the two was finding I brought up those big reds and we discussed the issue of tannins and what effect they have on the palate. Karen provided balance and connections between those profiles. It was time to a clear explanation. “Tannins are looking for protein, so they talk to the experts. pair best with dishes with some fat. The drying sensation people Once I moved to Santa Barbara and started teaching get when having tannic wines without complementary food is classes alongside winemakers and cheesemongers I discovered because the tannins are attracted to the protein in our mouth a consensus of opinion (in most cases) when pairing food with (saliva), and therefore consume those, causing a drying sensation. wine. I asked Karen Steinwachs, winemaker at Buttonwood So, big steaks, buttery dishes, even avocados work well with big, Farm and Winery, what process she goes through when pairing tannic red wines.” wines for the classes we teach together, for example.

Kathryn and I also discussed the aging process of New World “We release wines here seasonally,” she responded, “so it is vs. Old World wines. She reminded me that the blended wines almost a natural for food and wine pairing. For example, wild and longer aging process softened tannins, and that was the mushrooms are available right now and pair well with our reason why certain Bordeaux reds would pair well with a strong Sta. Rita Hills Pinot Noir. I also tend to look at the richness of blue cheese whereas a young Cabernet Sauvignon would not. the dish and then think of texture, how acidic the wine needs In the end, choosing a wine comes down to personal to be to complement the dish, and to be complemented. So, preference. I asked each of them if they a white Bordeaux blend (Sauvignon had any absolute rules about pairings Blanc, Semillon) would work well with seasonal spiny lobster, for instance, Neither one cared for chocolate and both said no. They did add that there were things they didn’t like whereas I would serve a crisper white with red wine, for instance. together. or sparkling wine with oysters.”

Neither one cared for chocolate Kathryn Graham, owner of C’est I do, although it very much with red wine, for instance. I do, Cheese, had similar comments. “‘What depends on the wine and the although it very much depends on the grows together, goes together’ as the wine and the type of chocolate. Pair a old adage goes. For example, what type of chocolate. sweet chocolate dessert with a dry red could be more perfect than the triple and the result is generally dreadful. crème Brillat-Savarin served with a Conversely a dark, bitter chocolate with a sweeter red such as a glass of Champagne?” Both Karen and Kathryn focused on the Lambrusco or late-harvest Zinfandel can be marvelous. acidity in the wine to refresh the palate and complement the dish, in the same way that adding a burst of lemon juice will Karen suggested that people should try lots of different wines enliven and brighten flavors in one’s cooking. to find the ones that appeal to them. “People often get stuck in a rut and don’t experiment,” said Kathryn with a knowing look in They both warned to avoid clashes—a light Pinot or Beaumy direction. “Remember how you wouldn’t really try whites and jolais would get completely overpowered by a beef shank stew. rosés, Pascale?” she said.

Conversely, a hearty red would drown out a lemony filet of sole.

Now I am a convert, I willingly concede. Thanks to Kathryn, I remembered some pretty dire pairings I had tried out with I have developed a penchant for Champagne and triple crème various salads, and asked how they handled other notoriously cheeses, have embraced all manner of white wines paired with difficult foods to pair wine with, such as asparagus, anchovies, assorted salads and have relished Karen’s rosé, which I discovered endive, fennel, curry, artichokes, sushi, miso and certain types works incredibly well with truffles. of blue cheese.

On a recent Friday evening we gathered for a special multiKaren replied, “Some really spicy foods (such as curries), course dinner party to celebrate my mother’s birthday. My are great with rosé, which is my go-to for a wine that gets along daughter Olivia helped me set the table. with so many foods. Like Thanksgiving, when you have a plethora of dishes, including Aunt Martha’s sweet potatoes with I took out our special wine glasses, polished them to a shine mini-marshmallows, there is no way to do a classic ‘this dish so they glistened in the evening candlelight and placed them on with that wine.’ I say bring out the rosé!” the table. Olivia asked why there were so many different types and I explained why we use different glasses for different wines That sentiment was closely echoed by Kathryn, who said, and how the wines would complement the meal.

“It is easier to pair rosés and white wines with food as you are not dealing with the heavy tannins in red wines. A rosé will As I walked around the table I straightened a knife here, a complement a light roast chicken or a vegetarian dinner.” And, fork there and moved the candles… again. Olivia looked at me she added, “I also like to look for softer reds such as a Gamay, quizzically and said, “Why do you do that? It looked fine!” My or crisp whites, to pair with medium-bodied and more delicate mother looked on indulgently and laughed. She knew, as Olivia foods and cheeses, for example serving a bright, herbaceous would soon learn, that this habit, some would say a fastidious Sauvignon Blanc alongside goat cheese.” one, was a genetic trait.

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RECIPES Winemaker Karen Steinwachs and I are planning a seasonal vegetarian cooking class and wine pairing lunch in the garden at Buttonwood Winery on May 13. The menu includes: Warm Salad with Sauté of Leeks and Snap Peas with Burrata; Savory Puff Pastry Tart with Roasted Onions, Goat Cheese, Olives and Pesto and the following dessert.

Strawberry Ginger Pots de Crème Buttonwood Winery 2014 Blanc de Noir Makes 8 servings 2½ cups cream, be sure to use pasteurized (not ultra-pasteurized) cream otherwise the pots de crème will separate 5 ounces ( 1 ⁄ 2 cup plus 2 tablespoons) sugar 1

⁄ 2-inch piece of fresh ginger, peeled and grated

1

⁄ 3 cup lemon juice

1 ounce crystallized ginger (about 3 pieces), finely chopped 1

⁄ 2 cup fresh strawberries, plus 8 strawberries as a garnish, sliced

ROSMINAH BROWN

Place the cream, sugar and fresh ginger in a small saucepan and stir constantly over medium heat until the mixture just boils. Reduce heat and simmer for 5 minutes. Remove from the heat, add the lemon juice and crystallized ginger and let stand for 5 minutes, stirring the mixture once or twice. Carefully add in the strawberries and fold in gently to combine. Divide the mixture evenly amongst 8 small cups or ramekins, and refrigerate for 2 hours or until the mixture has set.

Just before serving place a sliced strawberry on top of each pots de crème as a garnish.

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Savory Puff Pastry Tart with Roasted Onions, Goat Cheese, Olives and Pesto Buttonwood Winery 2016 Syrah Rosé Makes 8 servings FOR THE TART 1 sheet frozen puff pastry, thawed Olive oil 2 red onions, peeled and sliced into thin disks 2 yellow onions, peeled and sliced into thin disks Coarse sea salt Black pepper 1 bunch green onions, chopped 1

⁄ 2 cup assorted pitted olives

MEDIA 27

2 ounces goat milk feta cheese, crumbled

Savory Puff Pastry Tart with Roasted Onions, Goat Cheese, Olives and Pesto.

Warm Salad with Sauté of Leeks and Snap Peas with Burrata Buttonwood Winery 2016 Grenache Rosé Makes 8 servings Olive oil 4 leeks, rinsed, end trimmed and cut into ½-inch disks 1 pound snap peas, cut into ½-inch pieces on a bias 1 bunch chives, finely chopped Zest and juice of 1 lemon 1

⁄ 4 cup lemon olive oil

Salt and black pepper 1 fresh burrata

Preheat oven to 400°. Pour a little olive oil onto a sheet pan or into a shallow baking dish. Arrange the onions in a single layer. Sprinkle a little salt and pepper over the top. Drizzle with just a little more olive oil. Roast the onions in the oven for 15–20 minutes. They should be golden brown. Remove and let cool slightly.

Unfold the puff pastry onto a lightly floured piece of parchment paper and lightly roll it out into a 9- by 12-inch rectangle. Place the pastry (on the parchment) onto a baking sheet. Bake until lightly golden brown, approximately 15 minutes. Remove from the oven and let cool slightly.

Carefully spoon some of the pesto (see recipe below) over the partially cooked pastry. Leave a ½-inch border all around the tart. Cover the pesto with the roasted onions. Scatter the chopped green onions, olives and feta over the top. Return the tart to the oven and bake for another 10–15 minutes. The tart should be golden brown. I like to serve this with a green salad.

Pesto This recipe makes more than you will need for the tart. Reserve the remainder for pasta or as a lovely addition to risotto.

Zest and juice of 1 large or 2 small lemons 1

⁄ 2 cup olive oil

1 large bunch basil leaves, roughly chopped

Pour a little olive oil into a large skillet placed over medium-high heat.

Add the leeks and cook for 3 –4 minutes, stirring frequently. Add the snap peas and cook for another 3–4 minutes. The snap peas should be al dente.

Whisk together the lemon zest, juice and ¼ cup lemon olive oil in a large salad bowl. Add a pinch of salt and 4 –5 turns of black pepper and whisk again. Place salad utensils over the vinaigrette. Place all of the vegetables on top of the utensils and sprinkle with the chives.

Just before serving roughly tear the burrata and dot it over the salad. Toss to combine the ingredients with the vinaigrette and serve immediately.

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Salt and pepper

Pour the olive oil and lemon juice into a blender. Add the basil to the blender and push them down into the olive oil. Place the lid on the blender and run it until you have a thick pesto mix. Add a pinch of salt and some pepper, scrape down the sides and blend again.

Pascale Beale grew up in England and France surrounded by a family that has always been passionate about food, wine and the arts. She was taught to cook by her French mother and grandmother. She is the author of The Menu for All Seasons and Salade. Visit her website and blog: The Market Table at PascalesKitchen.com.

EdibleSantaBarbara.com SPRING 2017 | 69

W S PI N R ITNEG R EDIBLE EVENTS W E D N E S D AY

S AT U R D AY

APRIL

APRIL

APRIL

Santa Barbara Food & Wine Weekend

Edible Santa Barbara New Issue Release Party

Mother Sauce Essentials Cooking Class

5:30–7:30pm at Cebada Wine, Santa Barbara Join us as we celebrate the release of the Spring issue of Edible Santa Barbara at Cebada’s tasting room in downtown Santa Barbara. Featuring flight of savory and sweet gelato and wine pairings curated

by Here’s the Scoop. Free to attend; food and wine available for purchase. More info at EdibleSanataBarbara.com.

6:30–9:30pm at Heat Culinary Kitchen Traditional French Mother Sauces are prepared alongside delicious main and side dish courses for a complete meal.

Learn to make Baked Mozzarella with Marinara Sauce, Roasted Asparagus with Hollandaise Sauce, Beef Tenderloin with Sauce Espagnole and more. $65. For more info visit HeatCulinary.com.

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At Bacara Resort & Spa The Fourth Annual Santa Barbara Food & Wine Weekend at Bacara celebrates Julia Child’s passion for learning, love of eating well and appreciation for Santa Barbara’s bounty. Weekend includes cooking demos, educational seminars, wine tastings and more. For tickets, visit BacaraCulinaryWeekend.com or call 888 886-9923.

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Vineyard Easter Egg Hunt

“Toast” Tuesday

11am–5pm at Riverbench Vineyard and Winery 2,000+ eggs are hidden in the garden surrounding the vineyard tasting room and are filled with candy for the kids and some special prizes for their parents. Bring your little ones and take in the festivities while sipping your favorite Riverbench wines and enjoying picnic lunch from a local food truck. $5. More info at Riverbench.com.

5:30–7:30pm at Santa Barbara Wine Collective The Santa Barbara Wine Collective teams with Helena Avenue Bakery for “Toast” Tuesdays. Chef Bryan Foehl presents three delicious crostini prepared on toasted Helena Avenue baguette and topped with fresh, seasonal ingredients. Each toast is paired with a wine from the Wine Collective’s member producers. $15.

To RSVP call 806 456-2700.

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Santa Barbara Vintners Spring Weekend

Flying Goat Cellars Winemaker Dinner

Vintners Festival Grand Tasting

The Spring Weekend is four days of wine, food and fun throughout Santa Barbara County. Throughout the weekend select wineries host events, including winemaker dinners, library tastings, new wine releases and barrel tastings. Get a Vintners Visa for unique and complimentary offerings at your choice of 12 tasting rooms.

SBVintnersWeekend.com

6–9pm at La Purisima Mission, Lompoc Join Flying Goat Cellars for a memorable evening featuring Winemaker Norm Yost, restaurateur Mitchell Sjerven and Chef Greg Murphy of Bouchon at the historic La Purisima Mission. Tickets are $175, $150 for Wine Club Members. Reserve your seats by calling 805 736-9032.

1– 4pm at Riverview Park, Buellton An afternoon of Wine Country wine tasting, cuisine and music. More than 100 wineries and restaurants will participate.

Includes an Edible Food & Wine Pavilion with cooking demos and opportunities to meet the winemakers. For info and tickets, visit SBVintnersWeekend.com.

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Longoria Winemaker Dinner at the Ballard Inn

Wine, Taco & Vintage Pop-Up

6:30pm at the Ballard Inn, Ballard Chef Budi Kazali and Winemaker Rick Longoria have collaborated on this annual dinner for 10+ years. This dinner promises an extraordinary experience as Rick shares his many memories and at least one rare gem out of his library collection. Seating is limited and sells out early. For tickets and information, call 800 638-2466.

Saturday 10:30am–5:30pm, Babcock Vineyards Taste an amazing lineup of single-vineyard wines and enjoy handmade tacos. Bring family and friends and have fun combing through an amazing array of vintage finds.

Reservations strongly suggested. Call 805 736-1455 or visit BabcockWinery.com/ pages/events for tickets and details.

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Earth Day Festival

Wine, Paella & Vintage Pop-Up

22–23 Saturday 11am–7pm; Sunday 11am–6pm Alameda Park, Santa Barbara The Community Environmental Council Earth Day Festival is the signature annual event for the region’s environmental organizations. Food, music and demos.

Free. For more info visit SBEarthDay.org.

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Saturday 10:30am–5:30pm, Babcock Vineyards Taste single-vineyard wines and enjoy Scratch Kitchen’s renowned paella and gourmet sliders. Wine by the glass and bottle available for picnicking.

Reservations strongly suggested. Call 805 736-1455 or visit BabcockWinery.com/ pages/events for tickets and details.

For updates and more details on these and other events, visit EdibleSantaBarbara.com F R I D AY

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MAY

MAY

Ramen & Dumplings Cooking Class

Cacti & Cocktails

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2:30–5pm at Lotus Land Stroll through the garden and experience the magnificent epiphyllum and cactus blooms. Join a docent-led tour or members may explore the garden on their own. Specialty cocktails and hors d’oeuvres will be served. Admission is $60 for members and $70 for nonmembers. Reservations are required and may be made by calling 805 9699990.

6:30–9:30pm at Heat Culinary Kitchen Enjoy the warm and cozy taste of homemade ramen and dumplings, both pan fried and steamed. Learn how to make delicious Mantou or “Chinese Steamed Buns,” Homemade Ramen Noodles, Boiled Pork & Chive Dumplings, and more. $65. For more info visit HeatCulinary.com.

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Roar & Pour

Fork & Cork Classic

5–8pm at the Santa Barbara Zoo Wine tasting event where the animals stay out late and the Zoo is open so guests can stroll and sip. Featuring tastings from more than 20 local wineries, tasty eats available for purchase from local food trucks and Rincon Catering, music and more. $60–$115. Tickets and more info at SBZoo.org/event/roar-pour-winefestival/

2–6pm, Fess Parker Doubletree Food and wine aficionados will savor tastings from an array of Premium Select wines and enjoy gourmet dishes prepared by over 20 Santa Barbara County top chefs and restaurants. Enjoy fantastic wine and food, live entertainment, one-of a-kind silent and live auction items.

ForkAndCorkClassic.org

Edible Santa Barbara Supper Club

Los Alamos Third Saturday Evening Stroll

6:30pm at Sly’s in Carpinteria Join us for a very special meal prepared

by Chef James Sly of Sly’s Restaurant, with wine pairings by winemaker Richard Sanford of Alma Rosa Winery. For menu, additional information and tickets, visit EdibleSantaBarbara.com.

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JUNE

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JUNE

Zoo Brew

Somm-Guided Tasting

3–6pm at the Santa Barbara Zoo Enjoy tastings from 30+ breweries and pub food while you stroll among the animals. VIP tickets allow early entrance and include appetizers. 21+; $60/general admission, $100/VIP. Tickets and more info at SBZoo.org/event/zoo-brew/

6–7pm at Les Marchands Wine Bar & Merchant Hosted by Advanced Sommelier Emily Johnston, learn the nuances of a specific wine-producing region or a particular grape. Featuring flights of three or four wines to highlight classic styles and current trends. Wine lovers of all experience levels welcome. $25 per guest.

To reserve, call 805 284-0380 or email inquiries@lesmarchandswine.com.

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Los Olivos Jazz and Olive Festival 1–4pm at Lavinia Campbell Park, Los Olivos Spend a Saturday afternoon in the beautiful Santa Ynez Valley, tasting wine from 30 local wineries, listening to world-class professional jazz musicians and sampling 30 different olive-themed dishes prepared by local chefs. $65; JazzAndOliveFestival.org

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5–8pm, downtown Los Alamos The Los Alamos merchants on Bell Street invite everyone to join the fun and experience Los Alamos community charm first hand with its new Third Saturdays program. Ongoing. For more information, call 805 344-1900.

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Summer Solstice Festival Locals Night

Santa Barbara Wine + Food Festival

4–9pm at Alameda Park Enjoy a locals-only exclusive look at Solstice Festival performances, sip on local beer and wine, taste from all local culinary vendors and peruse local artisan wares. For details and more info, visit SolsticeParade.com.

2–5pm at the Santa Barbara Natural History Museum Swirl, sip and savor wines from premier Central Coast wineries complemented with sweet and savory delectable delights on the beautiful grounds of the Santa Barbara Museum of Natural History.

For details and to purchase tickets visit SBNature.org/winefestival.

Summer Sipping Foxen Canyon Wine Trail Taste along the historic Foxen Canyon Wine Trail from 13 wineries, including Andrew Murray Vineyards, Fess Parker Winery, Kenneth Volk Vineyards, Rancho Sisquoc Winery and more. $45 includes 20 tastings from participating wineries plus commemorative glass, small bites and special discounts on purchases. To purchase tickets, visit SummerSipping2017.eventbrite.com.

EdibleSantaBarbara.com SPRING 2017 | 71

edible

SA NTA BARBA R A COUNT Y

E AT DRINK LOC AL GUIDE & MAPS

Santa Barbara County has its own unique food tradition and lifestyle. We’d like to help you find some of the area restaurants, bakeries, food producers and specialty retail shops that contribute to the distinctively Santa Barbara experience. From Ballard to Carpinteria, and from catering to wine tasting, our Guide will help you find what you are looking for and more.

Ballard Ballard Inn & Gathering Table 2436 Baseline Ave. 805 688-7770 BallardInn.com Elegant accommodations, attentive staff and awardwinning cuisine make the Ballard Inn & Gathering Table one of the most sought-after small luxury inns in the Santa Barbara Wine Country.

Buellton Alma Rosa 250-G Industrial Way 805 688-9090 AlmaRosaWinery.com With certified organic vineyards in the Sta. Rita Hills, Alma Rosa focuses on Pinot Noir and Chardonnay, as well as other food-friendly wines with the high acid and extraordinary balance for which Richard Sanford’s wines have been known since 1976.

Buscador Winery 140 Industrial Way 805 450-1446 BuscadorWine.com A buscador is a searcher. A seeker. We hope your search to find the perfect bottle leads to our similarly inspired wine tasting room demonstrating the best Bordeaux, Rhone and Burgundian varietals from the Santa Ynez Valley. Open Fri–Sun, 11am–5pm. Mon– Thu by appointment.

Margerum Wine Company 59 Industrial Way 805 686-8500 MargerumWines.com Located at the gateway to the Sta. Rita Hills, Margerum now offers tasting at their winery on Industrial Way in Buellton. Taste Margerum and Barden releases, sample wine from tank or barrel and tour the winery. Open Sat and Sun 11am–5pm.

72 | EDIBLE SANTA BARBARA SPRING 2017

The Hitching Post II

Sly’s

406 E. Hwy. 246 805 688-0676 HitchingPost2.com

686 Linden Ave. 805 684-6666 SlysOnline.com

A favorite of locals and visitors since 1986. Serving wood-grilled fare, prepared in the regional barbecue tradition, along with their highly regarded Hitching Post Wines. Casual and relaxed setting.

Sly’s is known for great food, with an emphasis on farmers market and local produce, great cocktails and great times in Carpinteria. Open Mon–Fri for lunch 11:30am–3pm; lounge menu weekdays 3–5pm; dinner Sun–Thu 5–9pm, Fri and Sat 5–10pm; and weekend brunch & lunch Sat–Sun 9am–3pm.

Carpinteria The Food Liaison 1033 Casitas Pass Rd. 805 200-3030 TheFoodLiaison.com Catering. Counter. Classes. Utilizing many locally grown organic ingredients, enjoy daily rotating entrées and soups, seasonal menu and gourmet salad bar.

Corporate and event catering since 2013. Sign up for cooking classes online. Lunch counter Mon–Fri 11am–3pm.

Giannfranco’s Trattoria 666 Linden Ave. 805 684-0720 Giannfrancos.com

Goleta Backyard Bowls 5668 Calle Real 805 770-2730 BackyardBowls.com Santa Barbara’s most innovative breakfast and lunch spot featuring Acai Bowls and smoothies. They also offer oatmeal, yogurt and more.

The French Press & Dune Coffee Roasters 250 Storke Rd. 1A 805 968-0493 DuneCoffeeRoasters.com

Experience authentic Italian regional cuisine at this family-owned and family-operated trattoria in downtown Carpinteria. Chef Giovanni prepares each dish from the freshest local and imported foods to offer his creative take on Tuscan grill specialties.

Weekday lunch served 11am–3pm. Weekend lunch served noon–3pm. Dinner served 5–9pm; closed Tue.

Sourcing, roasting and serving the best coffees from around the world. They love serving their carefully selected coffees and in-house-baked pastries and bread to the community. Visit The French Press & Dune Coffee Roasters and let them show you the magic of coffee! Open Mon–Fri 6am–7pm, Sat–Sun 7am–7pm.

HEAT Culinary

Lompoc

4642 Carpinteria Ave. 805 242-1151 HeatCulinary.com Santa Barbara County’s culinary school, food truck and full service caterer. HEAT events are known for personalized service, organic ingredients, large portions and attention to detail. Offering originality and undivided attention to create a memorable event.

Central Coast Specialty Foods 115 E. College Ave., Ste. 10 805 717-7675 CentralCoastSpecialtyFoods.com High-quality local & imported specialty foods, including charcuterie, gourmet cheeses, a fullservice deli, exotic meats (alligator, wild boar, bison and more), specialty foods from around the world,

and local beers and wines. Catering available; small intimate affairs to large special events. Open MonWed 10am–6pm, Thu–Fri 10am–7pm, Sat 10am–6pm and Sun 10am–4pm.

Babcock Winery & Vineyards 5175 E. Hwy. 246, Lompoc 805 736-1455 BabcockWinery.com A passion for revolutionary farming and conservation continue to define this family-owned Sta. Rita Hills winery. Stunning single-vineyard Pinot Noirs are showcased alongside acclaimed Chardonnays and other varietals. Chill in the super soulful tasting room filled with vintage, art and eclectic treasures. Tasting room open daily 11am–5:30pm.

Longoria Wines 415 E. Chestnut Ave. 866-759-4637 LongoriaWine.com Longoria Wines is a small family-owned winery with over three decades of producing acclaimed artisanal wines from some of the finest vineyards in Santa Barbara County. Enjoy a tasting or a glass of wine in the tasting room or lounge of the restored historic JM Club at their new winery facility in Lompoc, open daily 11am–4:30pm.

Melville Winery 5185 E. Hwy. 246, Lompoc 805 735-7030 MelvilleWinery.com Melville’s 100% estate boutique winery is located in the heart of the Sta. Rita Hills appellation. They are dedicated to growing and producing exceptional cold-climate Pinot Noir, Chardonnay and Syrah. Their wine is grown exclusively from their own land with their hands. Quality. Purity. Open daily 11am–4pm.

Scratch Kitchen 610 N. H St. 805 819-0829 Scratch-Kitchen.com With a wealth of local and seasonal produce and local wines, Scratch Kitchen aims to highlight all the best culinary elements of the Lompoc and Santa Ynez Valleys. Open for lunch and dinner Tue–Sat 11am–9pm, brunch Sun 10am–2pm and Sun dinner 5pm–9pm.

Los Alamos Babi’s Beer Emporium 380 Bell St. 805 344-1911 BabisBeerEmporium.com Great beer. Impeccable selection. Great fun.

Adventurous beer drinkers can discover unique, hardto-find craft beers, ciders and special projects—on tap or in bottle. Stay to have a bite from Valle Fresh’s tacos and tapas menu. Thu 4–8pm, Fri–Sat noon-8pm, Sun noon–6pm.

Bell Street Farm Eatery & Market 406 Bell St. 805 344-4609 BellStreetFarm.com This cozy and delicious eatery is surrounded by gorgeous vineyards and farmland. Award-winning cuisine and sophisticated yet comfortable design, a distinctive environment to enjoy a meal, snack or wine tasting for residents and visitors alike. Assemble your own picnic baskets and accessories for creating a portable meal, as well as gifts and merchandise from local artisans and some of the best of California. Thu and Mon 11am–4pm, Fri–Sun 11am–5pm.

Bob’s Well Bread 550 Bell St. 805 344-3000 BobsWellBread.com Bob’s Well Bread is about great bread, made the old-fashioned way: handcrafted in small batches and baked to perfection in a custom-built stone-deck oven. Stop by their bakery for baguettes, croissants, bagels and more. Closed Tue and Wed.

Casa Dumetz 388 Bell St. 805 344-1900 CasaDumetzWines.com A boutique winery specializing in Rhône varietals crafted with premier Santa Barbara County fruit. Their wines are sold almost exclusively at their tasting room in historic Los Alamos and through their wine club. Open Thu noon–7pm; Fri–Sat 11am–7pm; Sun 11–6pm. Vineyard tours and barrel sampling available by appointment.

Martian Ranch & Vineyard 9110 Alisos Canyon Rd. 805 344-1804 MartianVineyard.com The Martian Ranch tasting room is open Wed–Sun 11am–5pm. Taste their estate-grown biodynamically farmed wines for an out-of-this-world experience!

Winery tours daily; vineyard tours on the weekends.

Enjoy wines by the glass, bocce court, horseshoe pit and dog-friendly picnic areas. Open Wed–Sun 11am–5pm. Mon and Tues by appointment only.

Pico at The General Store 458 Bell St. 805 344-1122 LosAlamosGeneralStore.com Pico at The Los Alamos General Store brings a new culinary, wine and shopping experience to “Little LA” in the heart of Santa Barbara's Wine Country.

Plenty on Bell 508 Bell St. 805 344-2111 PlentyOnBell.com Longtime Los Alamos chef and local favorite Jesper Johansson is back in the kitchen at Plenty on Bell, serving local, seasonal food. Open for breakfast and lunch Tue–Sat 8am–3pm; dinner Fri only 5:30–8pm.

Closed Monday.

Valle Fresh at Babi’s Beer Emporium

388 Bell St. 805-865-2282 ValleFresh.com Tasting counter now open inside Babi’s Beer Emporium in Los Alamos. Specializing in handcrafted, genuine food sourced from local farms, ranches and artisans. This family-owned catering company offers personalized menus for all occasions including weddings, pop-up events, food and wine pairings, themed dinners, gourmet taco bars and more. Thu 4–8pm, Fri–Sat noon–8pm, Sun noon–5pm.

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Los Olivos Andrew Murray Vineyards 5249 Foxen Canyon Rd. 805 686-9604 AndrewMurrayVineyards.com Andrew Murray, a grape-growing pioneer and Rhône varietal visionary in Santa Barbara County, founded his winery in 1990. Andrew and his team look forward to sharing the AMV experience with you at their stunning Estate Winery and Visitor Center along Foxen Canyon Road. Tasting room open daily 10:30am–5:30pm.

Beckmen Vineyards 2670 Ontiveros Rd. 805 688-8664 BeckmenVineyards.com A family-owned vineyard and winery, crafting highend Rhône wines from estate-grown, biodynamic grapes in the Santa Ynez Valley. Visit the estate vineyard for tasting. Tour daily at 11am and by appointment. Open daily 11am– 5pm.

Olive Hill Farm 2901 Grand Ave. 805 693-0700 OliveHillFarm.com Specializing in local olive oils, flavored oils and balsamic vinegars as well as many locally produced food products. Olive oil and vinegar tastings with fresh local bread available. Open daily 11am–5pm.

SAMsARA Wine Co. 2446 Alamo Pintado Ave. 805 688-8689 SAMsARAWine.com SAMsARA produces limited releases of Pinot Noir, Syrah and Grenache from carefully selected microsites within some of Santa Rita Hills’ most distinctive vineyards. Chad and Mary Melville strive to balance the power of natural elements beyond their control, to express complexities while maintaining delicacy.

Old World approach to local, cold-climate fruit. Experience SAMsARA Thu–Mon 11am–5pm.

Zaca Mesa Winery 6905 Foxen Canyon Rd. 805 688-9339 ZacaMesa.com Since 1973, this family-owned winery has been dedicated to crafting some of Santa Barbara County’s most distinctive wines. Tasting room and picnic area open daily 10am–4pm.

Montecito American Riviera Bank 525 San Ysidro Rd. 805-335-8110 AmericanRivieraBank.com Offering a local and sustainable approach to banking.

The founders of American Riviera Bank are a carefully selected group of successful, prominent, experienced and influential community and business leaders who understand the unique needs of the Santa Barbara community. Open Mon–Thu 9am–5pm; Fri 9am–5:30pm.

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Bree’Osh 1150 Coast Village Rd. 805 969-2500 Breeosh.com Bree’Osh is a French artisan bakery café specializing in sweet and savory brioche bread made with traditional sourdough. Featuring local, organic, high-quality ingredients. Open 7am–2pm. Closed Mon–Tue.

Here’s the Scoop 1187 Coast Village Rd. 805 969-7020 ScoopSB.com Here’s the Scoop is a local, family-owned business that makes traditional Italian gelato flavors like Stracciatella and Pistachio. Their seasonal farmers market sorbets use local, organic farm-fresh fruits, vegetables and herbs. Sorbets are non-dairy, organic and vegan.

Mon–Thu 1–9pm, Fri–Sat noon–10pm, Sun noon–9pm.

Montecito Country Mart 1016 Coast Village Rd. 805 969-9664 MontecitoCountryMart.com The Montecito Country Mart, built in 1964, has recently been renovated and preserved, with its original barber shop, post office, market, old-fashioned toy store, as well as Rori’s Ice Cream and Merci to Go artisan food shop. Independent boutique shops include Mate Gallery, Kendall Conrad, Calypso, Intermix, Malia Mills, Hudson Grace, James Perse and Space NK Apothecary.

Shops open Mon–Fri 10am–6pm; Sat–Sun 10am–5pm.

San Ysidro Ranch 900 San Ysidro Ln. Santa Barbara 805 565-1724 SanYsidroRanch.com Visit the Stonehouse, named one of the 50 Best Restaurants in America by Open Table, or visit Plow & Angel for a comfortable and convivial atmosphere.

Tecolote Bookstore 1470 E. Valley Rd. 805 969-4977 Tecolote Bookstore is an independent bookstore located in the upper village of Montecito. Open Mon–Fri 10am–5:30pm; Sat 10am–5pm; closed Sun.

Santa Barbara Backyard Bowls 3849 State St. 805 569-0011 BackyardBowls.com Santa Barbara’s most innovative breakfast and lunch spot featuring Acai Bowls and smoothies. They also offer oatmeal, yogurt and more.

Bara’s Fresh 805 616-7243 BarasFresh.com Bara’s almond pâté is made in small batches with locally sourced ingredients. This tangy, delicious spread makes a perfect snack or hors d’oeuvres with crackers, wine and cheese. Inspired by the taste and convenience of traditional pâté, their lovingly crafted blend of local ingredients brings a fresh and healthful sensibility to an old favorite.

Commercial Fishermen of Santa Barbara Saturday Market Santa Barbara Harbor CFSB.info/the-saturday-fishermans-market Saturday mornings year-round on the commercial pier in the Santa Barbara Harbor (directly across from Brophy Bros.), from 7am to 11am weather permitting.

Come buy fresh and live sustainable seafood, direct from the fishermen and farmers who catch and grow it. Seasonal offerings include crab, urchin, halibut, rockfish, abalone, seaweeds, mussels, lobster, black cod, sea snails and more.

Il Fustino 3401 State St. 805 845-3521 ilFustino.com Il Fustino is Santa Barbara’s first and finest olive oil and vinegar tasting room. Il Fustino purveys only the finest and freshest olive oils, all grown and milled in California. They also provide an unparalleled selection of artisan vinegars.

Renaud’s Patisserie & Bistro 3315 State St. 805 569-2400 RenaudsBakery.com Renaud’s is a bakery specializing in French pastries and French-style cakes, as well as a bistro offering an extensive menu for breakfast and lunch. Open Mon– Sat 7am–5pm; Sun 7am–3pm.

Telegraph Brewing Co. 418 N. Salsipuedes St. 805 963-5018 TelegraphBrewing.com Handcrafting unique American ales that embrace the heritage of California’s early brewing pioneers and use as many locally grown ingredients as possible.

Visit the tasting room, open Tue–Thu 3–9pm; Fri–Sat 2–10pm; Sun 1–7pm. Telegraph beer is available at many restaurants and grocery stores in Santa Barbara County and throughout California.

Santa Barbara (Downtown) 805 Boba 651 Paseo Nuevo #213 805 845-5655 805Boba.com 805 Boba offers authentic Taiwanese “bubble” tea with a local twist. Featuring fresh local fruit, handcrafted syrups, tea, tapioca pearls and many other options, 805 Boba strives to provide the best-quality slushes, smoothies and tea in Santa Barbara. Ask about their Farmers Market Edition boba featuring seasonal produce from the Santa Barbara Farmers Market.

American Riviera Bank 1033 Anacapa St. 805 965-5942 AmericanRivieraBank.com Offering a local and sustainable approach to banking.

The founders of American Riviera Bank are a carefully selected group of successful, prominent, experienced and influential community and business leaders who understand the unique needs of the Santa Barbara community. Open Mon–Thu 8am–5pm, Fri 8am–6pm.

Destination Maps 3.22 Miles From Hwy 101

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16. OnQ Financial 17. Somerset 18. The French Press & Dune Coffee Roasters 19. August Ridge Vineyards 20. American Riviera Bank 21. C’est Cheese 22. The Wine Cask, Au Bon Climat, Margerum Wines 23. B ara’s Fresh 24. Cebada Wine & Forbidden Fruit Orchards 25. McConnell’s Fine Ice Creams 26. The French Press & Dune Coffee Roasters 27. Telegraph Brewing Co. 28. Renaud’s, Loreto Plaza 29. Il Fustino 30. Backyard Bowls, La Cumbre 31. Lazy Acres

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Santa Barbara 1. Santa Barbara Maritime Museum, Commercial Fishermen of Santa Barbara Saturday Market 2. Riverbench Santa Barbara, Helena Avenue Bakery, The Lark Santa Barbara, The Lucky Penny, Les Marchands Wine Bar & Merchant, Loquita, Santa Barbara Wine Collective 3. Municipal Winemakers 4. Lama Dog 5. Backyard Bowls, Downtown SB 6. Chocolate Maya 7. Green Table 8. Grapeseed Co. 9. 805 Boba 10. Barbareño 11. Scarlett Begonia 12. Bouchon Santa Barbara 13. SB Public Market , Il Fustino 14. Renaud’s, Arlington Plaza 15. Ca’ Dario Pizzeria

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Margerum Wine Company

813 Anacapa St. 805 963-7999 AuBonClimat.com

825 Santa Barbara St. 805 965-0318 CestCheese.com

813 Anacapa St. 805 845-8435 MargerumWineCompany.com

The tasting room and the Jim Clendenen Wine Library are known for world-class Chardonnays and Pinots.

Jim Clendenen has been making wines of vision and character for over 30 years, along with other varietals.

Amazing lineup of current releases and library wines available. Tasting room open Mon–Fri noon–6pm, Sat and Sun 11am–6pm.

In addition to being a local source for the finest cheeses and artisanal foods, C’est Cheese serves breakfast and lunch—fresh salads, soups, sandwiches and incredible pastries. Open Mon–Sat 7am–6pm; Sun 8am–3pm.

Located in the historic El Paseo complex, Margerum offers two venues for tasting in Downtown Santa Barbara. Enjoy a tasting (or a glass) of handcrafted, small production Margerum and Barden wines sourced from top vineyards around Santa Barbara County. Open Mon–Wed noon–5pm, Thu–Sun noon–6pm.

August Ridge Vineyards 5 E. Figueroa St. 805 770-8442 AugustRidge.com August Ridge crafts wine that combines the spirit of California with the restrained, classic elegance of wines from northern and central Italy. Distinctive wines from the Paso Robles region to be opened as you gather for a meal, surrounded by friends, family and loved ones. Tasting room opening April 2017.

Backyard Bowls 331 Motor Way 805 845-5379 BackyardBowls.com Santa Barbara’s most innovative breakfast and lunch spot featuring Acai Bowls and smoothies. They also offer oatmeal, yogurt and more.

Barbareño 205 W. Canon Perdido 805 963-9591 Barbareno.com Offering a casual approach to the classic California tavern, highlighting the traditions and specialties of the Central Coast and its many outstanding purveyors.

Sit inside and enjoy the enticing atmosphere of an open kitchen, or outside on the patio alongside the Santa Maria grill. Bar menu available Mon–Fri 5–6:30pm, dinner nightly 5–9:30pm.

Bouchon 9 W. Victoria St. 805 730-1160 BouchonSantaBarbara.com Bouchon sources all of its ingredients using an “asfresh-and-as-local-as-possible” approach. Experience fine dining, excellent regional wines and relaxed service in a warm, inviting ambience. Private dining in the Cork Room is available for groups of 10–20.

Dinner nightly 5–10pm.

Cebada Wine & Forbidden Fruit Orchards 8 E. De La Guerra St. 805 451-2570 Tasting Room 805 735-4648 Farm CebadaWine.com Cebada Vineyard is a working farm that vinifies estategrown Pinot Noir and Chardonnay located west of Sta. Rita Hills AVA. Their boutique winery produces sophisticated Burgundy-style wines. The handcrafted wines are made on the farm and available at the farm or downtown Santa Barbara. Tasting room open daily; farm tours available by appointment.

Ca’ Dario Pizzeria 29 E. Victoria St. 805 957-2020 CaDarioPizza.net Located just steps away from Chef Dario Furlati’s flagship eatery, Ca’ Dario Pizzeria offers a casual, urban atmosphere to enjoy authentic pizzas, salads and appetizers. The 30-seat restaurant boasts a welcoming bar, perfect for enjoying local or Italian beers on tap.

Open for lunch Mon–Sat 11:30am–2:30pm; dinner Mon–Sun 5–9:30pm.

Chocolate Maya 15 W. Gutierrez St. 805 965-5956 ChocolateMaya.com Chocolate Maya handmade chocolate confections: a variety of velvety truffles and chocolate-dipped temptations that are made from the highest-quality chocolate (Valrhona, Felchlin, Mesocacao including some small bean-to-bar artisans couverture) fresh local ingredients and some exotic findings from their travels overseas

Grapeseed Company 21 W. Ortega St. 805 456-3655 TheGrapeseedCompany.com The Grapeseed Company creates botanical spa and skin care products handcrafted from the byproduct of wine plus antioxidant-rich local and organic ingredients. Open 10:30am–6pm Mon–Fri, 11am–5pm Sat, closed Sun.

Green Table 113 W. De La Guerra St. 805 618-1233 Green-Table.com Delicious homemade foods, cleanses and drinks with original recipes that offer organic, gluten-free and vegetarian dishes, from matcha lattes to quinoa veggie burgers. Their vision is a world where natural, organic food is the staple of our meals and we eat to nourish our bodies while enjoying the great taste.

Mon–Sat 8am–5pm, Sun 8am–2pm.

Il Fustino 38 W. Victoria St. 805 845-4995 ilFustino.com Il Fustino is Santa Barbara’s first and finest olive oil and vinegar tasting room. Il Fustino purveys only the finest and freshest olive oils, all grown and milled in California. They also provide an unparalleled selection of artisan vinegars.

Santa Barbara Maritime Museum 113 Harbor Way, Ste 190 805 962-8404 SBMM.org The Santa Barbara Maritime Museum brings history to life through its educational programs and interactive exhibits, as well as events. Open 10am–5pm.

Closed Wed.

McConnell’s Fine Ice Creams 728 State St. 805 324-4402 McConnells.com McConnell’s Fine Ice Creams, founded in Santa Barbara in 1949, is now in its third generation of family ownership. They make their ice creams as they always have: from scratch, using Central Coast, grass-grazed milk, cream and the finest local, sustainable and organic ingredients from partner farms, artisans and purveyors they’ve worked with for decades.

No preservatives. No stabilizers. No additives. Ever.

A 70-year sweet legacy of keeping it real.

On Q Financial 1332 Anacapa St. 805 845-0694 OnQFinancial.com Since 2013, On Q Financial’s goal has been to ensure the mortgage process is streamlined and smooth for every client. Their team even works closely with community partners to provide homebuyers’ workshops to the Santa Barbara community. They are ready to help you purchase a home or refinance your existing home loans—in Santa Barbara and beyond.

Renaud’s Patisserie & Bistro 1324 State St. 805 892-2800 RenaudsBakery.com Renaud’s is a bakery specializing in French pastries and French-style cakes, as well as a bistro offering an extensive menu for breakfast and lunch.

Open Mon–Sat 7am–5pm, Sun 7am–3pm.

Riverbench Vineyard & Winery 137 Anacapa St., Suite C 805 324-4100 Riverbench.com Established in 1973, when the first Chardonnay and Pinot Noir grapes were planted on the property. For years since then, some of the most renowned wineries have purchased Riverbench fruit for their wines. In 2004, Riverbench began producing their own wines in limited quantities, with many available exclusively through their tasting rooms in Santa Maria and Santa Barbara. Open 11am–6pm daily.

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The Lark, Santa Barbara’s premier dining destination, features locally sourced seasonal ingredients celebrating the abundant bounty of the Central Coast. Meals are served family-style with handcrafted cocktails and an extensive wine list to complement Chef Jason Paluska’s creations. Open Tue–Sun 5–10pm.

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Scarlett Begonia 11 W. Victoria St., #10 805 770-2143 ScarlettBegonia.net Scarlett Begonia will always strive to have interesting, thoughtful food. Menus change weekly with an innovative, fresh approach to breakfast, lunch and dinner. Showcasing progressive modern cuisine, Scarlett Begonia features sustainable, organic, high quality ingredients coupled with innovative cooking to provide one of the most food-centric experiences in Santa Barbara. Open for dinner and cocktail hour Tue– Sat 4:30–9pm, breakfast and lunch Tue–Sun 9am–2pm.

Somerset 7 E. Anapamu St. 805 845-7112 SomersetSB.com Decor inside Somerset is a paean to mid-century modern with luxurious counterpoints, while outside is a beautiful and timeless walled garden with 100year-old olive trees and a central hearth. All produce is sourced within a 100-mile-radius. Taking advantage of proximity to the Santa Barbara coast, Chef utilizes local fish and livestock humanely raised on local ranches.

Open Mon–Fri 5:30pm–close, Sat–Sun 5pm–close.

The French Press & Dune Coffee Roasters 1101 State St. and 528 Anacapa St. 805 963-2721/805 962-7733 DuneCoffeeRoasters.com Sourcing, roasting and serving the best coffees from around the world. They love serving their carefully selected coffees and baked-in-house pastries and bread to the community. Visit The French Press & Dune 78 | EDIBLE SANTA BARBARA SPRING 2017

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The Wine Cask 813 Anacapa St. 805 966-9463 WineCask.com The Wine Cask Restaurant features the freshest local ingredients, the best wine list in town and seasonal signature cocktails. They offer fine dining in their exquisite Gold Room and casual dining in the courtyard and at their Intermezzo bar. Lunch: Tue–Fri 11:30am–3pm. Dinner: Tue–Sun from 5:30pm. Last seating at 9pm Sun–Thu and at 10pm Fri–Sat.

Santa Barbara (Funk Zone) Lama Dog 116 Santa Barbara St. 805 880-3364 LamaDog.com Craft beer tap room and bottle shop located in Santa Barbara’s Funk Zone. Open Sun–Wed 11:30am–10pm, Thu–Sat 11:30am–midnight.

Helena Avenue Bakery 131 Anacapa St., C 805 880-3383 HelenaAvenueBakery.com An artisan bakery offering wholesome breads and handmade seasonal pastries. Specializing in baked goods made from scratch and a complete menu of grab-and-go items ideal for dining in or takeaway.

Offering an expanded breakfast and espresso menu.

Open daily 7am–7pm. Inside SB Wine Collective, off Helena Avenue.

Les Marchands Wine Bar & Merchant

131 Anacapa St., Ste. B 805 284-0380 LesMarchandsWine.com Les Marchands is a European-style wine bar and retail shop with a world-class team of sommeliers providing unique experiences in wine, food and education.

With an extensive wine list, Les Marchands offers something for everyone. Open Sun–Thu 11am–9pm; Fri–Sat 11am–11pm.

Loquita 202 State St. 805 880-3380 LoquitaSB.com Loquita, a tribute to Santa Barbara’s Spanish origins, presents authentic Spanish food including tapas, wood-fired seafood, grilled meats and three types of paella. Menu created by Executive Chef Peter Lee and Spanish Chef Perfecte Rocher. Open Tue–Sun 5–10pm.

Lucky Penny 127 Anacapa St. 805 284-0358 LuckyPennySB.com Offering casual dining fare of breakfast goodies, espressos, coffees and teas, wood-fired pizzas, sandwiches and salads, beer and wine. Outdoor patio seating. Located in the heart of Santa Barbara’s Funk Zone. Open Sun–Thu 11am–9pm, Fri–Sat 11am–10pm.

Santa Barbara Wine Collective 131 Anacapa St., Ste. C 805 456-2700 SantaBarbaraWineCollective.com Santa Barbara Wine Collective is a downtown tasting room for five local like-minded producers focusing on Santa Barbara County’s unique terroir. Wines are available for tastings, by the glass or bottle or to take home. Open Sun–Thu 11am–7pm, Fri–Sat 11am–8pm.

Santa Barbara (Mesa) Lazy Acres 302 Meigs Rd. 805 564-4410 LazyAcres.com Santa Barbara’s best source for wholesome, natural and organic foods and products with real people dedicated to providing unmatched personal service. Mon–Sat 7am–11pm, Sun 7am–10pm.

Santa Maria Cambria Estate Winery 5475 Chardonnay Ln. 805 938-7318 CambriaWines.com Family-owned, sustainably farmed estate winery. Visit and experience the flavors of the Santa Maria Bench.

Chardonnay, Pinot Noir, Pinot Gris, Viognier and Syrah.

Open daily 10am–5pm.

Foxen Vineyard & Winery 7200 and 7600 Foxen Canyon Rd. 805 937-4251 FoxenVineyard.com The Foxen Boys’ winery and tasting room features Burgundian and Rhône-style wines. Visit the historic shack “Foxen 7200” for Italian and Bordeaux-style wines.

Picnic tables and scenic views at both locations. Open 11am–4pm daily.

Riverbench Vineyard & Winery 6020 Foxen Canyon Rd. 805 937-8340 Riverbench.com Established in 1973, when the first Chardonnay and Pinot Noir grapes were planted on the property. For years since then, some of the most renowned wineries have purchased Riverbench fruit for their wines. In 2004, Riverbench began producing their own wines in limited quantities, with many available exclusively through their tasting rooms in Santa Maria and Santa Barbara. Open 10am–4pm daily.

Santa Ynez The Brander Vineyard 2401 N. Refugio Rd. 805 688-2455 Brander.com Established in 1975, The Brander Vineyard is one of the oldest and most distinguished wineries in Santa Barbara County. Founder Fred Brander has dedicated himself to making exceptional block designates of estate Sauvignon Blanc and Cabernet Sauvignon that push the quality envelope for Bordeaux-style wines.

Open daily 11am–4pm.

The Lucky Hen Larder 1095 Meadowvale Rd. Santa Ynez 805 691-9448 TheLuckyHenLarder.com The Santa Ynez Valley Cheese Company is the only “cut-to-order” cheese shop in the SY Valley. The shop features over 100 artisan and farmstead cheeses as well as Lucky Hen Larder proprietary goods and picnic items and handcrafted sandwiches daily. Open Mon– Sat 10am–5pm; Sun 10am–4pm.

SY Kitchen 1110 Faraday St. 805 691-9794 SYKitchen.com Modern Northern Italian dishes showcasing local ingredients and Chef Luca Crestanelli’s light touch.

Specialties include homemade pastas; pizzas served from the wood-fired oven; oak-grilled chicken, seafood, lamb and steak. The bar features dazzling cocktails crafted by Alberto Battaglini. Also featured is The

Courtyard, a casual outdoor lounge with full service dining. Dinner nightly 5pm–closing, Lunch Fri–Sun 11:30am–2:30pm, Aperitivo Mon–Thu 4–5:30pm.

Jimenez Family Farm

Solvang

Small family-run local farm specializes in sustainably grown food and their famous handmade pies, quiches and small-batch preserves. Visit them at the farmers market to purchase produce, pies, jams and naturally fed and farm-raised rabbit, lamb, pork, goat and poultry.

Buttonwood Farm Winery 1500 Alamo Pintado Rd. 805 688-3032 ButtonwoodWinery.com In 1968 Betty Williams came to Buttonwood, creating a life that found expression through a connection with the land. The vineyard now has 33,000 vines with a mix of Sauvignon Blanc, Semillon, Marsanne, Merlot, Cabernet Sauvignon, Cabernet Franc and Syrah. Tasting room open daily 11am–5pm.

Lincourt Vineyards 1711 Alamo Pintado Rd. 805 688-8554 LincourtWines.com Lincourt Vineyards is the perfect stop for a picnic in Wine Country. Stop by our tasting room to sample our estate-grown Cabernet Sauvignon, Pinot Noir, Gruner Veltliner, Sauvignon Blanc and Chardonnay. Open daily 10am–5pm.

Succulent Café Wine Charcuterie 1555 Mission Dr. 805 691-9444 SucculentCafe.com Comfort food with a twist, prepared with seasonal and local farm-fresh ingredients. The best charcuterie plates around feature farm-fresh cheeses, house-made jams, pickled veggies, nuts and fruit. Great local wine, craft beer and signature cocktails. Breakfast/Lunch: weekdays (except Tue) 10am–3pm, Sat & Sun 8:30am–3pm.

Dinner Wed–Mon 5–9pm.

Source Guide Bragg Live Foods Bragg.com

805 688-0597 JimenezFamilyFarm.com

Moscow Copper Co. 888 269-3349 MoscowCopper.com Makers of the Original 100% Copper Moscow Mule Mugs and celebrating 75 years of true authenticity.

Perfect for gifts, events, corporate gifting, weddings or anniversaries. Shop original copper mug sets, flasks, a new recipe book, custom engraving, cookware and more.

On Q Financial 1332 Anacapa St. 805 845-0694 OnQFinancial.com Since 2013, On Q Financial’s goal has been to ensure the mortgage process is streamlined and smooth for every client. Their team even works closely with community partners to provide homebuyers’ workshops to the Santa Barbara community. They are ready to help you purchase a home or refinance your existing home loans—in Santa Barbara and beyond.

Plow to Porch 805 895-7171 PlowToPorch.com Plow to Porch Organics is a local organic/pesticide-free produce and grocery delivery service to members who subscribe. They simplify the purchase of local fresh organic produce and other organic, local foods in order to inspire good nutrition, support local farmers, protect the environment and make eating healthy food fun!

Santa Barbara Certified Farmers Market 805 962-5354 SBFarmersMarket.org

Founded in 1912 by Dr. Paul C. Bragg and now run by his daughter Dr. Patricia Bragg in Goleta, Bragg Live Food Products offers organic and natural health products and publishes self-health books. Available locally at Fairview Gardens’ Farm Stand, Lassen’s, Gladden and Sons, Tri-County Produce, Whole Foods Market, Lazy Acres and in the health section of your neighborhood grocery store.

Seven markets, six days a week. See schedule on page 51.

Drake Family Farms

805 686-9312 WinfieldFarm.us

DrakeFamilyFarms.com Making locally produced farmstead artisan goat cheese in Ontario, California. At Drake Family Farms every goat has a name and their goat cheeses are made on the farm with milk exclusively from the farm’s own animals. Available at local farmers markets and online.

Harvest Santa Barbara

Santa Barbara – Tree Farm CalAtlanticHomes.com Brand new homes in the foothills of Santa Barbara County. Coming Spring/Summer 2017.

Winfield Farm Taste the magic of Winfield Mangalitsa pork at Industrial Eats, Buellton; Aly’s Restaurant, Solvang; Pico & Full of Life Flatbread, Los Alamos; Barbareño & Bacara Bistro Restaurant, Santa Barbara. Also order through our Mangalitsa Market on the Winfield Farm website—please call first. Follow us on Facebook (WinfieldFarmBuellton), Twitter (@WinfieldFarm.US) and Instagram (Winfield_Farm).

805 696-6930 HarvestSantaBarbara.com Delivering freshly harvested wholesale produce— sourced directly from local family farms—to schools, restaurants, hospitals and retail businesses. Their mission is to be the catalyst for a healthier, more sustainable food system by strengthening the ties between farmers and the community.

EdibleSantaBarbara.com SPRING 2017 | 79

The Last Bite Spring’s Don’t-Miss Dish

by Liz Dodder

Local Nettle Pasta with Mushrooms and Spot Prawns at S.Y. Kitchen

olive oil (preferably from Italy) over medium-high heat. Add the cut mushrooms and prawns (cleaned and shelled) and cook for 2–3 minutes. Boil the fresh pasta in water and salt for 2–3 minutes, then drain and add to the pan along with cherry tomatoes. Cook, stirring, for 1 minute and add salt and pepper to taste.

Living in Santa Barbara County all but guarantees us locally grown produce year-round, but spring can bring surprises depending on rain. This year, fields are bursting with growth— green hills and abundant vegetation are everywhere. And that gets chef Francesco Crestanelli of S.Y. Kitchen excited.

Liz Dodder is a drinker, eater and traveler who has eaten five kinds of foie gras in one day. She’s also a blogger, writer, photographer, recipe developer, web designer, social media maven and Certified Specialist of Wine (CSW). CaliCoastWineCountry.com

Wine pairing: 2015 Storm Sauvignon Blanc

“The quantity of food available here in spring is so great; it feels like a treasure hunt,” he says. “I just love creating dishes out of what we can find.”

To make this Italian “Surf & Turf,” blanch the nettle leaves and drain (make sure to handle raw leaves with gloves). Then blend them with a farm egg, and combine with flour and salt. Knead and rest the dough, then roll out and cut. Sauté garlic, Italian parsley and red chili flakes in extra-virgin 80 | EDIBLE SANTA BARBARA SPRING 2017

LIZ DODDER

Plentiful rain is causing chanterelle mushrooms— large, fleshy and meaty—and wild nettles— leafy and vibrant green—to pop up in fields all over the county. Crestanelli, brother and partner of chef Luca Crestanelli, loves to gather the nettles and chanterelles himself for dishes in the restaurant, sometimes in a field across from the restaurant in Santa Ynez. Nettles, which have a ton of vitamins, are considered an old, classic ingredient in his native Verona, Italy, and lend a beautiful green color to S.Y. Kitchen’s daily handmade pasta. Crestanelli also adds Santa Barbara spot prawns, which are sweet and so fresh—sometimes just hours out of the ocean.

BRAGG® SPREADING GREAT HEALTH SINCE 1912

IT’S 100% ORGANIC!

BRAGG ORGANIC ®

APPLE CIDER VINEGAR

MIRACLE CLEANSE

CONCENTRATE M ade with finest qualit y organic ingredients. This natural concentrate formula is a unique miracle blend of World Famous Bragg Organic Apple Cider Vinegar, organic honey, organic lemon juice and organic cayenne. The Apple Cider Vinegar process converts sugars found in apples into healthy organic acids, live enzymes & vital prebiotics.

Certified Organic NON-GMO Kosher Certified Gluten-Free

• •

NEW

Add to water for great tasting cleanse to enjoy anytime!

32 oz Glass

BRAGG ORGANIC ®

NEW C O C O N U T SOY-FREE

Alternative to Soy Sauce 10 oz Glass

NEW

16 & 32 oz Glass

A natural and organic soy-free option to traditional Soy Sauce, Tamari, and Worcestershire with great flavor! Made from Non-GMO organic coconut tree nectar from Indonesia and Bali. Great in all your healthy Salads, Soups, Veggies, Rice and Beans, Casseroles, Potatoes, Tofu, Stir-fries, Meats, Poultry, Fish, Jerky, Tempeh, Marinades, Sauces, & Popcorn.

• Certified Organic • Soy-Free • Non-GMO • No Alcohol Kosher Certifi ed • • Gluten-Free Patricia Bragg Voted Woman of the Year 2013

by Goleta Chamber.

•

delicious on salads, veggies, stir-frys etc.

SEASONING

Bragg Organic Soy Free Coconut Liquid Aminos All Purpose Seasoning:

•

Have an Apple Healthy Life!

LIQUID AMINOS

Bragg Farm Voted Most Beautiful Farm!

“Paul Bragg did more for the Health of America than any one person I know of.”

“I give thanks to the Bragg Health Program.

You make my days Healthy!”

– CLINT EASTWOOD, Bragg Follower over 60 yrs

Follow BRAGG on Social Media!

Blog

– Dr. C. EVERETT KOOP, Former US Surgeon General Dr. Koop & Dr. Patricia

Youtube Twitter

Facebook Pinterest Instagram

BRAGG ACV Energy Drinks!

“I love Bragg Apple Cider Vinegar Drinks.

They are my secret of all secrets.”

7 Flavors - 16 oz Bottle Gives Two 8 oz Servings VOTED BEST BEVERAGES WINNER!

– KATY PERRY, Singer

16 & 32 oz Glass, & Gallons

6 oz spray, 10,16, & 32 oz & Gallons

Patricia Bragg, ND, PhD. Pioneer Health Crusader Health Educator, Author YouTube.com/PatriciaBragg Tasty over soups, salads, 16 & 32 oz Glass, veggies, & Gallons & popcorn!

Shaker Top

Paul C. Bragg, ND, PhD.

Originator Health Stores Life Extension Specialist BraggHawaiiExercise.com Scan/Visit Me

6 Bragg Dressings & Marinades in 12 oz Glass

®

BRAGG.com

800- 6-1990

BRAGG Products Available In Health & Grocery Stores

ALL