2003 ELEVATION SENSATION Core Wines

I came across this the other day in the Wine Country tasting room in Los Olivos, recently taken over by Sherrill Duggan (Buttonwood Winery), her husband Doug (formerly Zaca Mesa), and sons Tim (Buttonwood and Fiddlehead) and Matt. A great place for some of the best wines in the County.
Now, when I taste wines, I always try to find something good about the stuff and work on bringing out the subtleties, in a word I try to like it. With this release by David Corey I had no problem.
A lot has been written about the word "terroir". I don't know about you but I didn't always understand its true meaning until this "Sensation" leaped into my olfactory system. How better to describe terroir than being given a smell that immediately conjures up a place, but not just any place, a full on transmigration to THE place. If you have ever driven along the American Riviera in Santa Barbara, APS as the locals know it, in spring/early summer when the gardens are in full bloom, the residual scents of Pittosporum, jasmine and the warm coastal breezes combine to present a sense of paradise. This is what the '03 is about. A wine that gives a vision, a scene, a vivid deja vu as though you are in a place and time. Like California's happy cows, these are happy grapes, living rent free in one of the most beautiful places in the world. It's as if they know how content they are and trust Dave to retain their quality.
A wine that reminds you so much of a place is a rare wine indeed. It's like meeting someone for the first time who reminds you of a hundred people you know or have met, you trust them immediately, you know about them already and you are comfortable in their presence.
I have travelled all over the world, yet when I'd fly out of Santa Barbara in spring I'd take a few jasmine blossoms that climb the pillars at SB airport and keep them in my sunglasses case. Every time I put on the shades I'd get a full nose of the jasmine fragrance. In the back country of China or watching the sunset over the Taj Mahal in Agra, the freshness of the jasmine always brought me back to Santa Barbara.
It seems that I have discovered SB in a bottle. There's not much of this release, so I might suggest you get yourself a taste of paradise.

Dave, I know you don't like the word "Terroir" but this is one of the wines that best sums it up for me.

December 5 2005

Cheers