Santa Barbara Winemakers.

Margerum 2005, sauvignon blanc, Westerly Vineyards, Santa Ynez Valley, bottle number 05731.

It's always a delight to taste California, being a country by itself, the beauty and diversity of California is what makes California. Wines here tend to aim for the mythical frenchness, the Burgundy "style", the Bordeaux "style" (etcetera, etcetera as Yul Brynner announced). It's a way of reference, and sauvignon blanc suffers from too precise a reference sometimes, cat pee being the profile of choice. The New Zealand "style" is the latest of the descriptors, to me though this particular style reminds me of some pretty wicked body odour of some chubby mustachioed, woman toiling away in an asparagus field in some country waiting to be invaded. Far too generic and enough to get me in trouble with someone.

Moving on swiftly to the wine of the evening. Doug is one of those guys who is nice without realising it, his wines are memorable without the fireworks and fanfare, the white space on the label even betrays the understatements he makes and leaves the rest for the imagination. That's what I like about this wine. Taste California, but taste Santa Barbara, then taste Westerly, then taste this one. Eric Mohseni from Osseus, uses the same vineyard and pulled the minerality of the land, the cleanness of the air, the ephemerality of the fruit and captured the essence. Doug has also caught that fleeting gasp of the first sight of the valley before the wholeness of the views become as normal as though you have lived here for ever. The '05 is the first sight from the top of the San Marcos Pass, the warmth of the descent across the Cold Springs bridge, the fresh coolness from Lake Cachuma as you pass the ospreys on the utility poles, the fragrance of the morning fog burning off around seven am with the ocean microparticles sinking into the soil. I can't see beyond this oasis.

This sauv was straight from the bottling line on Friday the 31st of March, the last day of Madness. I didn't want to look at this wine yesterday because I thought you might think I was joking, so today I decided it should be had with quail. Doug recommended oysters, I can see that but I couldn't make it to Boston and back, so quail it is. Four little guys lying in the trusty Brazilian clay pot like a quadruple of David Lynch's Eraserhead. Fried yams and quail with the '05 sauv.
Clean, crisp, fresh and fruity, florid and moreish. I have a plan, but I don't have a forklift to get the rest of the pallets of this home, besides, you need to get hold of this when it hits the shelves, running. This is the last wine he is making at the Brander facility before he goes over to Curtis and though Fred is the cutting edge of sauv blanc in the Valley, with his trusty sidekick Luke, this is not a Brander clone by any stretch. This has Californian written bold, a beach wine, a garden wine, a sushi wine, an oyster wine of course. This is what Dave Corey might rustle up, a taste of Santa Barbara but with the sunbleached surfer hair, Friday night at the Andalucia, the warm, sunset evening at the El Encanto. It's also a thirst quencher, steel fermentation makes this keep the effervescence better than a Stoli and soda. No alcohol level is mentioned on the front or back but Doug likes to pick around 23.5 brix to retain the crispness so I'd expect around 13.5%alc at most. His Vogelzand was picked on September 1 and was crushed around noon according to my notes from last year so I'd look at this as being as close as dammit too. As for the Westerlys, they are sitting on a goldmine, a juice fountain no less. The fruit from here were physiologically ripe, brown seeds, brown stems and a berry juciness that was almost criminal to use for anything other than eating. This is the secret to winemaking, the patience, the daily visits, the faith, the hard work and the focus.

For those who only want the Parker notes: green apple with a hint of lemon citrus, drink now to the next hour or two. 97 stars.

Of course you know better, wines deserve more than a brief sentence. If anyone has a forklift and a couple of ski masks, we should grab the Vogelzang too. If you are not willing to go to such extremes, fine, but at least do the Star Wars thing and line up around the block on the day of release outside the Wine Cask. I don't see these 850 cases or so getting past August. My bottle lasted all of one and a half hours and was still good to the last drop.

Cheers

April 2, 2006