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Santa Barbara Wine Tasting Notes
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2007 Mosby Winery & Vineyards Santa Barbara County Cortese $18 Score: 85.0 With its crisp acidity, light lime and loads of minerality, this Cortese seems more like an Albariņo or Asyrtiko. While it lacks emphatic varietal definition, it serves as a refreshing aperitif and pairs well with Asian food |
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2007 Mosby Winery & Vineyards Santa Barbara County, Pinot Grigio $18 Score: 88.0 This is a decent Pinot Grigio showing lots of minerality over lean citrus and pear fruit, and firm acidity. It's not the most complex wine, however, so the $18 price tag seems a bit steep despite its rarity (only 1150 cases produced). |
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2005 Mosby Winery & Vineyards Santa Barbara County Dolcetto $20 Score: 89.0 This distinctly Californian rendition of Dolcetto lives up to its name better than most from Italy. While Dolcetto means "little sweet one," and the wine is entirely dry, it does give the impression of very ripe blueberry fruit, with a dusting of nutmeg. It's full-bodied, fruit forward, well balanced, under 14% alcohol, and has a measure of minerality underlying the fruit in the finish. Made for current consumption, it will keep through 2012. Just 421 cases made. |
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2005 Mosby Winery & Vineyards Santa Barbara County Dolcetto $20 Score: 89.0 This distinctly Californian rendition of Dolcetto lives up to its name better than most from Italy. While Dolcetto means "little sweet one," and the wine is entirely dry, it does give the impression of very ripe blueberry fruit, with a dusting of nutmeg. It's full-bodied, fruit forward, well balanced, under 14% alcohol, and has a measure of minerality underlying the fruit in the finish. Made for current consumption, it will keep through 2012. Just 421 cases made. |
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2005 Mosby Winery & Vineyards Santa Barbara County Teroldego $30 Score: 89.0 Always a fascinating quaff, the 2005 serves up ripe, concentrated strawberry and logan berry jam, with a light minerality and light tannin, a hint of mocha an a pleasantly long finish. |
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2006 Mosby Winery & Vineyards Santa Barbara County Pinot Grigio $18 Score: 89.0 The brilliant Bill Mosby crafts small artistic statements with each vintage. This Pinot Grigio takes a road between the Italian and Alsatian versions of this versatile grape. It's fuller than its Italian cousins and has more intensity of flavor, yet retains it's crisp acidity. Bill's tasting notes are hard to improve on: "ripe pear and green apple, a dry finish with an element of wet stone." I'll add that it has hints of not quite ripe white peach. It's an easy wine to pair with food; it either works as a palate cleanser, or it finds like flavors in such dishes as roasted chicken, pasta primavera, or virtually any delicate fish or shellfish. Only 860 cases produced. |
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2004 Mosby Winery & Vineyards, Santa Barbara County Sangiovese $26 Score: 90.0 Mosby makes a departure from his usual style by producing this late-harvest-style Sangiovese. At 14.6% alcohol, it's concentrated, dense and ripe, with flavors of blueberry, mulberry, and a touch of dark chocolate, soft tannins and excellent acidity. It's unusually well balanced for a late-harvest-style wine, and will continue to develop over the next decade or more. Only 570 cases produced. A genuine bargain. |
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2005 Mosby La Donna Santa Barbara County [Chardonnay and Cortese] - not listed on the label $14 Score: 87.0 Mosby is one of the top dozen most interesting wineries in California. Mosby performs beyond expectations every vintage, turning out first rate varietal renditions of relatively obscure grapes, coming up with uniquely Californian interpretations, and never straying from classic balance and structure. La Donna is a blend of Cortese, a Piemontese variety, and Chardonnay. The Chardonnay gives it body and breadth along with its typical lemon chiffon flavor, while the Cortese provides acidity and a floral-green grass flavor. Underlying the amalgam is a vibrant green melon flavor. It's not the most complex wine in the world, so it won't garner high point scores, but it is a most enjoyable wine that works equally well as an aperitif or with the subtly flavored foods. Only 750 cases produced. |
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2005 Mosby Santa Barbara County Rosato di Sangiovese $18 Score: 95.0 Rose as a category is usually noted for sweet, rather innocuous wines. It takes an artist to make a great rose, and you'll be hard-pressed to find a better rose than this offering from Mosby. It's dry and aromatic, displaying full strawberry-cranberry fruit in the nose, strawberry-watermelon flavors on the mid-palate, and even a little spice in the surprisingly long finish. Outstanding. Worth seeking out. Only 275 cases produced. |
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2005 Mosby Santa Barbara County Pinot Grigio $14 Score: 93.0 Pinot Gris/Grigio is so often innocuous, it's a real pleasure to find a complex rendition. This one shows grassy-herbal notes over white peach on the nose. These follow through to the palate with the addition of mineral notes and a pleasant bitterness and minerality through the extraordinarily long finish. It's light, dry and refreshing, with enough acid to work well with most foods. It is also a very good value. |
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2005 Mosby Santa Barbara County Traminer $18 Score: 88.0 You'll be hard pressed to see the difference between this Traminer and Gewurztraminer. Gewurz simply means spicy, or more to the point, aromatic. This may have a muted nose, but on the palate it shows flavors of Barlett pears, lychee and pink grapefruit rind, as well as mineral notes on the mid-palate. it's seductively silky, dry as a bone, and displays the typical bitterness of the variety in the finish. A mere 333 cases were produced. |
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1999 Mosby Vigna della Casa Vecchia Santa Barbara County Dolcetto $14.00 Score: 85.0 "Dolcetto is usually lighter weight than this. Meaning 'little sweet one,' the Dolcetto grape makes a wine often compared to Pinot Noir. This one shows spicy plum and roasted tomato character, with toast and spice notes on the palate, and medium tannin. A big, rustic wine to pair with hamburger or spaghetti." |
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1999 Meridian Vineyards Santa Barbara County Chardonnay $11.00 Score: 89.0 "A full-bodied, velvety smooth, dry, tropical fruit style Chardonnay. Papaya and guava fruit combine with crisp acidity and a light smokey background on the mid-palate, leading to a mineral and fruit finish. Consistently a good value and the epitome of the California style." |
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1998 Seven Peaks San Luis Obispo County/Santa Barbara County Pinot Noir $20.00 Score: 93.0 "A mouthful of this Pinot will send your head spinning-its one of those big, earthy wines, with fresh cherry fruit, a silky texture, and so much depth that its difficult to describe. A very controversial wine with our consumer tasting panel: some felt it was too earthy, others thought the earthiness made it that much more complex." |
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1998 Meridian Vineyards Santa Barbara County Pinot Noir Coastal Reserve $22.00 Score: 94.0 "An exquisite nose of deep, lush cherry pie fruit with a subtle, complex background of forest floor and vanilla, medium body and a sensuous texture, soft tannin and a long spicy finish. Great now, it will also age gracefully for a few years." |
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