WEEKEND IN SANTA BARBARA

Hello:

An aside before publishing the final two reds from the Red Wine Tasting, and as Dorianne and I prepare for the White Wine Tasting on July 4th:

We spend Sunday - Tuesday in Santa Barbara. Stayed at the incredible San Ysidro Ranch in Montecito - the place where JFK & Jackie honeymooned among others. The ranch is beautiful, the cabins incredibly comfortable and inviting, with quiet enclosed porches front and rear (with a jacuzzi), the bathroom floors have radiant heating, etc., etc.

We spent Monday in the Santa Ynez area, visiting three wineries - Sunstone, Artiste, and Rideau. Pretty much all of the wines exceeded the WineSaver price level of $25 and under retail price, so I won't go into tasting reviews. Suffice to say that Artiste was the hit of the trip - wonderful wines with the "gimmick" being that art is the complement of the wine - the tasting room is filled with art and each label is an artistic piece on canvass actually applied to the bottle.

The wines at Artiste are blends from all over California, with an emphasis on the local area. The winemaker, Bion Rice, is the son of the family who runs Sunstone. He has a true gift for blending wine - those that we tasted were the best of the day, and we bought a few bottles and joined the wine club. Their site is http://www.artiste.com/index.cfm?method=homepage.showpage.

We had dinner at the Stone House Restaurant at the ranch on Sunday - prime rib featuring a bottle of Qupe Syrah "Purisima Mountain Vineyard" 2002 - a wonderful wine.

Monday, we had dinner at the new Hungry Cat Restaurant in Santa Barbara - wonderful and inventive seafood with a glass of Chablis - after all that tasting, we were not wanting a whole bottle.

So a great couple of days of R&R - I highly recommend the hotel, the restaurants, and the wineries we visited.

'Till Next Time.

The Wine Saver