Focus on Santa Barbara County
The 2013 vintage across Santa Barbara County should bring plenty of choices and pleasure to wine lovers who like to dig into their wines soon after release, as well as for itchy-corkscrewed sommeliers whose lists are chiefly made up of current releases. Many 2012s will give early satisfaction as well, but this vintage has also produced some more seriously structured wines, as I discovered during my October visit to Southern California and subsequent tastings back home in New York
Two thousand thirteen was a warm, very dry vintage—a drought year, actually—that got off to a quick start, with budbreak occurring in early March in many areas. Every month of the 2013 growing season—from March through October—experienced temperatures above the long-term average, but there were no bouts of freakish heat. The early start and the long, warm growing season set the scene for ripe, relatively low-acid, gently tannic wines. And lots of them, as yields approached and sometimes surpassed those of 2012, which was itself a record-breaker. A few old-timers told me that the last two back-to-back bumper crops in the region were 1978 and 1979, so supplies of these wines, with the exception of the usual trophy bottlings, won't be a problem for a while. (As a quick aside, 2014 is shaping up to be a fascinating year, with clean fruit being picked across the longest harvest period most winemakers and growers can recall: from mid-August for some white varieties to late October for red grapes. Suffice to say that there will be wines for fans of all types, from lean and racy to richly decadent; it all depends on when the grapes were harvested, making it a true winemaker’s vintage.)
As for 2012, the area’s red wines, especially the pinots, which generally looked to be fruit-forward for early drinking at the outset, have surprised most people, including this writer, by taking on a more serious, structured mien than seemed possible during their infancy. The extroverted fruit that was apparent early on is still in plain view, no question, but the wines typically display more grip than they showed last year, as well as more tannin presence. They haven't hardened up so much as straightened up, which bodes well for cellaring.
