Brilliance in Santa Barbara

BY ANTONIO GALLONI | SEPTEMBER 21, 2023

Santa Barbara continues to impress with a wide range of exceptional, world-class wines. After the challenging but ultimately strong 2020 harvest, producers were welcomed with far more favorable conditions in 2021. It is a spectacular vintage for the whites, quite possibly the best I have seen in more than a dozen years of tasting these wines, but ultimately less consistent for the reds, as we will explore in this year’s report.

Perched high atop the Santa Rita Hills Mountain range, Mt. Carmel is one of the most evocative sites in Santa Barbara. 

A Brief Introduction

Santa Barbara is a rare region that does extremely well with all the main white and red grapes. Burgundian varieties thrive on the western side of the appellation, Bordeaux grapes do best in the warmer, eastern sectors, while Rhône varieties can be interesting in many different places throughout the AVA. That is both a strength and a weakness. Readers will find incredible diversity here, but that diversity also means Santa Barbara lacks the clear identity of regions like Napa Valley, which is inextricably linked with Cabernet Sauvignon, the Santa Lucia Highlands and its cool-climate varieties or Paso Robles with its focus on Rhône varieties. Because of that, so many of the best wines in Santa Barbara never receive the visibility they merit and therefore remain very favorably priced versus global peers.

For readers seeking wines of place, Santa Barbara is a fertile hunting ground. That is especially true for consumers who feel priced out of the classic regions of Continental Europe, meaning Burgundy and, increasingly, the Rhône Valley. While I would never suggest that a Santa Barbara Pinot Noir is a perfect substitute for Grand Cru Burgundy, the wines do offer many of the same attributes, but can be found for less than a monthly car payment or mortgage and opened without the guilt that, sadly, often comes with enjoying iconic wines from top producers in today’s market.  

Proprietor John Wagner and Winemaker Wynne Solomon at Peake Ranch, where the wines continue to improve.