Wednesday, August 1, 2007

The Best Pinot Grigio I've Had (so far)

Preparing for a visit down to Santa Barbara next week, I began to plan out my winery visits and got to thinking about what I enjoyed most about that trip. There was this little tiny winery in Lompoc that I could never remember the name of except that it started with a "P". It was located in what's called the Lompoc Wine Ghetto, a series of warehouse/office units situated in an industrial part of Lompoc. Apparently the rent is cheap and the warehouses stay naturally cool, which cuts down on the electricity bills. The winery...Palmina! The wine: 2006 Pinot Grigio, Alisos Vineyard. It was so refreshingly fresh, and the fruit, which centered around sweet meyer lemon and stone fruits, was amazingly vibrant and rich. $20 a bottle. Because I was stupid, I didn't pick up a bottle or ten, so now this is going to be one of my first stops when I get back to this area.

Nearby there are some other great wineries, including Fiddlehead, which you must check out if you're ever in the area. They make some great Pinot Noirs. But Palmina stood out, not only because of the Pinot Grigio, but because they decided to focus on only Italian varietals, which is very unique in this Pinot Noir laden area.

Hey by the way, if you know if any other great wines from Santa Barbara County, please let me know. I'll check it out and write about it in an upcoming post.


2 comments:

patrick said...

Try the wines by Kunin. I've tried it here in my country, Philippines. Wine is great..full bodied. I'll be visiting Santa Barbara Next week and i'll definitely drop by that winery

Ben Fowler said...

Will Do Patrick. By the way, I recently had another contender for the top spot: Maresh 2006 Pinot Gris, Willamette Valley. THey only made a few hundred cases and it's sold only at their tasting room.
http://vineyardretreat.com/tasting.htm