Driving along the Foxen Canyon Road is a scenic drive through Santa Barbara's wine country. With so many wineries in the area, it's difficult to blindly select where to stop so we left it to the wind and it blew us towards Curtis Winery. Curtis is another winery taking the initiative to focus solely on the development of Rhone-style wines in California. Winemaker Chuck Carlson approaches wine like many others in the same region- let Mother Nature do the work and turn her grapes into fine wine using as little intervention as possible.
Curtis Winery has been a favorite at amongst the critics. Many have been pleased with their latest releases and even the mighty Robert Parker sees values and quality coming out their doors. They were a hit at the recent Rhone Rangers Event and took home many notes of recognition.
Their tasting room grounds are lovely with antique wine making tools scattered in front of the tasting room overlooking the vineyards. They have trinkets for traveling shoppers and a large tasting room so even when the crowds come, it still doesn't feel too stuffy. When we arrived, there were a number of folks there. We were taken into their cellar room where we enjoyed sampling from their line up in the cool room away from the crowds. Gotta love it! There's nothing better than tasting wine in the room the wine has been fermenting in. Surrounded by oak barrels in a large dimly lit room - ah... now that's nice.
The tastings that day included 7 wines for $5 and you were able to keep the engraved glass. We were lucky enough to taste an additional wine not on the list - the '95 Syrah from Vogelzang Vineyards.
I was pleased with Curtis Winery. They are making a very good wines for very affordable price tags. A few of their wines didn't make a lasting impression on me but not every one will. Their wines didn't dazzle us tremendously but for the value, I can't argue too much.
We certainly enjoyed our visit and appreciated the opportunity to taste in their cellaring room. We took our time touring around their shop and picked up a few things. They were beginning to get very busy by then end of our tasting and cars continued to drive up. Thankfully we arrived when we did. Apparently word is out on the value you can take advantage of at Curtis Winery.
