On the road again! We shuttled our berry-stained lips over to Dragonette Cellars, the combined efforts of the brothers Dragonette and Brandon Sparks-Gillis. Brandon and his pup Eno met us at the door of what is essentially a warehouse in the middle of an industrial part of town and next to a cabinet and marble emporium, respectively. I didn’t know what to expect once through the door, but I was pleasantly surprised. Barrels. And lots of them. Add a tasting table and it’s all you need…a thing of beauty.
We were lucky to taste the current releases, a not yet released wine and to barrel taste ’08 Syrah and Pinot. Yes, Brandon is my new best friend. As we are in the thick of the summer heat, I am drinking rosé. A LOT. You might even call it an obsession. So, a highlight of the tasting was their delicious ’08 Santa Ynez Rosé. It is a blend of Pinot Noir and Syrah and is unfiltered giving the wine a cloudy apple cider look, but in light red. It is crisp, dry and refreshing with a slight watermelon fruit punch vibe. Hopefully, coming to a bar near me soon.
Brandon uses his "thief" to grab some '08 Pinot. Steal! Put in my glass!
As we finished up, we wandered over to the adjacent Ampelos Cellars tasting table. Dragonette shares the space with them and they all lovingly refers to it as the AC/DC tasting room. Clever. Since neither Rebecca or her husband Peter were around to represent Ampelos, Brandon took the liberty of tasting us on their current releases. By all means. The real stand-out wine for me was the 2007 Santa Rita Hills Dornfelder under their Epsilon label. It reminded me of a northern Italian varietal, Schiava (aka Vernatsch), but a bit richer in body. Of course, this one is small batch and yet to be released, so I couldn’t make off with a bottle. It will hit the market in September or October.
Our bellies were beginning to rumble with hunger so we waved goodbye to AC/DC in search of food. Undeniable theme of the day: FAMILY, hard work and passion for the vine and the land. This is the kind of wine I want to drink and this is the kind of wine I want to support. It feels good going down.
