A history of Santa Barbara celebration dinner with champagnes, white Burgs, Spanish wines and more

Santa Barbara has honored its history, culture and tradition by holding an Old Spanish Days Fiesta every year for 98 years now. Locals celebrate it in style over a few days in early August with all sorts of outings, parades, mercados, events and margaritas.

For us wine geeks, we adjust our theme to include Spanish wines among the many treasures shared during our dinners and parties. One such occasion just happened at one of our finest local private venues, The Santa Barbara Club, where at least a few of the wines were Spanish, but mostly French.

While being entertained by a mariachi band, a group of us enjoyed a fine buffet of authentic Spanish food while deferring from drinking margaritas in favor of our own wines. As usual, we had way too many wines and it was another ordeal of keeping up and keeping track of what we had in each glass, an ongoing saga requiring mastery of ones organizational and memory skills, not mention monitoring consumption.

Here’s some notes on most of the wines; there were some others I did not get and some I got, but did not make note of:

2008 JEAN MICHEL CUVEE SPECIALE EXTRA BRUT- I chose to serve this blind to avoid the obscure small grower bias as it is a really good bubbly IMHO; it was bottled April 2010; disgorged November 2019, dosed at 1 gpl and comes from 7 different crus in Moussy and other neighboring municipalities; this undergoes at least 8-10 years on the lees after the harvest; as with previous bottles, the first taste showcased its nice acidity and its lemon zest baseline, then other nuances started to come in and within 5 minutes, everything came together and it was splendor in the glass from then on; it was rich and full bodied and beautifully balanced; the taste profile included lemon grass, honeysuckle, pear, apple and apricot; the creamy mousse just served to add to the sensory treats this delivered from the nose through the tail; fabulous bubbly; it received high praise from all at our table and at $50, it’s the QPR of the year.

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2004 GOSSET CELEBRIS EXTRA BRUT- this is this house`s prestige cuvée which was first released in 1995 using 1988 fruit, sourced as is still the case, from Aÿ-Champagne, Bouzy, Verzy, Chouilly and Craman; it is dosed at 5 gpl, disgorged minimally after 10 years and comprised of 55% Chardonnay, 45% Pinot Noir; the aromas and taste featured a stone fruit profile of peach, apricot and nectarine with hints of pineapple, pear and lime; accents of pine and fennel came in past mid palate while it was being delivered in a nice, frothy mousse; good bubbly.

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NV HUGUES GODME RESERVE BRUT VERZENAY 1er Cru- disgorged 1/20 and doused at 4 gpl; this consists of 37% Pinot Meunier, 34% Pinot Noir, 19% Chardonnay and I know a more recent release, disgorged 1/21, had 60% Chardonnay, 30% PM and 10% PN; so, quite a difference in the blend; it was very refreshing and elegant as it was light and easy on the palate while serving up nice honeyed lemon, lime and apple in a frothy, feel good mousse; it held a steady course throughout, was nicely balanced had enough stuff to impress.

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2010 LOUIS LATOUR CORTON-CHARLEMAGNE GRAND CRU- this was a really good bottle, ready and capable of giving lots of joy to all who partook; it offered a lovely invite with aromas of mineral and flint laden citrus and then a taste profile of honeyed lemon, apple and pear that was delivered in a nice, oily texture all the way to the back end; it was rich, had depth and a welcomed long finish with flint and minerals returning for one final hit.

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2015 PIERRE-YVES COLIN-MOREY LES COMBES SAINT-AUBIN 1er Cru- here comes another fabulous bottle of this treasure and it showed beautifully as all before it have; sporting flint and mineral notes, the fine citrus fruit adds to the bright acidity with lime most prevalent; it was embellished by lemongrass and honeysuckle, but that nice underlying streak of minerality served as a backbone. Righteous juice.
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2017 BODEGAS del PALACIO de FEFINANES ALBARINO de FIFINANES RIAS BAIXAS- from an iconic producer of Albarino, this wondrous wine was super smooth and creamy while delivering nice and refreshing citrus and white peach notes along with a grassy accent all the way through.
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1995 R LOPEZ de HEREDIA VINA TONDONIA GRAN RESERVA RIOJA- 70% Tempranillo, 20% Garnacho, 5% Graciano and 5% Mazuelo; the color showed some age with a bit of browning and bricking at the edge, but it was beautifully ready and giving of more youthful ripe, wild, gamy and spicy red cherry and cranberry; it had a lovely mouthfeel and hit all of the right places for a grand experience; I’ve had other bottles of this vintage and most were quite young and not even close to maturity so this bottle may have been just a bit more advanced.

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2004 LA RIOJA ALTA GRAN RESERVA 904 RIOJA- 90% Tempranillo, 10% Graciano; decanted 6 hours; I had previously read one wine critic`s comments stating this is “a wine to smell over and over” and it was so true; the nose was fully loaded with layered depth of aromas that included first coconut and then leather, smoke, truffles, spice, clove, tobacco, licorice, cigar box and dried red fruit; once tasted, the fruit profile included dried red and black raspberry and red cherry; it was full bodied, soft and easy on the palate and finished on an upbeat as if to suggest another taste- I obliged and was rewarded; this is really good now, but needs more time to evolve.

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2019 DOMINIO de PINGUS PINGUS RIBERA del DUERO- this has been highly acclaimed and just recently released as I understand it, so it was a treat to check in albeit in this early stage; well, it’s fully loaded and primed and a bit discombobulated being super fruit forward, but there was enough to impress and encourage a revisit in about 20 years; following its deep, vibrant purple color came aromas of pleasant talc laden super ripe berries which on the palate became red and black cherry, blackberry, plum and blueberry; about mid palate, a whiff of violets comes in and along with its silky texture, it actually had some grace and charm which leads me to note that it is actually not overly big and bold, aided by its soft tannins.

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2020 RAUL PEREZ LOS ARROTOS del PENDON PRIETO PICUDO ROSADO TIERRA de LEON- we kind of snuck this one in here and it actually served to ease up the tension from some of the more serious wines before it and rest our palates a bit for a few more; this is made from 100+ year old vines using Prieto Picudo fruit, which is indigenous to this region, and aged for 4 months on lees before bottling; sporting a brilliant red/ orange salmon color, it was very tasty with strawberry and red cherry fruit following aromas of rose petals; this was fun, delightful and refreshing.

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2001 GAJA CA`MARCANDA MAGARI TUSCANA- 40% Merlot, 40% Cabernet Sauvignon, 20% Cabernet Franc; even at age 21, this is still very youthful, super vibrant and intense which should lightened up in another 10 years or so; following its dark purple color came aromas of tar accented blackberry which made up a preponderance of the taste profile along with some dark chocolate, plum and black raspberry; it was medium to full bodied with a silky texture that tended to ease up the intensity just a bit.
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As stated above, there were a lot of wines and I lost track and failed to receive some and did taste a few more, but did not make notes; nonetheless, it was a good evening that served to celebrate the history and tradition on the Spanish influence in this area and shared with good friends.

Cheers,
Blake

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Nice wines! Been a while since I’ve tried that 2004 904 - it is certainly a long distance runner.

Agree Celebris is nice.

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not really wine-related, but we were in SB this weekend, not knowing it was Fiesta—which seemed all about cracking confetti-filled eggs on peoples’ heads. The amount of litter was mind boggling. We were told it was crazy because they hadn’t had Fiesta for the last 2 Covid years—that wasn’t true?

We ate at Bouchon and Opal but highlight was Indian at Apna. Breakfast at Scarlett Begonia was nice. Brought my own wine to the 2 dinners.

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Yes, Fiesta time is not only a celebration of history time, but one when most of us locals actually take vacation time and get out of town. The amount of debris is staggering and it takes months for it to disappear, not to mention the accumulation of non-biodegradable confetti that finds its way to the ocean even tho there was an effort this year to cover up the drains. The parade route has always been up State Street until the restaurant build outs appeared during Covid and eliminated that option.

You did good with your restaurant choices. Next time, give a shout and I’ll suggest some other choices.

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