My parents were in town this past weekend, and I thought I’d write about some of the things we did involving food and wine.

Wine Tasting

• Palmina – I have a connection to this winery through a friend in my research group.  He’s been kind enough to give me a free bottle of wine, so I am a bit biased.  However, I was generally impressed with most of the wine we tasted here, especially for the price.  We tried the Traminer, Pinot Grigio, Dolcetto, Barbera, Arneis, Mattia (a refosco based blend), and Malbec.  I liked the Barbera, arneis, Mattia, and malbec.  If you’re wondering why Malbec is there along with a bunch of Italian varietals, it’s because the winemaker has a side project with Joe Bastianich.
• Melville – At Melville, we had two tasting options: regular or small lot.  Wanting to see some of the awesome pinot Melville is know for, we went with the small lot.  We tried Terraces and Carrie’s Pinots, along with Donna’s Syrah and Verna’s Viognier.  I thought the Pinots were good, nothing all that special, which was a bit of a problem for two wines that weigh in at $52.  However, I’m sure I’m in the minority on this because Melville wines generally score over 90.  I got a bottle of the syrah, which I’m anxious to try because I thought it was quite good at the winery.
• Babcock – It was getting late in the afternoon, so we decided to head to Babcock since it’s just next door to Melville.  At this point, I think my pallette was shot and I was having trouble differentiating between the wines (translation: I was getting drunk).  I think my favorite wine from Babcock was there “The Loin” Cabernet Sauvignon.

Food

• Downey’s – This was my first time to eat at Downey’s, and it did not dissapoint.  It’s one of the older fine dining restaurants in Santa Barbara having just celebrated it’s 25th Anniversary last year.  We got some of the best service we’ve had in Santa Barbara.
• Elements – We hadn’t been to Elements in a while, so we decided to give it another try.  In a strange turn of events, we all ordered the burger.  The burger was solid, but the fries were the highlight.  They were incredibly crisp, and the truffle oil gave them a nice kick without being overpowering.

More Wine

• Stolpman Estate Syrah 2005 – I picked this up from the Winehound to go with the dinner I cooked for my parents.  We all loved it.  If I actually wrote down tasting notes, I’d have a bit more too share, but at $27, I thought it was a pretty great value.
• Ampelos Pinot Noir, Fiddlestix, 2005 – This may have been the 2006 vintage.  We had it with lunch while wine tasting at Sissy’s Uptown Cafe in Lompoc.  It was pretty big for a Pinot Noir, but it was still disntinctly a Pinot.  This was probably my favorite Pinot of the weekend, but it gets a bit pricey at $42 a bottle.
• Margerum M5 2005 – A crazy blend of 5 grapes from 12 vineyards.  This was another favorite wine of mine from the weekend.