This post is about two of my favourite things - California and wine! Luckily enough you can get those two together quite easily. If you are looking for some good wine outside of Napa or Sonoma, I can recommend the Firestone Vineyard in Santa Barbara County.
The Vineyard
Founded in 1972 Firestone Vineyard is the first estate winery of Santa Barbara County. It was acquired by vintner Bill Foley in 2007 and is up to this day still family-owned. It is located in the Santa Ynez Valley near Los Olivos, which is part of Santa Barbara County. The winery itself looks really charming and is surrounded by more than 500 acres of estate vineyards. Firestone also opened a companion winery in 2007 in Paso Robles, which focuses more on Bordeaux.
The Foxen Canyon Wine Trail
Firestone Vineyard is located along the Foxen Canyon Wine Trail, which is about an above Santa Barbara. Other famous wineries include Fess Parker Winery, Andrew Murray Vineyards and Cambria Estate Winery. All in all there are more than 100 wineries in Santa Barbara County. Common wines in this area are Pinot Noir and Chardonnay. However, you can also find some Rhone and Burgundy styles. The first wine grapes in this area were planted in the late 18th century.
Goldiwhat?
Obviously I am not the biggest wine expert out there. Also - you may have noticed - I am not a native English speaker so sometimes I come across words I have no idea about. Said thing happened when the vineyard claimed to grow their grapes in the perfect "Goldilocks climate". Goldilocks is a term usually used with circumstellar habitable zones. It means that a star or planet is in a zone where life can potentially exist as it is neither too hot or too cold.
It originates from the British fairy tale Goldilocks and the Three Bears (that I surprisingly didn't know)! In said fairy tale a girl finds a house in the woods where three bears are living and she eats their porridge. One is too hot, one is too cold and the third one is just right. Consequently, Firestone grapes are grown in an area that is just perfect for grapes. Makes sense. Noted in the wine expert notebook.
Firestone Wines
The vineyard's red wines originate mainly from Bordeaux and the Rhone Valley. They mainly include Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot, Malbec, Cabernet Franc and Syrah. The white wines are mainly from the Burgundy, Loire and (put your hands up) Germany and include Chardonnay, Sauvignon Blanc, Riesling and Gewurztraminer.
“Wine flies when you are having fun.”
Are you a wine expert? what are your favorite wines? Do you prefer red or white?
Kate recommends: The Unbearable Lightness of Being by Milan Kundera is about two women and men and their lives in 1968 in Prague. The novel was originally published in French and has a variety of philosophical underpinnings, such as Nietzsche’s concept of eternal recurrence. Popular themes are the '‘lightness’ of being (everything in life occurs only once), freedom and weight. Nothing goes better with a glass of wine.