Chardonnay, Santa Barbara County, & The Perfect White Wine for Fall
When learning the basics about wine, you’re usually going to focus on three things: The grape, the production region, and the tasting notes and textures that arise from those two things. The truth is that wine can get complicated. What you know about a grape doesn’t always translate if it is being utilized in a region you’re unfamiliar with. This is because a region’s terroir—elevation, soil, climate, etc—has a huge impact on the way wine tastes. Within the bounds of this article, we’re going to dive into one grape, one region, and one exemplary wine where the grape and region collide. Today’s line-up: Chardonnay from Santa Barbara County, California.
A General Overview of Chardonnay
Karen MacNeil—world-renowned wine critic and author of The Wine Bible—once called chardonnay “the Marilyn Monroe of white grapes” because of its “creamy, lush, and full-bodied” textures (57). Also like Marilyn Monroe, it’s a grape that produces crowd-pleasing flavors like vanilla, buttered toast, and exotic citrus fruits like Meyer lemon and lime peel.
Before the grape’s relatively recent uptick in popularity, it was only dominant in two wine regions: Burgundy, France (chardonnay’s homeland) and Champagne, France, Burgandy’s northern neighbor. Traditional Burgundian chardonnays are top-tier in terms of doing the grape justice and producing a classic old-world white wine. However, chardonnay is a grape that winemakers have discovered bodes well for technical experimentation. Over time it’s been used in many regions to produce styles of chardonnay that the Burgundian wine producers never imagined. Sometimes this results in chardonnay that is over-manipulated—a tough, overcooked chicken breast, if you will. Yet, there are certain regions that have utilized their particular brand of terroir to perfection, creating chardonnays that feel both classic and fresh.
The Wine Region: Santa Barbara County, California
Santa Barbara County is a transverse valley, meaning that it runs from East to West. It sits on the western Pacific coast which, for wine, means that it is perfectly positioned to produce crisp, cool climate wines like chardonnay. And, the two mountain ranges have “elevations ranging from 200 feet in the valley to 3,400 feet in the hillside vineyards” (winefolly.com). Such a combination of regional particularities makes for a place with a multitude of climates.
This brings us back to the word terroir. For Santa Barbara County, the terroir is high-elevation, cool climate, and has nutrient-rich soil types. A couple of these soils are concentrations of limestone and diatomaceous earth. The western opening on the Pacific coast of this valley pushes wind and fog into the area, keeping these elements cool and prosperous for wine. Santa Barbara County is often called one of the coolest wine regions in California because of these conditions.
An Exemplary Wine: Diatom Santa Barbara Chardonnay 2021 (Retail $23)
The Diatom Santa Barbara Chardonnay is named for one of the fossil-rich soils found in Santa Barbara County: Diatomaceous earth. It upholds some of the famous Chardonnay tasting notes that we discussed above: vanilla, Meyer lemon, and lime peel. But it also manifests a hint of sea salt, which comes from its region, and rich textures that are creamy but not oaky. It is both full-bodied and delightfully fresh.
Karen MacNeil noted in a recent Instagram post that this wine “starts small and then seems to inflate on your palate, engulfing your taste buds with flavor.” This sensation is equated to a “peacock opening its tail” or “a flower blooming in fast motion.” The visual imagery is wholly accurate. It is in our humble opinion at Book + Bottle that the Burgundians would approve of the Diatom chardonnay, and would praise the Santa Barbara wine producers for using their unique climate to the advantage of great wine. This chardonnay is a perfect white wine for fall—bring it to your Halloween parties, your holiday dinners, or to your porch, where you can cozy up and watch the sun go down.
One Final Note
If you enjoyed the research presented here by Karen MacNeil, you’ll be thrilled to know that the third edition of The Wine Bible came out on October 11th. The Wine Bible is one of our all-time favorite wine resources and we highly recommend it if you would like to start your own wine journey.
The Diatom Chardonnay discussed in this article and the third edition of The Wine Bible are both available in our shop.
Works Cited
MacNeil, Karen. The Wine Bible. 2nd ed., 2001. Workman Publishing, 2015.
Pomeroy, Lindsay. “An Introduction to Santa Barbara Wine Country.” WineFolly, https://winefolly.com/deep-dive/an-intro-to-santa-barbara-wine-country/. Accessed 12 October 2022.