The Soft Wines of Santa Rita Hills AVA: The Delicate Side of Santa Barbara
Some California wineries are small players, some are behemoths. The hobbyists turned wine maker loves to share their wine creations up close and personal. Others, like Foley Family Wines are corporate entities, like Foley Winery in Lompoc, one of his 19 wineries scattered throughout the west.
The winery’s owner is Bill Foley also lead owner of the Las Vegas Golden Knights NHL hockey team, Stanley Cup winners in 2022. He’s had a lot of success recently with both his sports team and his wine. He’s also expanded his family of wines by purchasing the remnants of Vintage Wine’s bankruptcy.
The Foley winery near Lompoc in the Santa Rita Hills AVA produces wine very distinctly soft and gentle on the palate. That’s because it’s grown in a cool climate of California’s coast. In fact our tasting was all about Chardonnay and Pinot Noir.
They were pouring through an aereator which is a surprise. There was no need for pouring through Haley’s Corker as all the wines were gentle and soft (as you expect in this coastal enclave.) Hailing from Paso Robles where fruit is bolder and tannin stronger we had to fine-tune our palate for tasting subtle wines.
Dannika, our host, was up-to-date, gracious and hospitable in sharing wines with us. Her pacing and pouring was spot on.
What did we taste?
2021 Rose of Grenache $32 ✰
2020 Barrel Select Chardonnay $70 ✰+
0220 JA Ranch Pinot Noir $68 ✰+
2021 Syrah $62 ✰+
You’ll find Foley Winery on Highway 246 after leaving Highway 101 from Buelleton north of Santa Barbara. The tasting room is open seven days weekly in a beautiful building amidst 25 acres of vineyards.
Some notes on our wine ranking system.
Bill & Erin Hodge write about California Wine, the estates & winemakers producing them and educational information about Vino. Living in California Wine Country provides a front row seat to the places you want to visit the most here in the Golden State.
– -✰ means -What’s next on your list of wines
-✰ means -Not liking it too much
✰ means -We’ll drink this wine, especially if it’s hosted!
✰+ means -You’ve got our attention and we might buy this wine.
✰+ + means -We’re hooked and we’re going to buy this wine.
When you see -✰/✰+ with a slash, it means we disagree.
