Winemaker Jenne Lee Bonaccorsi who sources grapes from 12 different vineyards, poured her delicious Pinot Noirs from Cargasacchi, Melville and Neilson vineyards. But it was the aromatic JL White, a blend of 85% Viognier and 15% Chardonnay that turned out to be my favorite. What a refreshing wine!

 

There's nothing wrong with drinking the new and exotic for Thanksgiving - why, of course you can uncork Trousseau from the Jura - but there's nothing wrong with the familiar, either. As we looked to homegrown options for the holiday table, I thought we might enjoy a dose of both.

 

2008 Chardonnay Melville Vineyard Santa Rita Hills ($45) Hazy yellow. Ripe, lees-accented citrus and pear aromas are complicated by honeysuckle and dusty minerals. Bright lemon and orchard fruit flavors are deep and chewy, perked up by gentle minerality and a touch of anise. Clings nicely on the long, juicy finish, which features a suave floral quality.

 

Poor California Syrah. It’s the wine everybody loves to bash. Sommeliers seem to have forgotten it exists. Bloggers write about the Syrah “conundrum” and that it is “suffering an identity crisis.” Critics bash it; the San Francisco Chronicle’s Jon Bonné recently declared that Syrah “has hit a brick wall.

 

Traffic jams and tasty waves aren’t the only things Southern California has to offer. Northern California may be better represented on wine shelves around the country, but southern regions like Santa Barbara County—within a two- to three-hour drive of downtown Los Angeles—have been on wine lovers’ radar for years.

 

Lucky for me, some of my friends share my bad taste in television and good taste in wine. In what’s become a guilty-pleasure tradition, a small group of us have been meeting at my house to indulge in both. The last time we kept it simple—just a pepperoni pizza and some snacks, but I always pull some wines from the cellar to try to wow them.

 

It's no secret that Angelenos live less than two hours from a world-class region for pinot noir. In our April issue, winemaker Wes Hagen sheds light on the serendipitous geography of the Santa Rita Hills and how it's a perfect microclimate for the varietal. Naturally, it made sense to form a tasting panel so we could sample some of the best pinots of the region.

 

While attending a tasting last week at Bistro 360 hosted by West Meade Wine and Liquor Mart and ably emceed by Tom Black, I got to thinking about how lucky we wine lovers are to live in Nashville.

 

 

 

 

SANTA BARBARA, Calif.NO one would dream of describing this resolutely easygoing seaside community, which likes to call itself the American Riviera, as one of the nation's (or even California's) cutting-edge restaurant towns.