{"id":962,"date":"2016-06-14T12:58:25","date_gmt":"2016-06-14T19:58:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/deplifestylemagazine.com\/?p=962"},"modified":"2016-06-14T14:17:34","modified_gmt":"2016-06-14T21:17:34","slug":"santa-lucia-highlands-gala-2016","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/deplifestylemagazine.com\/?p=962","title":{"rendered":"Santa Lucia Highlands Gala 2016"},"content":{"rendered":"

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\"icon_ig\"<\/a>\"icon_twitter\"<\/a>\u00a0\u00a0\"icon_facebook\"<\/a><\/p>\n

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So this month, we got the honor \u00a0to attended the Santa Lucia \"Santa<\/a>Highlands Gala 2016, only one a year, more than forty stellar wineries pouring some of the world\u2019s best Pinot Noir, Chardonnay, and Syrah \u2013 all from the Santa Lucia Highlands. For many of our artisan vintners, this is their one public tasting of the year. \u00a0We got to visit the lounge which offers the tasting and \u00a0includes additional Wagner Family Wines, including Caymus from Napa Valley.<\/p>\n

\"Santa<\/a><\/p>\n

This year’s\u00a0Gala will be in the barrel cellar at dramatic Mer Soleil<\/a> Winery, a venue not normally open to the public.<\/p>\n

The winegrowers and vintners of the Santa Lucia Highlands\u00a0welcomed us with open arms. \u00a0We got to try a lot of wines:\u00a0August West, Belle Glos, Black Kite, Hope & Grace, Joyce, Kosta Browne, Lucia, Luli, Miura, Morgan, Pelerin, Roar, Siduri, Wrath and more.\u00a0The SLH is California\u2019s premier cool-climate winegrowing district. Its fifty famed mountainside vineyard estates and associated award-winning wine labels set the standard for New World Pinot Noir, Chardonnay, and Syrah.<\/p>\n

\"Santa<\/a>We got to tour the Mer Soleil Vinyard, Charlie Wagner II, the eldest of Chuck\u2019s children and owner and winemaker for Mer Soleil winery in Santa Lucia Highlands. He personally gave us a walking tour of the Mer Soleil vineyards and production site. We got to see the production, how he makes their wines. We got to meet his beautiful family, and talked to him about his passion and how much love puts in to these bottles of wine.<\/b><\/p>\n

\"Santa<\/a>The Mer Soleil Vineyard<\/a> is 450 Acres and the majority of it is Chardonnay, the rest are other grapes – mainly Viognier.<\/p>\n

The Viognier goes into making the Conundrum<\/a> wine.<\/p>\n

The vines of Mer Soleil were first planted in 1988, most of the vines are not grafted and planted on their own rootstock.\u00a0Their vines neighbor Talbott Vineyards<\/a>.<\/p>\n

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\"Santa<\/a>You could really feel the ocean breeze in the afternoon that blows away all the fog, clearing the sky, and also keep the vines cool. The grapes retain natural acidity thanks to the ocean winds. It’s such a beautiful vineyards with hundreds of lemon trees planted around the estate.<\/p>\n

2004 Mer Soleil – It was very truffle and spicy wood nose. \u00a0Textures was almost oily and rich. Also hints of saffron.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\"roar<\/a>2009 Mer Soleil – Some honey character from botrytis, flinty nose, with a hint of white mushroom.\u00a0 Salinity\/Minerality, with good acidity.<\/div>\n
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2014 Mer Soleil- Fruit Forward, almost like a fruit punch, peach, oak, and cream.<\/div>\n
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\"kosta<\/a>They rotate and use 20% New oak for their Mer Soleil<\/div>\n
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Silver Unoaked Bottling 2014 – Clean, psritz, and a note of yeastyness. Fresh and lighter drinking than the regular Mer Soleil.<\/div>\n
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\u00a0 \u00a0It was an amazing day at the Gala.\u00a0I\u00a0hope to see you next year\u00a0for the Santa Lucia Highlands Gala 2017! It\u2019s a day of food and wine\u00a0not to be missed.<\/div>\n
Website:\u00a0www.santaluciahighlands.com<\/a><\/div>\n
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by Issei Chiba and Manda Bear<\/a><\/strong><\/div>\n
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\"cheese\"<\/a> \"pig\"<\/a> \"pig2\"<\/a> \"snack\"<\/a> \"tacos\"<\/a> \"wine\"<\/a><\/div>\n
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Follow Dep Lifestyle Magazine:\u00a0 \u00a0\u00a0   So this month, we got the honor \u00a0to attended the Santa Lucia Highlands Gala 2016, only one a year, more than forty stellar wineries pouring some of the world\u2019s best Pinot Noir, Chardonnay, and Syrah \u2013 all from the Santa Lucia Highlands. For many of our artisan vintners, this … Continue reading Santa Lucia Highlands Gala 2016<\/span> →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6,3,466,52,5],"tags":[546,547,548,559,549,550,184,551,552,545,553,544,554,555,556,543,542,557,11,90,105,94,558],"class_list":["post-962","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-culinary-events","category-lifestyle","category-monterey","category-travel","category-wineries","tag-august-west","tag-belle-glos","tag-black-kite","tag-charlie-wagner","tag-hope-grace","tag-joyce","tag-kosta-browne","tag-lucia","tag-luli","tag-mer-soleil","tag-miura","tag-montery","tag-morgan","tag-pelerin","tag-roar","tag-santa-lucia-highlands","tag-shl","tag-siduri","tag-wine","tag-wine-country","tag-winemaker","tag-winery","tag-wrath"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/deplifestylemagazine.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/962","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/deplifestylemagazine.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/deplifestylemagazine.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/deplifestylemagazine.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/deplifestylemagazine.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=962"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/deplifestylemagazine.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/962\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":991,"href":"https:\/\/deplifestylemagazine.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/962\/revisions\/991"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/deplifestylemagazine.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=962"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/deplifestylemagazine.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=962"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/deplifestylemagazine.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=962"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}