Happy Canyon Vineyard – Santa Barbara Urban Wine Trail # 21

I had a great time drinking wine at Happy Canyon Vineyard’s downtown Santa Barbara tasting room. It is a beautiful Polo themed tasting room with a nice bar as well as a comfy lounge area to enjoy a glass or two. I basically had the place to myself while Steve guided me through a tasting of Happy Canyon’s delicious wines.

Another post in my Santa Barbara Urban Wine Trail Series. See the summary article here for general Wine Trail info or to read about the 27 other wineries!

Happy Canyon Vineyard’s wines are sourced from the Barrack family estate of Piocho Ranch on the eastern side of Santa Ynez Valley in the designated AVA also called Happy Canyon. The winery focusses on Bordeaux varietal wines.

Their downtown Santa Barbara tasting room is located in the historic El Paseo next to the Grassini, Au Bon Climat, Silver Wines and Jamie Slone tasting rooms. The Happy Canyon tasting room had a warm and welcoming feel, even with its fancy Polo theme.

They have one tasting flight, which is included with the Santa Barbara Urban Wine Trail membership card. All of Happy Canyon Vineyard’s wines are estate grown.

Steve started me off with the 2017 Piocho Sauvignon Blanc. It had nice citrus, pear and floral smells. The first thing I noticed with tasting the wine was its high acidity and minerality. These sensations interacted well with the light lemon zest notes and the slight oak finish. I asked Steve if the wine was aged in oak at all. He said he didn’t think so, but went to the back to check the paperwork. We found out that the 12% of semillon that was blended with the sav blanc, was indeed aged in neutral oak, and that is where I was getting the slight oaked finish from.

Next was Happy Canyon’s 2016 Barrack Family Estate BLANC. While the previous wine was mostly sauvignon blanc with a bit of semillon, this was the opposite, weighing in at 68% semillon. The oaked semillon came though right away on the nose with definite sweet vanilla and even a bit of leather smells. It had really nice acidity on the mouthfeel with citrus notes and a bit of taffy or butterscotch as well. The Blanc had a buttery and vanilla finish. I thought it was a very tasty and complex white Bordeaux style blend. Pretty good for $36 a bottle.

Steve then poured me my first red of the tasting. He described the 2017 Chukker (a polo term I was told) as their picnic wine. It had a beautiful light rosy color and a sweet cherry smell. It had a bit intense alcohol feel and tasted of light strawberry with hints of cedar. I did not think it was very good and is quite pricey for what it is at $26.

I then tried the 2015 Piocho, a Bordeaux style red blend. It was lively on the nose with cherry and red berry notes. It had really interesting and tasty oak flavors that were present from the start to finish. I was getting the full spectrum of leather, baking spices, wood and vanilla. These oak flavors blended well with the black cherry and raspberry fruit flavors. I thought this was a great wine, specially for the price: only $32 per bottle before any urban wine trail discounts!

The last wine on the tasting menu was the 2015 BRAND Merlot blend. This wine is more of a “right bank” Bordeaux style wine, being made up of 80% merlot grapes. The 2015 Merlot was my favorite wine of the day! It was dark, dark red and smelled of spiced plums. It had big fruit flavors and nice baking spices and vanilla wood flavors as well. The strong tannins and fruit hit me right away with a bit of rose coming through in the middle. I thought this wine was very well balanced between tannins and acidity as well as fruit and oak. Definitely my favorite!

As I was talking with Steve about the wines, he noted that I might enjoy a special wine they happened to have open that day. He was nice enough to give me a little taste of the 2016 Patron, a proprietary red blend – i.e. it does not say which grape varietals or in what percentage they make up the wine. The Patron was sweeter and had young, tight fruit flavors. It was lively and tasty, but would benefit from a year or two more of cellaring. It also had more herb flavors than all the other wines I had tried that day. For $36, it would be a nice investment to see what it morphs into in the coming years.

Overall I had a great tasting at Happy Canyon Vineyard’s Santa Barbara tasting room with Steve. The wines were what I would expect from a high quality winery specializing in Bordeaux style blends. They had nice complexity and balanced flavors. The tasting room was a comfortable space to taste wines and the people who passed through while I was tasting, mostly wine-club members, were very nice and really seemed to enjoy the wines and the space. Steve was also a great host, providing good company and humoring me with my many questions!

I enjoyed my time at the Happy Canyon tasting room and I look forward to visiting the Santa Ynez winery and seeing the beautiful vineyard and estate in person soon!

Go visit Happy Canyon Vineyard yourself, with more information on their website about the tasting room, their wines and the gorgeous estate.

– Visited on December 15, 2018.

Alan Evans