A Visit to Potek Winery Spurs Me to Join my first Wine Club

I am writing this blog post sitting on Potek’s outdoor patio enjoying a wonderful summer afternoon in Santa Barbara. My first visit to Potek was about three weeks ago and I enjoyed the wines and my experience so much that it prompted me to join their wine club. While I have tasted wines at dozens of wineries this was the first wine club I have ever joined!

Potek Winery is a new addition to the Santa Barbara Wine Trail. It is a sister winery to Municipal Winemakers (Muni) in the funk zone with Dave Potter as the proprietor and wine maker at both. I had not yet visited Muni at the time, but decided to jump ahead to Potek as it was a relatively short walk from my apartment that day.

It was sure glad I ventured down that afternoon as I found high quality wines, a wonderful atmosphere and a great wine club deal!

Potek sits in the same old-timey industrial looking complex as the Third Window brewery, Known as the Mill. As I rounded the corner towards the tasting room, an wonderfully intense smell wafted towards me, bringing a huge smile to my face. I was instantly transported back to the wineries of Bordeaux and Champagne. Potek is not just a tasting room, it is a full winery.

The bar is adjacent to Potek’s aging barrels and the crushing, fermenting and bottling equipment is all in full view from the inside tasting area. The wine for both Potek and Muni are made, aged and bottled at this location. This includes Potek’s champagne style sparkling wines which are made in the traditional French method.

That is exactly what my tasting flight that day started with, Potek’s 2015 Blanc de Blanc sparkling wine. Made out of 100% Chardonnay grapes, it was a crisp and fresh tasting wine with strong apple notes and slight hints of honeysuckle. It would be a good one to age a little longer to allow some more of the complexity to develop and those sharper edges to round out. Overall it was a trule champagne style sparkling wine. 

While I was chatting with the wine-tender about Potek’s traditional champagne making process, I noticed they had a bright pink sparking wine behind the counter as well. I inquired whether it was a sparkling rose. My host said it was not, and instead was a Blanc de Noir. She offered me a taste.

I was so glad I had the opportunity to try it, as this was an fantastic sparkling wine. It had a traditional champagne smell to it, with nutty and complex flavors common to sparkling wines that are aged longer than this, being itself a 2015 vintage. This blanc de noir is drinking perfectly now and was one of my favorite wines of the day!

Next up was Potek’s 2015 “Dry” Riesling. It had a nice sweet floral smell, but was true to its description tasting super dry with a bit of that chemical/petrol flavor that is oddly so common in rieslings. This wine had high minerality with nice sage flavors and a creamy texture. While this is not my favorite style for just drinking, I think Potek’s Riesling would pair amazingly with some flaky white fish or fresh oysters!

After this set of diverse and interesting white wines, I was on to tasting Potek’s red’s. The next on my flight was a 2015 Santa Rita Hills Pinot Noir. This pinot smelled fantastic with notes of strawberry, dried cherry and a little bit of oak. Its flavors were powerful, with cherry and a finish of wood and spices. I would again consider this more of a food wine that a drinking wine.

My favorite red of the day was next, the 2014 Tierra Alta Granache. It smelled of dried cherry jam and rose petals. It is a fruitier wine, low in tannins with nicely balanced acidity and hint of oak at the end. Being 5 years old it was still lively and full of fruit and yet the flavors had clearly rounded over in time. Potek’s Granache is a fun wine to drink and a favorite of mine.

Last on the tasting menu was Potek’s 2014 signature Syrah.  It was a sweeter and floral smelling wine that day, but when I returned to write this post, the Syrah was smelling distinctly of coffee and a bit gamey. Interesting how each distinct bottle of wine can have slight character and flavor differences, specially on the nose. While it is a drier wine, the flavors of this Syrah are amazing: dark fruits, with some meaty game notes and a distinct leathery oak finish that lingers on the tongue. A wonderful wine on its own and could hold up to a variety of main dishes as well. 

That wrapped up my tasting  for the day. I found Potek’s wines to be diverse, unique and delicious. Along with the fantastic wines, the tasting experience at Potek is top notch, with each wine served in a unique glass designed for that specific wine varietal and a little sheet that explains each wine and its backstory. It is a great presentation, equaling the high quality of wine being served. 

The outstanding quality lead me to inquire about Potek’s wine membership; just to see what they offered. I was delighted to find they had a dual membership offer where you could join as a member of both Potek and Muni wineries. This seemed like a cool opportunity. I planned to visit Muni soon and see if I liked that tasting room’s feel as well, and would join if so.

Clearly I found Muni to my liking as I ended up joining the dual membership club. Alena and I have so far taken advantage of my new membership, visiting each as members. I would love to have friends join me as the membership includes complementary tastings for me and 3 guests at both tasting rooms.

I have really enjoyed all my visits to Potek. I think the winemaker, Dave Potter, is making some great old world style wines at Potek and has creating a great venue to host those excited to visit and partake in a classy tasting experience. It is a must visit spot if you want to diverge from the typical Pinots and Chards of Santa Barbara’s other fantastic wineries or find a quieter spot to enjoy some high-end wines. 

Cheers!

-Alan Evans

First visited on August 10th, Second visit on September 1st.