Hello and welcome to the newsletter for http://www.wine-sommelier.com/
To be honest with all of you, I had gotten bored wine tasting in the Santa Ynez area. Yes I have my favorites Zaca Mesa, Dan Gehrs, but beyond those, I had been finding the wines and the wineries boring and lacking character. That was until a few weeks ago when a few of us traveled up to the area to ‘pick up some Port at Gehrs’, that was the goal of the day.
We did head to Dan Gehrs first and we did pick up some wonderful ports, but a few doors away from Dan’s was a tasting room that HAD character and style and
best of all... it had cup cakes! Yes located in the tasting room of Saarloos & sons is a small cup cake company called Enjoy Cupcakes.
First the wines at Saarloos & sons, The tasting room was built in 1886, and fully restored by the Saarloos family. The Labels and Wines you find from Saarloos & sons are extremely low production. In each wine you will find a reason behind each element that represents every bottle of their wine - from the Name to the Colors to the photo even so far as the percentages in the blends. Saarloos & sons is a labor of love Four Generations in the making.
Their tasting list had 4 wines, mostly reds and one Chardonnay. The wines I enjoyed and bought were the Purper Heart (Syrah- $50) and the 194Five The Union, (Syrah/Cab blend- $38). Both of these wines showed very well and had nice finishes. It is tough competition in the Santa Ynez Valley for Syrah, there are quite a few nice ones in the area, and I believe these two wines are worth the price!
Located in the tasting room is Enjoy Cupcakes.... Now if you have ever wanted to pair wine and cupcakes, now is your chance. This small company sells cupcakes in two sizes the small size is about an inch in diameter and they run for about $2 each, then the normal size cupcakes are about $3.75 each.
My favorites were Chocolate Blackberry Syrah *signature treat*-Chocolate, syrah infused cake, filled with dark chocolate belgium fudge, topped with blackberry frosting and a wine soaked blackberry that's rolled in sugar crystals Raspberry Chardonnay-Chardonnay cake, filled with organic raspberry preserves, topped with raspberry frosting
Caramel Creme Brulee-Vanilla bean cake with a creme brulee filling, topped with caramel frosting and caramelized sugar chunks
They even offer a flight of cupcakes for $10 and they are paired with the wines... you need to stop here on your next visit to the Santa Ynez Valley. Saarloos and Sons and Enjoy Cupcakes: 2971 Grand Ave. Los Olivos, Ca 93441