Cottonwood Canyon Winery

The Traveling Winers on the California Wine Trail MYSTERY WINERY ANNOUNCED!!!! COTTONWOOD CANYON WINERY was the last stop on our Santa Barbara, California wine trail. We all agree that we couldn’t have chosen a more perfect end to our trip! We only announced the name of our MYSTERY WINERY to our social media friends the day of the visit. In fact, Cottonwood Canyon didn’t even know until the morning of! I have to say, they were quite surprised when we walked in as they did not get our message. Regardless, after asking ‘who in the world we were’ and ‘what we wanted to do’ Norm, the owner and wine maker, and Sherry, the tasting room host, took us under their wing and began telling us about the fruits of their passion. Norm personally took us through his flight of wines, explaining the intricacies of each varietal and vintage. One of the most fascinating things to us was that this is the first vineyard/winery we have visited, EVER, that pours such aged wine. We tasted a 2001 Estate Pinot Noir, a 2002 Syrah, 2004 Sharon’s Vineyard Pinot Noir, 2005 Estate Syrah, 2008 Patience Syrah, 2008 Dessert Syrah, 2005 Estate Syrah, 2009 2nd Chance Chardonnay, 2009 Barrel Select Chardonnay, and the youngest of the bunch was a 2012 Rose of Syrah. All this in one tasting! And what amazing wines, too! Norm also gave us the gift of education, from how to get a better nose and taste of the wine when tasting, to how you can make wines without much manipulation at all, letting the grapes lead the way into wine. We also got an awesome tour of the caves at Cottonwood Canyon. And there are definitely stories to hear about the cave, the original cave doors, and much, much more. As you can see from our grape-ratings, all the VT “winers” highly recommend this vineyard/winery on your wine trail. It is absolutely one you do NOT want to miss! The Traveling Winers at The Vineyard Trail Read more