Riding Santa Barbara’s Urban Wave

Who says wineries don’t still foot stomp their grapes?  Our Grenache fruit came in today from Santa Barbara Highlands Vineyard, the last fruit of the season for Lumen!  The berries looked beautiful, and after they went through the de-stemmer there was literally no free run juice – like three tons of sticky ball bearings.  This…

In this Wine For Normal People episode, Lane Tanner, the “Pinot Czarina of Santa Barbara County,” shares her journey and the art of crafting exceptional wines at Lumen Wines. She discusses the unique terroir of Santa Barbara, sustainable winemaking, and what sets Lumen Wines apart in California’s wine scene.

There’s a lot of geeky stuff on the back of a Lumen bottle – wine-geeky stuff. So why is it there? Not only are the basic facts listed – vineyard source, AVA, variety, clone – but also we share the pH, TA (titratable acidity), and Brix at harvest. What, you may ask, is the significance…

No two grains of sand are alike – or so a geologist will tell you – and the same goes for fistfuls. Take, for example, a microscopic photograph of grains of sand. What we believe to be a uniform substance (silica, just like the dictionary tells us), is in fact a random conglomeration of particles…

Some of the greatest discoveries of mankind were made by accident. Perhaps the best known (and beneficial) was made by scientist Dr. Alexander Fleming, who went on vacation for a few weeks and returned to see that his petri dishes had overgrown with mold. His discovery: penicillin. Other examples of benign errors include potato chips,…

One of my father’s favorite sayings is that most wines are consumed on the way home from the liquor store.  He is saying that tongue-in-cheek, of course, but says it to make a point: while many wines are meant to be aged, few are actually consumed more than a year after they are bottled, and…