Barrel Tasting at San Antonio Winery

If you've been to San Antonio Winery in downtown Los Angeles, perhaps it was just to attend a company party, a birthday lunch or a wedding reception (I saw a bride there the other day--that's good luck, I think).

Or you've met friends for a pasta lunch at Maddalena Restaurant or bellied up to the tasting bar and carried out boxes of Stella Rosa wine for a bash at home. 

But do you really know what goes on there? Those barrels lining the restaurant wall aren't just decorations. Beyond is enough space to house 150 stainless steel fermenting tanks and close to 4,000 oak barrels, because this is a genuine working winery.

If you take a tour, you'll see the equipment, but the 50 or so people who toured last Saturday (at the top) didn't just look. They tasted the contents of some of those tanks and barrels.

You can't do this every day. The barrel sampling was a one-time special event. If the winery does it again next year, be sure to sign up, because you'll get a real education in wine-making. 

The tour started with appetizers--spanakopita--and pours of the 2013 San Simeon Viognier from Paso Robles in the Heritage Cellar (above).

Next, off to the tanks and barrels, one group led by Arnaud Debons, head winemaker (above and at the top), and the other by assistant winemaker Steve Feke.

These are bottles of unfiltered 2014 Viognier from a tank in the bottling line area. The wine is fermented very cold to preserve its peachy, flowery characteristics, Debons said. The taste was more acidic and bold with fruit than the same wine taken from a barrel.  Then why ferment in a barrel?--to work on "texture," Debons said. 

Now back to Heritage Cellar to eat sirloin mini sliders with chimichurri sauce and turkey and chicken sliders with Gruyere and honey mustard, accompanied by the 2013 Windstream Chardonnay from Sarmento Vineyard in Monterey (at right in the ice bucket).

Then off to the White Barrel Room to sample the 2014 Windstream Chardonnay straight from the barrel, extracted with a glass wine thief (above).

Rather than stainless steel, the Chards are fermented entirely in barrels, which are made for the winery by 20 coopers. They're used for five or six years, then sold. Want one? It'll cost you $110, but what a nice patio ornament.

Now the curriculum was getting more advanced. The group was asked to study the difference between the San Simeon Chardonnay and the Windstream Chardonnay, both from Monterey.

The San Simeon seemed more round and creamy, because some of its grapes came from a lower altitude, Debons explained, and because it had completed more of the malolactic fermentation, which converts malic acid into softer lactic acid.

All of the Windstream grapes came from a high cool vineyard exposed to winds. Fermented entirely in new oak, the wine went through less malolactic fermentation. Debons described it as "angular, precise," showing "more complexity of aromas, one after another."

Next, he asked for comments on the difference between wine aged in American oak (more bold) and French oak (creamier, softer tannins). He then discussed topping up barrels to replace wine lost in fermentation and showed how to stir up the lees, the dead cells from fermentation, using a see-through demonstration barrel (above). 

Then back to Heritage Cellar for more sliders (above), curry chicken skewers, garlic fries and southwest vegetarian spring rolls with a cilantro ranch dipping sauce. 

Hearty sustenance was important, because the next stop was the intensely cold Empire Barrel Room. Here, the group sampled the four components  of the 2011 vintage of San Antonio's Bordeaux blend, Cask 520. This wine, said Debons, is "more the concept of European wines," And he should know--he's from the south of France.

The four components, Merlot, Cabernet Sauvignon, Malbec and Petit Verdot, were  pretty good on their own. "This is tasting amazing," said Debons of the Malbec. Merlot, he said, is what you should give someone who is just getting into red wines, because it's soft and fruity, not overly tannic and low in acidity. Easy to drink, in other words. 

Petit Verdot, on the other hand, shows strong, powerful tannins. "Fruit is not the essential part," Debons said. His plan was to use Petit Verdot as a blending grape replacing Petite Sirah, which is so distinctive it dominates other wines, he said.

This didn't work out. "We have a problem," Debons reported at the time. The wine was so good it deserved to be bottled on its own rather than merged into a blend.

The last stop was a comparison  of three vintages of the Opaque Petit Verdot from Paso Robles--2011, 2012, and 2013--all in French oak. And a taste of a really wonderful Petit Verdot from Napa--sorry, that one's only for members of the newly formed Riboli Family Artisan Wine Club (the Ribolis own the winery). If you want to get in on that, click here.   

Back in Heritage Cellar, the tour ended with cakes, fruit tarts and coffee. The real attraction, though, was generous pouring of the San Simeon Merlot 2011, the 2010 Cask 520 blend and the Opaque Petit Verdot 2010, all from Paso Robles (above).

What you didn't see on the tour was grapes, because they're grown, harvested and crushed elsewhere. White wines arrive as juice to be fermented. The reds are brought to Los Angeles after fermentation and placed in barrels to age.

It's a shame if you missed the tour. The good news is, you can sign up for another wine education course. It's a "Blend Your Own Wine" class Saturday, Sept. 26 at the winery. And there are other fun wine events that you can attend. Click here to learn what they are.