Winery/Producer: Gainey Vineyard; 3950 E. Hwy. 246; Santa Ynez, California
Appellation: Santa Yenz Valley
Tasting Room and Location: Off Hwy. 246, .5 miles west of Hwy. 154
Grape Variety Tasted:
-
2010 Limited Selection Savuignon Blanc
2009 Limited Selection Chardonnay
2010 Limited Selection Merlot
2009 Limited Selection Syrah
2009 Patrick’s Vineyard Selection (Blend)
2010 Evan’s Ranch Las Brisas Chardonnay
2010 Las Brisas Syrah
Tasting Price: $15.00 each
Knowledge and Helpfulness of the Person Pouring the Wine: The Gainey tasting hostess was a professional who was accustom to serving large crowds. She did answer questions about the wines, but always used the written material Gainey provides for each of their wines.
Recommendation from the tasting: The wines were not outstanding and the tasting not as informative as other vineyards in the region. This is not a tasting room we would visit again.
Comments: When you drive into the Gainey Vineyard the acres of grape vines on either side of the road and the large, modern Spanish-style hacienda are picture perfect. We did not do a tour of their gravity-flow winery and probably missed an interesting part of the Gainey experience. However, standing in the winery picnic area and looking out across the flat Santa Ynez valley at the expansive acreage of grape vines is very impressive. And, the vineyard is just small part of a much larger Gainey ranching and farming operation.
The tasting room was more like a tasting facility and the whole experience just a little to commercial for our wine tasting quest. The actual tasting was done in a barrel room, but it looked like they were prepared to serve hundreds of customers…and probably did on busy weekends. We were there on a weekday and several groups of people were tasting with only one hostess pouring wine, so it was a little hectic at times and clearly not a setting for discussion or relaxed tasting.
We did not purchase any wines we tasted at Gainey.