From field to bottle, celebrating natural wine on the Central Coast.
WORDS Ninette Paloma
It would seem fitting that Earth Day 2023 should also usher in the debut of a homegrown wine festival focusing a lens on enviro-conscious practices from farm to bottle. Conceived by Lindsey Reed and Drew Cuddy of Satellite wine bar, The Natural Coast wine fest threw open its doors on Saturday, April 22 in an industrial front lot on the east side of Santa Barbara, where Satellite will soon be hosting a full roster of events and pop-ups centered around the virtues of low-intervention wine.
A glance around the crowded space and it became instantly clear that natural wine is a multi-generational affair, with 70-year-old winemakers rubbing shoulders with twenty-something drinkers all in the name of sustainability. Under a hand-painted banner, over 40 Central Coast producers were on hand to pour and play, swaying to the DJ’s down tempo tunes as they shared their approach and philosophy over ancient winemaking practices and modern concerns. Varying flavor profiles danced from table to table, with standouts that included the fruit cocktail party in a chilled 2022 Shell Creek Vineyard Valdiguié from Outward wines; the rose gold elegance of Wenzlau Vineyard’s 2015 Cuvée L'Inconnu Blanc de Noirs; the earthy and spiced cherry of Amplify Wine’s 2021 Montelpuciano; and Solminer’s grapefruit forward and completely gulpable 2021 skin fermented Field Blend. As revelers soaked up the sun, the folks at Buena Onda were on hand to soak up the juice with a classic selection of fresh and steaming empanadas.
Already on the map as one of the world’s most female-driven wine regions, the Central Coast is also turning heads over its commitment to sustainable and actively conscious winemaking practices from terrain to barrel. If the attendance and enthusiasm at The Natural Coast is any indication, this trend extends far beyond a moment. All signs suggest a movement toward conscious consumption that begins with our farmers and ends with consumers asking for transparency in the way their wine is harvested and produced. Will the Central Coast one day be referred to as Natural Wine Country? I, for one, would drink to that.
