Dusty Nabor Wines

03/29/2022

Thanks so much for the great write up! Sadly, this wine sold out to the mailing list yesterday. But the 2021 version in barrel is stellar as well!!

Poached yellow apple, blooming jasmine, ripe mango. Peach cobbler, struck match, warm grapefruit. An irresistibly pure and succulent parade of Meyer lemon, pineapple, and brûléed pear playfully prances with incredible energy and expressiveness within a display bursting with beautiful aromatic notes of honeysuckle, sweet peonies, and enticing floral perfume. Hints of whipped cream and banana pudding elegantly expose beguiling layers of decadence that are enhanced in their impact by understated suggestions of pie crust and buttered toast. A dusting of cinnamon, nutmeg, and vanilla eagerly reveals a range of attractive baking spices that rise above intriguing terroir reflections of diatomaceous earth and saline minerality. Impressively generous and seductive on the nose while remaining notably tense and elegant on the palate; exhibiting a fruit-forward and texturally complex presentation that combats mouth-filling roundness with a decidedly crisp and edgy backbone. Medium bodied and brimming with bright acidity. This 2020 Hilliard Bruce Vineyard Chardonnay by Dusty Nabor Wines is a delightfully pretty and polished white from the Santa Rita Hills. 

Located in western Santa Barbara County just a few minutes drive from the cold Pacific Ocean, the Santa Rita Hills is one of California's most exciting cool climate winegrowing zones thanks to the wonderfully characterful and balanced wines it produces. This bottling, crafted by Dusty Nabor Wines using Chardonnay sourced from the Hilliard Bruce Vineyard, is an extremely compelling example of the combination of expressiveness and energy that wine from this region can achieve. This effortlessly emits gobs of rich and juicy orchard, tropical, and citrus fruits complicated by lifted florals, creamy buttery notes, delicate baking tones, and saline earthiness. Although irresistible today this also boasts the structure to age remarkably well, and should benefit from as many as 5-10 years in the cellar. Outstanding. 

Have you tried wine from the Santa Rita Hills?

@dustynaborwines

03/22/2022

Come to SLO Wine and Beer Company this Friday and try the new wines.

03/14/2022

#Repost @wine1percent
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Moving through some pet-nat tonight… These things are the new rosé in the cellar: everyone’s making one, and proud of them, but they BREED downstairs–I swear! I DO enjoy trying them, but bottom line: they just AREN’T what I am going to open for dinner & serious review. That’s just a fact of life.

Dusty Nabor’s 2021 Grenache Rosé from Spear Vineyard is his freshman effort, and it shows elegant & clean in packaging AND glass. Hardly any sediment, clean & foamy on pour with zero following streams. Light yellow, slightly opaque, a toasty nose heady with effervescent petrichor, yellow-pages & pear/melon. Extremely Mott’s & Martinelli’s in taste–but NOT *cider-y*. The apple rich & sweet, filling a body chewy in texture with points of acid prodding it toward round, full finish thick with ripe fruit and bitter herb. 13.0

Deux Punx’s 2020 ‘All City Meat’ CA Piquette runs the opposite direction in terms of visual elegance. Creamy orange-pink with plentiful sediment-bombs rising & falling in the bottle. Stupidly floral in nose, tropical, lavish with sweetness, an almost-muscat decadence combining pure orange juice & buttery pineapple with slight cellar-floor & wet sawdust. Nearly *red wine* in texture, the entry a spritely melange of rich red fruit boosted with kiwi & nutty pineapple. A foamy rim continuously propagates; a touch more *cider* on this one, with herbaceousness a syrupy affair. 7.7

GRENACHISTA 2019 DCV Grenache Blanc shows an even THIRD version of these unique sparklers: deep amber in the glass though near-crystal-clear with slight sediment–and the only with trails after pour. Austere & ridiculously ‘champagne’ in bouquet, a toasty almond, neutral barrel, lees-aggrandized aged creaminess coated in butter & savory apricot and green banana pith. Explosive–in both new foam and rich fruit–on the tongue, it has integrated CO2 deep in the body, something which injects plentiful apple, plum and peach into every or***ce like honey-butter on cornbread. Sharp throughout palate, the finish a powerhouse of dusty floral and sparkling energy. 12.8 ABV

Which one is for you??

http://dustynaborwines.com/
https://deuxpunx.com/
https://grenachista.com/

03/07/2022

Here it comes. Our Pinot Noir and Chardonnay release for 2022. We’ve been teasing these for a while now and soon, they will become a reality. First is our 2020 Radian Vineyard Pinot. It’s such a surreal feeling releasing a wine from this famed vineyard. The “Pinot Bowl” as it’s known. This wine is so distinct and singular from this famed site, even the color is a magical cue of where it’s from. Second is our 2020 Hilliard Bruce Vineyard Chardonnay. Another west end vineyard in the Sta Rita Hills but this time in the sands of the Northern Corridor. To say we are excited to bring these wines is an understatement. Look for our offering later this week to the Mailing List.

02/20/2022

Welp, s**t just got real. It’s a little scary working with a vineyard like Radian. You see the wines it makes. You see the names of the producers in the vineyard. I get a major case of imposter syndrome. Like, should I really be entrusted with this fruit? I guess if my goal is to one day make a truly great wine, you have to start with a truly great vineyard. This wine is very good. One of the best I’ve made, not truly great though. I’m still striving for that….and will continue to. The journey is the goal.

02/19/2022

Karin assessing Chardonnay barrels for one of her @bolttowines bottlings. Sta Rita Hills AVA.

02/15/2022

Ooobaby! Almost ready to send out 2021 Grenache Rosé Pét-Nat invites. I’m putting together the list right now. Should see it soon. Spear Vineyards Grenache picked for rosé. Foot treaded and pressed. Bottled with a little sugar left for some bubbles. Haphazardly disgorged and topped with Chardonnay. First attempt at a Pét-Nat and I think we did a relatively decent job.

02/13/2022

Just bottled, 2020 Chardonnay - Hilliard Bruce Vineyard - west end of the Sta Rita Hills AVA. Purest, best Chardonnay I’ve ever made. So proud of this wine. Will be released in a few weeks to Mailing List. Happy Super Bowl everyone!

01/23/2022

Our first Pét-Nat is now disgorged, topped up and capped. Just waiting on labels before we release sometime in mid Feb. Since we only made 15 cases, this will be a special invite only offering. It’s made from Spear Vineyards Grenache Rosé and topped with Spear Chardonnay.

01/11/2022

Over the holidays following the end of harvest, I make it a point to stay out of the winery. You always do more harm than good poking around when the wines just want to rest. It’s hard as you are very curious what you have created but it really is best to just stay away. Now comes the time of bringing the barrels down, checking and topping them all. Seeing what we made, if there’s anything good and what we fu**ed up. It’s always a roller coaster you never really get used to.

12/11/2021

Slowly transitioning from making wine to selling it. I have vowed, however, to not do ANYTHING in the cellar till after the New Year. Then I’ll be back getting ready for some great bottling runs of some wonderful new wines. On the selling front, I’m a horrible salesman. So the wine better sell itself!!

11/25/2021

Happy Thanksgiving! 2021 Harvest is complete as of this morning. My last barrel down of the season. This has been by far my longest harvest to date and we did more than we ever have. Starting back at the beginning of September with Pinot and ending on Thanksgiving with Cabernet Sauv. I’m excited to relax the next couple days and then get right back to cellar work and preparing for bottling. I’m also officially allowed to ride my bike outside now! Cheers everyone!

11/23/2021

Part 2 of 2 of our next release will be our 2020 @jandk_vineyard Viognier Ballard Canyon. Finally, this wine is back after being sold out for most of last year. Always whole cluster pressed directly to barrels for fermentation. Primary is spontaneous as well as ML. After primary, wines are stirred occasionally (usually during topping) until ML is complete in the Spring. Bottled after about 9-10 months in barrel. J+K sits on the south end of Ballard Canyon in what I would consider a very mild climate. It sees a lot of coastal influence in the mornings from its neighboring Sta Rita Hills. This aspect does the most important job when it comes to Vio, maintains acidity. It’s vital that these grapes keep a lot of acid in order to allow us to make the subsequent wine with no additions. Otherwise we would end up with a flat, cloying Vio that has become synonymous with California Viognier. This wine will release with our Syrah on Dec 1st to Mailing List members.

11/18/2021

In a couple weeks we will be releasing our 2019 Kimsey Vineyard Syrah from Ballard Canyon AVA. This wine is really our passion. While we love the rest of our children, if we were in a sinking boat, the Syrah would survive. It just embodies everything we strive for in our wines. Purity with complexity, weightlessness with depth, effortless age ability, powerful elegance. The list goes on and on. Farmed impeccably on a CCOF ranch by Matt Dees and Ruben Solorzano, we could never ask for better partners. This wine shows where it comes from and the people who make it, and that’s always our intention. Mailing list allocations open Dec 1st.

11/12/2021

Sold out during its release. Thanks everyone. Please look for our next release in a few weeks. 2019 Syrah and 2020 Viognier.

11/09/2021

Last bin of 2021 harvest going into the destemmer. Villa Colibri Cabernet Sauvignon from Los Olivos District AVA. November 8th at 23.6 brix. Amazing. Over one month later than 2020 and a full brix lower in sugar. I love vintage variation. One of the most important aspects of why wine is so special and communicative. Winery work will continue through Thanksgiving but as of today, everything is in tank.

11/07/2021

TTL x DUSTY NABOR WINE - The Pursuit of GREAT wine

Here is this week’s That Triathlon Life video featuring our collaboration with them.

That Triathlon Life and Dusty Nabor Wines are pleased to bring you a red wine blend of four classic Bordeaux varieties: Cabernet Franc, Cabernet Sauvignon, P...

11/07/2021

Tomorrow, 11/7, 8am Pacific.

11/06/2021

Our collaboration wine with That Triathlon Life hits tomorrow. Be sure to check out their episode Sunday morning 11/7 for details on the wine and how to acquire.

10/31/2021

Here’s a quick video on tomorrow’s release and why you need to be QUICK to get some.

10/21/2021

November 1st our 2018 Cabernet Sauvignon release hits email boxes. This is our first departure from Paso Robles having moved our vineyard source for this release to Vogelzang Vineyard in Happy Canyon. We sourced from this ToKalon Clone block for two years, 2018 and 2019 before it was removed and replanted to another variety. This was a sad development but not uncommon. You see, you need two factors to sustain a micro yielding block, great subsequent wine and extremely high “per ton” prices. The first was accomplished in this fantastic expression. Sadly, Happy Canyon does not command fruit prices like low yielding vineyards in Napa, so the fruit, at the lower cost, was not sustainable. The bright side, we got two fantastic vintages from it. We invite our mailing list members to purchase.

One note, 2018 was also the year our community was devastated by the Woolsey Fire. The pic was taken from the top of the old winery looking towards our house. We didn’t lose any property but we know many who did. After the fire we held a fund raiser and was able to donate over $6000 to the community. These events shape the wine and should never be forgotten when we enjoy it years later.

10/20/2021

If we were a Pinot house, we’d be done with harvest. If we were a Rhone house, we’d be done in a day or two. But, we’re not. We also do Bordeaux varieties, so we’ll be done around Thanksgiving. It is nice though to have a few days to chill out in the eye of the storm, so to speak. In this photo we’re hydrating new Francois Frerés 500L puncheons with steam for Syrah and Grenache.