Mosby Winery
Why Italian varietals? Why Italian varietals in the Santa Ynez Valley, when other grapes grow so well? Sorry, I don’t know, but I do know that I enjoy going to Mosby Winery and tasting Bill Mosby’s Italian varietal wines, like Pinot Grigio, Cortese, Sangiovese, Nebbiolo, Lagrein and more. Most of the grapes are grown by Mosby, but a few wines are imported from Italy.
The last time we visited Mosby was 2003, on a visit to Santa Barbara to celebrate my mother’s 70th birthday. There’s a photograph that was taken on that visit that is etched in my mind, of my father, myself and my two sons lined up at the Mosby tasting room bar. Unfortunately, I can’t find the photo, and I’m pretty sure it was taken with film and not on a digital camera. (Remember those days of old?) Probably in a box in the garage.
Lori and Larry (right) with our cousins at Mosby
On this visit my cousins met us at Mosby. We went through a number of the Mosby wines, with Louise helping us through the tasting. We really enjoyed the Pinot Grigio and the Cortese of the whites, and all of the reds we tasted. Our favorite was the 2008 “La Seduzione”, made from Lagrein grapes. We bought a couple bottles of this, and opened one of these just the other night with a dinner of homemade falafel, tabbouleh (a salad of parsley, mint, bulgar, feta cheese, and whatever else you’d like) and halva for dessert. The La Seduzione was a great complement to the middle eastern flavors of the meal, with a relatively light body but nice fruit flavors.
Mosby 2008 La Seduzione (Lagrein grapes)
In addition to making excellent wine, the Mosby labels provide some of the best art in the wine world. Almost worth the visit just to see all the labels.
Vineyards at Mosby. The flag on the right is a pre-revolution “Sons of Liberty” flag.
Mosby flies a U.S. flag at the winery and vineyards, and also a second flag. This second flag gets rotated every few weeks we were told. When we were there it was a variant of the Sons of Liberty flag, a pre-revolution flag of the U.S.
L’Chaim,
Larry