Happy Hour Wine Tasting Featuring Brewer Clifton and Diatom Wines with Special Guest Winemaker Greg Brewer

"Now wines are wonders; great wines are magical; and winemakers are mad. Like horse fanciers, they are always trying to improve the breed."  - William E. Massee

We are constantly trying to improve what we do here at the Wine Bar, and we have some great new menu items for the private dining on the cave on Thursday, Friday, Saturday nights.  Contact Toni@winewatch.com to check out this week’s menu options for a private dining experience at Wine Watch.

We will take up to 16 people but will accept as few as 6 for a curated dinner by Chef Toni.  We must know in advance what food items you want so you will have to coordinate the menu with Toni ahead of time but she can put together any of your favorites from past Wine Bar menus or whatever you want if she has enough notice. The best thing about this table is the view of the wine, we have the  largest selection of vintage wine in South Florida and everything is available at a retail price!!  You may want to bring a sweater it is 64 degrees in the wine cave.

We have a lot of great happy hour events planned for the upcoming months on Thursday nights and whenever we have a personality like Greg Brewer in town we will host an event on Wednesday also.  Greg makes some of the best Chardonnay, Pinot Noir and Syrah in California and we have had the chance to break bread with him several times in the past at Wine Watch.  Tonight we have some great new releases from Diatom, Brewer Clifton and Ex Post Facto as well as a few older vintages from the stash here at Wine Watch.

The fee for this tasting is $95 + tax and we only have 25 spaces available for this event.  For reservations call 954-523-9463 or e-mail andy@winewatch.com.

HAPPY HOUR WINE TASTING FEATURING BREWER CLIFTON AND DIATOM WINES
WITH SPECIAL GUEST WINEMAKER GREG BREWER
Wednesday, May 1, 2024
6:00 PM

2023 Diatom Chardonnay Santa Barbara County
Price: $23.50                     Sale $20.68
The diatom Santa Barbara Chardonnay offers aromas of lemon, citrus blossom and wet sand with flavors of saline and white peach on the palate. A precise, balanced wine.

2022 Brewer Clifton Chardonnay Santa Rita Hills
Price: $42.00                     Your Price: $36.96
This blend is comprised of 3D, Machado, Hapgood and Perilune vineyards. While each lot is handled separately and in a completely uniform fashion in the winery, each contributes vastly different expressions which ultimately harmonize in the finished wine.
Aromas of lemon, kiwi, orange blossom, and sweet basil with notes of jasmine, lime ginger and minerality on the palate.

2021 Brewer-Clifton Hapgood Chardonnay
The Hapgood Vineyard is located across the road from our Machado vineyard and is situated at the end of Hapgood Road. The six barrels of Chardonnay selected to construct the Hapgood Chardonnay are 100% clone 76, drawn from the sandy, north facing incline of the vineyard.

2022 Brewer Clifton Pinot Noir Santa Rita Hills
Price: $49.50                     Your Price: $43.56
Aromas of pomegranate, white tea and raspberry. Flavors of dried fig, white truffle, and ripe cherry. The texture is savory.

2021 Brewer-Clifton 459 Pinot Noir
This bottling is comprised of clone 459 pinot noir from our Machado vineyard in Sta. Rita Hills. 459 exhibits a deep, and carnal expression of fruit with balanced spice.
15-acre parcel on the Machado family land is located adjacent to Clos Pepe and immediately behind the Kessler-Haak vineyard. The site is marked by a gorgeous rolling terrain with sandy clay loam soils.

2016 Ex Post Facto Syrah Santa Barbara
Price: $57.75                     Sale $50.82                        Quantity in Stock: 13
Unbeknownst to many, Greg Brewer has been crafting seductive and compelling Syrah for 25 years. It’s not Syrah through a Pinot Noir producer’s perspective; it is Syrah through the lens of experience in distinctive cool-climate Santa Barbara wine country. The release of our third vintage delivers the exacting texture and pleasure you have come to know. Ex Post Facto, translated to mean “After the Fact”, encapsulates Greg’s slightly deviant desire to go outside his Brewer-Clifton paradigm to explore an outside muse.

Menu
Lobster and Shrimp Meatballs with Sweet and Sour Sauce
Spinach and Ricotta Spanikopota with Tzatziki
Baby Lamb Chops Crusted with Goat Cheese and Lemon Gremolata
Danish Baby Back Ribs with Cherry BBQ
Brie and Raspberry Puff Pastry Tarts

The fee for this tasting is $95 + tax, for reservations call 954-523-9463 or e-mail andy@winewatch.com. 

A bit about Greg Brewer:

Greg started his career as a French instructor at UC Santa Barbara before being trained in wine production at Santa Barbara Winery starting in 1991. He created his eponymous label, Brewer-Clifton, with original partner Steve Clifton in 1996 and was the winemaker at Melville Winery from its inception in 1997 through the end of 2015. Greg additionally created the label, Diatom, focusing on starkly raised Chardonnay, and Ex Post Facto, a Santa Barbara County Syrah. The entirety of his career has been committed to the Sta. Rita Hills appellation, which he helped to map, define, and establish in 1997.

At Brewer-Clifton, Diatom and Ex Post Facto, there is an utmost respect for nature and the team that nurtures it. We believe that when working with a product of nature, it is necessary to maintain an awareness of the elements that may be beyond our understanding and control. Any intervention in the natural evolution of the product must be carried out with the utmost attentiveness and care.

We believe that the geographic, geologic, and climatic uniqueness of the Sta. Rita Hills appellation provides an ideal place to grow chardonnay and pinot noir grapes of intensity, complexity, and specificity. Within this appellation, each vineyard carries its own imprint. Our mission and indeed our passion is to present wines that convey the characteristics inherent to each of these sites, with uncompromising quality.

Greg has always followed a distinct and deliberate arc in his work, where the priority is service, subtracting extraneous elements and minimizing the insertion of self. He reveres the repetitive and monastic nature of the winemaking craft, and after 25 years in the business is firmly committed to the immediate task at hand. This focus shifts the motivation behind the wine from ego towards humility. For Greg, it is only along this path that the resultant product conveys the sincerity and vulnerability that is his goal, both personally and professionally.