Kalyra’s tasting room exists in perhaps the funkiest corner of Santa Barbara’s Funk Zone. Just across the train tracks, you are greeted by a surfboard sporting the Kalyra logo.
Inside, the ceilings are low and the lights are dim. Patrons gather around the central, almost round wine bar in the tiki themed tasting room. I was struck initially by how young the crowd skewed and pleased to see millennials sipping on nice wines while discussing all manners of millennial concerns, including infidelity and sexual fluidity, in the chairs immediately to my right. As entertaining and enlightening as that was, the tasting was much more so. Kalyra featured several wines that would be considered a bit off the beaten path in terms of grapes and blends that I had encountered in the area. The first offering was their 2015 Pinot Bianco. Confusingly to both myself and the tasting room employee, this is not Pinot Blanc at all, but Chenin Blanc. I really loved this wine. It had a bit of wet wool on the nose, with soaring acidity, dried apricots and fresh peaches as well as citrus on the palate. We followed with the 2014 Semillon, also a rarity based on my two day long trip to the area. I also gave this one high marks. It smelled of freshly washed sheets and had a very “pretty” palate with a weighty body and just a touch of residual sugar.
Our favorite red was the 2013 Cashmere Blend. This was a red blend consisting of 50% Merlot, 25% Cabernet franc and 25% Petit Verdot. This had very subtle pyrazines on the nose which are the characteristic green pepper notes that are often found with Cabernet Franc. It tasted of cola and cherry jam and had a nice acidity and subtle tannins. The color was a deep red due to the influence of the Petit Verdot.
If I lived in Santa Barbara, this is the place I would join the wine club and hang out.