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santa bar bara gains recognition g 107 closer to home. As the county’s premium wines reached retail outlets, satis fied consumers began to recognize local labels. Many area wineries also attempted to break into the super-premium market, where wine collectors pursued handcrafted wines from their favorite wineries and winemakers . In the end, wine writers recognized the region and oenophiles developed loyalties to their favorite wines. By the late 1970s there were signs that the area’s wineries could make quality wines out of the region’s premium winegrapes. The first recognition came in July of 1978 when the New York Times featured Firestone Winery in its Sunday magazine. A few months later Anthony Austin, Firestone winemaker, won a double gold medal in London for the winery’s Chardonnay. In 1978, 1981, and 1982 Zaca Mesa won state awards for every varietal it produced, and in 1983 its Central Coast Cabernet was named one of the best red wines at the International Wine Center in New York. Consumers, overwhelmed by shelves burgeoning with choices, look to wine writers for suggestions on new and exciting wines, wine regions, and up-and-coming winemakers. These writers, in their quest for wines to intrigue their readers, spread the word of a region’s potential. In 1976 wine writers Hugh Johnson and Bob Thompson wrote about the Santa Maria Valley: Most of the awesomely fast development of a 5,000 acre vineyard district has taken place on bench land that looks south, in the European tradition. Climate regions I and II prevail in spit of the southerly latitude because the tail of the great coastal fog bank curls easily and regularly into the Santa Maria’s valley. The southerly exposure and the frequent mists have caused some skilled observers to think that this might, just might, be the place in all California for Pinot Noir. It’ll take some years before anyone will know.13 Two years later New York Times wine writer Frank J. Prial visited Santa Ynez and proclaimed that Firestone, Zaca Mesa, and Sanford and Benedict were wineries to watch in the future.14 It would be a matter of a few more years until the general wine press discussed and praised Santa Barbara wines and winegrapes. Sunset’s 1969 edition of Bob Thompson’s California Wine Country did not mention Santa Barbara County, but the 1977 edition noted, “Farther south, in Santa 108 h salud ! Barbara County, 6,000 acres of vines have been planted since 1971 and the Firestone family operates a pioneering winery.” The 1979 edition said that “from the viewpoint of visitors . . . there has been a tremendous revolution in the state’s wineries since 1968,” and seven Santa Barbara County wineries were mentioned.15 By the early 1980s Santa Barbara wines had won recognition worldwide . Firestone, Zaca Mesa, and Santa Ynez Winery had garnered medals for their Pinot Noirs, Chardonnays, and Rieslings.16 In 1981 Sanford Winery and Zaca Mesa had wines listed as “recommended” in Wine Spectator, where Zaca Mesa was a regular advertiser.17 So extensive was Firestone’s international recognition that the winery was honored by a visit of England ’s masters of wine.18 In the later half of the 1980s it was not unusual to hear that local vintners took a double gold at the International Wine Competition in Toronto, international medals at the Quantas Cup Wine Competition in Australia, or four gold medals at the San Diego National Wine Competition, where they represented 3 percent of the wines entered and won 48 percent of the medals.19 By the mid-1980s, however, many in the industry worried that too many competitions and awards confused consumers in what Frank Prial referred to as shelf after shelf of wines “beribboned like so many generals.”20 Additional viability for the region came when President Ronald Reagan served local wines in the White House and established his Western White House on a ridge overlooking both the Santa Ynez Valley and the south coast. Brooks Firestone said that his business increased tenfold after the president served his wines, and he predicted that the region would break into the lucrativeWashington, D.C., market. James Carey, though a critic of Reagan policies, realized the possibility of presidential recognition and put his politics aside when he sent a case of his CareyVineyards estate bottled Adobe Canyon Chardonnay to the president.21 Over the next few years guests of and diplomats for Republican and Democratic presidents drank wines from...

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