Avant Wine & Tapas from Crushed Grape Chronicles on Vimeo.
So…after our first day of tasting on our trip. Hitting Santa Barbara and then a stop in Los Olivos, we checked into the hotel and headed out for dinner. With my pre-planning we had picked up a Groupon for Avant Tapas and Wine Bar in Buellton, which gave us $40 in wine for $20 as well as 20% off of any Tapas we ordered. When we checked into the Hamlet Inn (which is fabulous!) the person at the desk suggested Avant for dinner and highly recommended the “Yuppie Crack”. So after settling into our room at the extremely adorable Hamlet Inn we set out.
Avant is in Buellton. If you have seen “Sideways” you remember the town with “The Hitching Post”? Yep! Just across the Highway from “The Hitching Post” and down a long drive into a small industrial park you will find the Terravant Wine Company Wine Center. This 40,000 foot Wine Center is a full service wine industry support facility. They have a state of the art analysis lab as well as refrigerated, controlled warehouse storage. They also provide distribution and direct to consumer wine services. As well as office space for wine makers and industry professionals. It has become an incubator to support many Santa Ynez wineries. They provide custom crush and alternating proprietor space.
Avante Front Entrance
When you arrive you drive to the back of the facility to the Avant entrance. The two-story entrance leads you upstairs to the Tapas and Wine Bar. The space has a wine wall with a wine dispensing system. You purchase a card and load it up with the amount you would like to spend. Michael and I had our $40 card to share. Each wine is listed by price for a taste, a half glass or a glass and there are 52 wines to choose from. You look out from the second floor through glass windows onto the tank room.
Michael and I were in heaven. We chose several tapas dishes and then went to town each getting a taste of a wine and then sharing to see how they paired with the food. Really I would eat here every day and do this if I could.
We tasted through at least 16 different wines.
- Beginning with roses from Dragonette and Fiddlehead
- Riesling from Code Quest
- Lucas and Llewelyn Gewurztraminer
- Zotovich 2009 Syrah
- Reeves Ranch 2008 Syrah
- Longoria 2010 Albarino that was perfect with the shrimp
- Open Field 2010 Chardonnay
- Brander 2009 Cabernet Sauvignon
- Baehner V3 Cab Blend
- Ground Effect 2010
- Chennin Blanc Blend
- Insomnia White Blend
- Ken Brown 2010 Chardonnay
- Sort This Out Muscat…that’s all I can remember.
To eat we had the,
- Wood Fired Shrimp (which I mentioned was perfect with the Longoria Albarino!)
- The Mac’N’Cheese
- the “Yuppie Crack” which is Apple-wood smoked bacon, dates, goat cheese, balsamic reduction and basil oil drizzle. This stuff is REALLY amazing!
- We did the Rosemary Chicken Skewers
- Seared Scallops with Madeira, dijon, thyme and micro greens.
We finished with the chocolate cinnamon bread pudding which we paired with the Sort Out Cellars Muscat. Turns out the muscat and the bread pudding were great on their own, not so good together. We found the Insomnia White Blend went pretty well with everything! The Ken Brown 2010 Chard was really good (and I’m picky about my Chards) and I really enjoyed it paired with the Mac’N’Cheese. I also really enjoyed the Brander 2009 Cab with the Lamb Meatballs (brown rice, mint, rosemary, lemon zest and white wine). The cab seemed to have a little eucalyptus on the nose and that melded perfectly with the mint in the meatballs. The Yuppie crack was good with the syrahs, but really shone with the Gewurztraminer!
In addition there was music on the night we were there. The Trio was playing and singing from the corner was lovely. Really we could not have asked for a better end to our first day.
They have since change their Restaurant name from Avante to Terravant Winery Restaurant
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