The Brentwood location is the first tasting room in Los Angeles run by a winery that has earned 100 points and multiple spots on WineSpectator’s Top 100
LOS ANGELES, CA; May 17, 2023 – Tensley Wines announces the opening of its first ever Tensley Tasting Room in Los Angeles. Owned by renowned winemaker, Joey Tensley, the Santa Barbara County based wine label knowns for its award-winning Syrah, brings Santa Barbara’s wine country to Brentwood and offers Angelenos a taste of Tensley Wines which include Tensley Wines, Fundamental Wines, and P2KV Wines. Established in 1998, Tensley Wines belongs to a small group of winemakers who have received critics’ top marks with scores ranging from 90 to a perfect 100 points for many of their Syrah wines.
“Tensley Wines is all about letting the vineyard speak for itself and we are excited to bring something new to the wine scene in Los Angeles with the first ever formal wine tasting room in the city,” says owner and winemaker, Joey Tensley, “Our goal is to share what makes Santa Barbara wine so special and unique with the Los Angeles community and solidify the natural connection and relationship between Santa Barbara wine country and Los Angeles.”
Located in the heart of Brentwood on the first floor of the popular Brentwood Gardens, the tasting rooms offers guests a wine tasting experience for $25 in addition to wines by the glass as well as bottles of select varietals to enjoy, complemented by a limited array of packaged gourmet snacks. The wine tasting welcomes walk-ins as well as reservations for larger groups and can seat up to 34 at a time. The tasting room features art by American painter and independent curator, Lawrence Gipe, who practices postmodern landscape and the visual rhetoric of progress within his works. Artist C.B. Hewes, a second-generation bartender who works within the Los Angeles and Santa Barbara areas, is also featured with his abstract art adorning the walls of the tasting room.
Tensley Tasting Room’s current Los Angeles tasting menu includes:
- 2022 Clairette Blanche (Price: $34.00)
- Tensley Wines first experience with Clairette Blanc, this wine comes from two vineyards on Alisos Canyon Road – 80% Nolan Ranch and 20% Martian Vineyard. The Clairette Blanche is fermented 100% in neutral barrels to add a little weight to the middle palate but bottled early with only 30% ML completed to maintain its lively freshness. With tropical aromatics that explode from the glass, this wine is perfect for summer with fresh light foods but also take a look at it with more serious complex foods like seafood or creamy pasta.
- 2022 Rosé of Grenache (Price: $28.00)
- This wine is composed of 85% Grenache and 15% Clairette Blanche and is all about freshness and texture. The nose is explosive with aromas of tangerine, peach, and strawberry. It will pair beautifully with cheese, seafood, or any spicy dish, but also stands great on its own.
- 2020 Santa Barbara County Syrah (Jeb Dunnuck 94 points) (Price: $35.00)
- Every year the vineyard percentages change, yet the style remains the same. In 2020, Tensley Wines introduced Laird Vineyard to the blend and continues to work with sandy cool sites to add freshness and savory notes to the final blend. Complexity and power are added by way of Tensley’s use of all of the winery’s single vineyard Syrah sources within the final product. It beams with bright acidity and saline notes, rounding out with blue and black fruits to make it generous, juicy, and easy to drink. This Syrah will also age seven to ten years, but can be enjoyed fresh as well.
- 2021 Thompson Vineyard Syrah (Wine Advocate 93 Points) (Price: $48.00)
- A staple of Tensley’s since the beginning, Thompson Vineyard Syrah is the lightest in color but has the most powerful aromatics of wildflowers and savory herbs. In the mouth it always has a real freshness and in 2021 that is very noticeable because of the unusually cool vintage. This wine can be enjoyed in its youth or well-aged for 20+ years.
Tensley Tasting Room is located in the Brentwood Garden Plaza at 11677 San Vicente Blvd Suite 116 Brentwood, Los Angeles, CA 90049. The tasting room is now open daily from 12 pm – 7 pm.
For more information, please visit: https://tensleywines.com/.
ABOUT JOEY TENSLEY & TENSLEY WINES
Winemaker Joey Tensley is one of the most well-respected and versatile winemakers in the United States. As owner of the highly rated Tensley Wines label, Joey has been featured in magazines throughout the world, including Saveur, Food & Wine, Forbes, Wine Enthusiast, Wine Spectator, Robert Parker’s Wine Advocate, Vinous and more.
Established in 1998, the first release of Tensley totaled just 100 cases. In 2015, the production reached 5,000 cases and included five single-vineyard Syrahs, the most in Santa Barbara County. Though Tensley Wines has grown much in size, its philosophy has never changed – source the best fruit possible and let the vineyard speak for itself. Tensley Wines now includes Tensley Wines, Fundamental Wines, and P2KV Wines and recently received a perfect 100-point score from the world’s top critic for Rhône varietal wines, Jeb Dunnuck. The Santa Barbara County based wine label has had more wines listed in Wine Spectator’s Top 100 Wines of the Year than any other winemaker from California’s central coast and is currently ranked in the top five of “Best Value” California wines, according to Wine-Searcher.com.
