Wine.Woot : One Week, Two Wines, Three Deals (SM)

Hello W.Wers,

My fiancee and I live in Los Angeles and are about to celebrate our 10 year anniversary.

We really need a weekend away and Napa is a bit over our budget at the moment. Someone suggested a weekend wine getaway a little closer to home in the Santa Barbara/Santa Ynez vicinity. This sounds a little more reasonable $$ and time wise.

I'm still learning a lot about wines and I have my faves but I'm hoping a wine trip will broaden my wine knowledge and tastes.

What I'd like to do is narrow down a long list of googled wineries I found in Santa Ynez area down to about 5 or 6 that we must visit over a 3 day weekend. I'm just not that familiar with most of them to know which to see and which to pass on.

I'm a big syrah fan and was told Bridlewood was known for that but ??? Other familiar names that popped out in my search of the area were Firestone, Fess Parker, and L&L but again, I'm not certain if these are great places to visit or not.

Anyone with good suggestions for first time wine tours of that area?

And hey, THANKS for reading this far... and for your suggestions! :D

There's another thread in here on this topic. I'm sure someone will link to it eventually.

There's a lot of Syrah produced around Santa Ynez, but it depends on what kind of Syrah you like. Do you like big, bomby Shiraz or more restrained Northern Rhone-style Syrah? Regardless, I think most Syrahs are pretty burly masculine wines here, but the cooler climate Syrahs tends to have better acid balance and aromatic complexity. For the latter style, Longoria Winery and Lafond Winery are very good at what they do.

More generally, Los Olivos and the Lompoc "wine ghetto" are great stops where you can visit several tasting rooms. Los Olivos features Longoria and The Bench (Syrah here as well), a tasting room for Santa Maria wineries Cambria, IO, Byron and Kinton, as well as excellent food options. Lompoc is more Pinot Noir oriented, particularly at Flying Goat and Fiddlehead, while Palmina produces amazing Italian-inspired wines.

Here is the prior thread.

I reiterate my love for the Chef's tasting menu at the Ballard Inn. It's off-menu, so you have to ask for it, and it's a bit pricey, but totally worth it, especially with the wine pairing.

Here is a two for one tasting coupon at Palmina (pdf file).

It's been several months since we were at Ampelos, but I really enjoyed everything they poured and found that it was worth the time to make an appointment. (Disclosure: they are a "biodynamic" winery, but very tasty).

Oh excellent! Thanks for the links! Lots of great info in there. I didn't think it would be possible to visit more than 3 wineries a day but someone else managed 10 in a weekend. I will be sure to plan for more then. I'd rather have too many to see than too few ;)

Now crossing my fingers for a pet friendly hotel in the area! We love to bring our pup on road trips, he is small and travels well.

Thanks guys!

Pixiedoodle11 wrote:Oh excellent! Thanks for the links! Lots of great info in there. I didn't think it would be possible to visit more than 3 wineries a day but someone else managed 10 in a weekend. I will be sure to plan for more then. I'd rather have too many to see than too few ;)

Now crossing my fingers for a pet friendly hotel in the area! We love to bring our pup on road trips, he is small and travels well.

Thanks guys!

Three is a pretty nice amount to visit, actually. Make sure to spit/pour, drink water and have a good lunch to get the most out of your visits. Sharing a tasting with your co-taster is another good thing to do; usually the pours are plenty generous for two people to share. If you start late in the morning, give yourself about 1 hour per winery and keep your consumption reasonable, you could comfortably visit 4 or 5 places.

It does become problematic later in the afternoon as the limo and bus crowd becomes more intoxicated, especially at the larger wineries that seek out this type of business. You'll get to talk to the tasting room staff more earlier in the day before the swarming starts. If you really want to go to a certain winery and savor the experience, go there first! Off the beaten path wineries like those in Lompoc also help with crowd dodging.