It’s no exaggeration to say that the Santa Barbara wine country is a paradise for wine tourists, and the perfect place to go on a wine tasting tour. It has over 100 wineries, vineyards and tasting rooms nestled in the Santa Maria and Santa Ynez Valleys of the Santa Ynez Mountains.

 

Not only are there a large number of picturesque wineries to tour and welcoming tasting rooms to visit in the Santa Barbara wine country, some of the wines that are poured in these tasting rooms can be counted as being among the finest in the world.

Pinot Noir and Chardonnay and are two varietals that the Santa Barbara Wine Country‘s wineries receive many accolades for. These two Burgundian grape varieties do especially well in the Sta. Rita Hills and Santa Maria Valley appellations. The east-west orientation of the mountains surrounding these AVAs allow cooling fogs to roll in from the Pacific Ocean during the morning, and later in the day, on-shore breezes keep things cool. This maritime influence combined with the area’s terrain – which is located on the oceanic Pacific Plate rather than the continental North American Plate – and soils favored by the Burgundian varietals, have allowed the wine makers of these two appellations to achieve stunning successes with both Pinot Noir and Chardonnay.

Two big reasons for that are the Au Bon Climat Winery and Bien Nacido Vineyards. Jim Clendenen, Au Bon Climat’s owner and winemaker, makes traditional, Burgundy-style Pinots which are well-balanced, refined and complex. He sources most of his fruit from the Bien Nacido Vineyards, which is renowned for producing some of the finest grapes for Pinot Noir, Pinot Blanc, Chardonnay and Syrah in California, for a long list of big name wineries, in the Santa Barbara Wine Country and beyond. Here’s a big hint: if you see the name “Bien Nacido Vineyards” on a bottle of wine, buy it.

I’m a big fan of Burgundy, and a big fan of Au Bon Climat’s Pinot Noir. There’s a lot of great Pinot produced in the Santa Barbara Wine Country, but this one is made in a very similar style to its old world cousin: elegant and low-alcohol as opposed to the powerful, high-alcohol style of most California Pinot Noirs.  AuBon Climat also makes excellent Burgundian whites, including Aligote, Pinot Gris, Pinot Blanc and of course Chardonnay.

Speaking of the Chardonnay produced in the Santa Barbara Wine Country, this is what Steve Heimoff, the West Coast editor of Wine Enthusiast magazine, wrote in a blog post entitled Tasting Santa Barbara County Chardonnay that, “Santa Barbara County is one of California’s great Chardonnay areas and a case can be made that it is the greatest.” He especially recommends Chardonnays crafted in Santa Maria Valley and Sta. Rita Hills. By the way, here’s a good wine buying tip from Mr. Heimoff: “…both 2007 and 2008 were very great years for Chardonnay in Santa Barbara County.”

As I mentioned above, one of the things that makes the Santa Barbara Wine Country a great place for wine tours is its diversity. While Sta. Rita Hills and Santa Maria Valley excel in producing superior Burgundian varietals, another of the regions AVAs–Santa Ynez Valley of Sideways fame–is remarkable for the wide range of quality wines it produces in an area densely packed with wineries. The region is mostly known for its Rhone varietals, especially Syrah, but there are also some excellent Bordeaux blends and Italian and Spanish varietals being made in Santa Ynez Valley.

To sum up, the Santa Barbara Wine Country has much to offer anyone wine interested in taking a wine tasting tour. First and foremost, it has an incredible number and variety of fantastic wineries and vineyards to visit, including: the beautiful Curtis Winery, the environmentally conscious Sunstone Vinyards and Winery, the unassuming Kalrya Winery, the stately Bridlewood Estate Winery, the quaint Brander Vineyard, the elegant Gainey Vineyard, the cozy Buttonwood Farms Winery, the bucolic Beckman Vineyards, the rustic Foxen Winery, the colorful Blackjack Ranch Vineyards and Winery,  and the grand Fess Parker Winery. Besides the wineries, you can also enjoy golden Southern California sunshine, sweeping, bucolic vistas, fine restaurants and friendly people.

Just below is an amateur video about the Santa Barbara Wine Country. It being an amateur video, the production quality is not very high, but what it lacks in polish, it makes up for in sincerity and the fact that it gives the viewer a glimpse of the Santa Barbara Wine Country through the eyes of someone who really knows and loves the area. It’s definitely worth a gander.

The film maker is lucky in that she has a designated driver that leaves the wine drinking to her. If you are not similarly blessed, I recommend clicking on the link for info on how to reserve the most affordable Santa Barbara wine tours limo for your tour of the Santa Barbara Wine Country.

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Solvang Tasting Rooms:

If you’re looking for Solvang tasting rooms, two good bets are the Lucas & Lewellen Tasting Room and its sister tasting room, Toccata.

Both Solvang tasting rooms are operated by Lucas & Lewellen Vineyards, a small premium estate winery in Santa Barbara County named for its two owners, Louis Lucas and Royce Lewellen.

The two friends established the winery in 1996, but Louis Lucas had been growing premium grapes for wineries across California since 1970 before finally setting up his own winery.

With over forty years of experience as a grape grower, he is passionate about his craft. He’s affectionately known as the “Dirtman” by club members and tasting room staff. Louis Lucas describes his craft this way:

“We grow the grapes that have produced some of the finest wines in California. We strive to find a balance between the soil, the vine, and Mother Nature.”

Actually, both of the owners can often be found pouring the wine in the Lucas & Lewellen Solvang tasting room, which gives you the chance to chat with the grower while sipping his wine, if you’re lucky enough to drop in when one of them is there.

The vineyards (about 400 estate acres, all told) are located in three distinct microclimates in Santa Barbara County. Santa Barbara Countyis famous for its diversity of microclimates and soils types, which makes it possible to get superb results with a large number of grape varieties.

Lucas and Lewellen have their vineyards planted to twenty-five different varietals. The Goodchild Vineyard in the Santa Maria Valley is cooled by maritime fog most mornings, and the area is renowned for having the longest growing season of any wine region in California.  The Los Alamos Vineyard, with more moderate temperatures, is north of Los Olivos and, at nearly 300 acres, is Lucas & Lewellen’s largest vineyard. Bordeauxvarieties thrive in the warmer Valley View Vineyard near the Santa Ynez River bed in the warm Santa Ynez Valley. All grapes are sustainably grown and hand-picked under the watchful eye of Louis Lucas and Megan McGrath Gates, who has been the Lucas and Lewellen Winemaker since 2007.  A graduate of the UC Davis winemaking certificate program, McGrath Gates describes her role in the winemaking process this way:

“My job is to allow the grapes to showcase their natural characteristics.”

Fine Sauvignon Blanc, Viognier, Riesling, Chardonnay, Petite Sirah, Pinot Noir, Syrah, Merlot, Cabernet Franc, and Cabernet Sauvignon are produced under the Lucas & Lewellen label and they also bottle other varietals and blends under the Toccata and Queen of Hearts labels.

As the name suggests, the Toccata label graces Italian style wines, including the varietals Pinot Grigio, Barbera, Nebbiolo, Moscato, and Sangiovese as well as “Super Tuscan” blends of Bordeaux and Italian varietals. They are approachable in style, offer excellent quality at reasonable prices and can, of course, be sampled in the Toccata Solvang tasting room. The Toccata Tasting Room also features a variety of gourmet foods, Italian gifts, paintings, and unique wine-related items.

The original Solvang tasting room, Lucas & Lewellen, offers a sampling of Lucas & Lewellen Vineyards premium estate wines made from French Varietals. Tastings highlight rich and full-bodied reds, fine white wines, and their popular sparkling wine, made in the methode traditionale. In addition to over twenty world class wines, the Lucas & Lewellen Tasting Room also features a variety of gourmet foods, gifts, and unique wine related items.

The tasting fees at the Lucas & Lewellen tasting room are $8.00 per person for five samples of the Traditional List and the White Wine List.  The “Fun Wine List,” featuring bubbly, port, and sweeter “party wines”, or the Reserve and Bordeaux Lists are available for tasting at $12.00 per person. After tasting at Lucas & Lewellen, visit the other Solvang tasting room, Toccata, and take half off the regular tasting fee of $8-12 per person.

Just like the sister Solvang tasting room discount at Lucas & Lewellen, Toccata guests are invited to taste the French styled varietals at the Lucas & Lewellen Tasting Room for half off the regular tasting fee.

Tasting is always complimentary at both Solvang tasting rooms for Toccata and Lucas & Lewellen Wine Club members. The tasting rooms are open seven days each week, excluding major holidays, from 11 AM to 5:30 PM, but they usually stay open later than that on weekend evenings. They are also dog and kid friendly, so don’t hesitate to bring the whole family.

The Lucas & Lewellen Tasting Room is located at 1645 Copenhagen Drive in Solvang, California and can be reached directly by telephone at (805) 686-9336. Toccata is located one block up from the Lucas & Lewellen Tasting Room at 1665 Copenhagen Drive, and can be reached at (805) 686-5506.

To get to the Solvang tasting rooms, one very good option is to take a Santa Barbara wine tours limo. Click on the link to find out more: A and J Limousine.

Los Olivos Winery:

California’s Central Coast is known for its great Rhone-style wines, and Curtis Winery was one of the first wineries in the region dedicated exclusively to Rhone-style wines. Nothing has changed on that front at this Los Olivos winery. Curtis winery maintains to this day its original mantra:

“We Live for Rhones.”

Under the direction of winemakers Chuck Carlson and Ernst Storm, Curtis Winery specializes in Syrah, Grenache, Viognier, Roussanne and other Rhone varietals from its estate vineyard in Los Olivos, which is located in Santa Barbara County’s Santa Ynez Valley. Carlson points out that,

“The growing conditions here are phenomenal for Rhone grapes. It’s just warm enough to achieve full ripeness, but we also have a steady marine influence that enables the fruit to maintain its structure and finesse.”

The Curtis Winery facility has an interesting history. It started life as an agricultural storage faciility, built in the early 1980s. But not long after it  was first constructed, Douglas Cramer (the producer of such T.V. shows as  the Odd Couple,  Mission Impossible and The Brady Bunch, and also one of America’s premier collectors of contemporary art) converted the building into an art gallery housing–in the words of one observer–”some of the finest artists in modern history.”

Carlson, who was working up the road at Zaca Mesa, another Los Olivos winery, relates that,

“I used to drive by the gallery on my way to work and think that it was an ideal location for a winery. The fact that the building was set up in multi-level floors suggested that it would make a great winery facility.”

As fate would have it, Carlson later took a winemaking position at neighboring Firestone Vineyard, owned by the Firestone family. Shortly thereafter, the Firestones acquired the Cramer property and building and enlisted Carlson as their winemaker at the newly established Curtis Winery in 1995. The Los Olivos winery’s name honors the lineage of Polly Curtis, mother of Brooks Firestone. In 2007, the Firestone family sold Firestone Vineyard, and now their local winemaking legacy is focused exclusively on Curtis Winery.

There are two tiers of Curtis wines: Estate Rhone Varietals, composed of small-production varietal wines from the Curtis Estate vineyard; and Heritage Series Blends, consisting of Rhone-style cuvees crafted for everyday enjoyment. The wines are made in a fruit-forward, balanced style, with an emphasis on terroir and working with each year’s growing conditons, or put another way, on capturing the pure natural flavors of both the vineyard and the vintage.

For those interested in visiting the winery, the Curtis Winery tasting room offers a bright and vibrant environment for sampling and purchasing wine, as well as gift and food items from local artisans.

Curtis Winery is also a great place to take a break from wine tasting and enjoy a nice picnic. The Los Olivos winery inhabits a quiet oak-studded nook in the heart of the Santa Ynez Valley, and the grounds have extensive shaded picnic seating amid colorful landscaping and grapevines.

The tasting room  was recently expaned into the winery cellar, where groups and other visitors can enjoy the ambiance of French oak barrels, Vicard 40-hectaliter oak upright tanks and the mural-covered walls.

“It’s a relaxing and picturesque setting, and we really pride ourselves in offering a welcoming environment in our tasting room,” Carlson says. Adding, ”If you’ve never been to the Santa Barbara County wine country before, this is a great place to start.”

Curtis Winery can be found at 5249 Foxen Canyon Road, Los Olivos, CA.
Their phone number is (805) 686-8999.

Oz and James in the California Wine Country

This video series, where two Brits tour the California Wine Country, is both amusing and instructive because, while Oz Clarke is a famous wine expert, his sidekick, James May, is not. He’s worn many hats (he’s best known for being co-presenter of a British motoring show), but none remotely wine related. So Oz tries to instruct him on the intricacies of wine tasting during what is billed as Oz and James’ Big Wine Adventure, but meets with indifferent success. Both of the guys enjoy a drink and get on well together even though they are as like as chalk and cheese, so it’s a fun show to watch.

They are on a mission to find out where the best wine is really made: France or the California Wine Country, in Oz and James’ Wine Adventure – The New World. I think that it can be said that the best Cabernet Sauvignon in the world is made in the California Wine Country, that is to say, Napa (the heart of the California Wine Country) Cabernet Sauvignon’s best even the admittedly fabulous wines produced in Bordeaux. Anyways, Oz and James’ wine tasting tour of the California Wine never fails to be entertaining, as they often stray from the subject of wine, and just have a good time.

To plan your own Santa Barbara wine tour, in the California Wine Country, click on the link to visit our wine tour page for info on how to reserve a limo, van or vintage car for your personalized guided tour of Santa Barbara’s top wineries, vineyards and tasting rooms.

Oz and James Santa Barbara Wine Tour Part II

This is the second installment of Oz Clarke and James May’s Santa Barbara wine tours. In part two, Oz explains to James the importance of the Pacific Ocean’s cooling influence on the Santa Barbara wine country, and the two of them give surfing a go, with predictable results. Then they head up into the Wine Country and visit the Santa Ynez Valley, Sta. Rita Hills and Santa Maria Valley because Oz wants James to meet some “Santa Barbara wine making stars,” one of which is Jim Clendenen, of Au Bon Climat fame.

Jim Clendenen, one of the most respected Santa Barbara wine makers, opines upon the state of wine making today:

I do believe there is more great wine made now than ever in the history of the world, which I think is special. I also think there’s more standardized wine passed off as great wine, than ever in the history of the world too.

James is quite taken with this Santa Barbara wine maker due to their shared scruffiness and philosophy that wine is meant to be drunk and enjoyed–and he likes Au Bon Climat’s wine as well. James take on the situation is as follows:

You can probably make a fair assessment of the wine by meeting the maker. You go meet him; he’s a bit fat and his hair’s untidy, and he’s pissed: buy it.

They also meet two of the Santa Barbara wine makers at Lompoc’s (a small town in the Santa Barbara Wine Country) “Wine Ghetto,” a collective where Santa Barbara wine makers with ambition but not wads of cash produce interesting wines in an industrial setting. One of the wine makers claims that the Wine Ghetto is a kind of ambassador for Santa Barbara wine. He says that people who visit the unusual winery become enamored of not only Santa Barbara wine, but also the spirit of the place where it’s produced. Oz Clarke says that some of the strange names of the Santa Barbara wine that’s produced in the Wine Ghetto are ones to look out for in the future.

At the end of the video, James is put to the test of distinguishing two types of Santa Barbara wine: a cool climate Pinot Noir, and a warm climate Pinot Noir. Watch the video to see if it gets it right with these two actually quite different types of Santa Barbara wine.

Oz and James Santa Barbara Wine Tasting Tour

Famous wine writer Oz Clarke and his pal James May continue on their Santa Barbara wine tasting tour. In this episode, they explore the Santa Ynez Valley, a very popular area for a Santa Barbara wine tasting tour, and visit two Sideways hot spots: Fess Parker Winery and Vineyard, (a memorable stop on Miles and Jack’s Santa Barbara wine tasting tour where Miles douses himself with the spit bucket) for some of their Zinfandel, Pinot Noir, Riesling, Pinot Blanc and Viognier; and the Hitching Post Restaurant (also a memorable spot  in the film; it’s where Miles first meets Maya) for some steak, and more wine of course.

Not only do Oz and James enjoy their Santa Barbara wine tasting tour, they (especially James) get a kick out of meeting Fess Parker in person. Then Oz tries to teach James about using the spit bucket, with mixed results.

To plan your own Santa Barbara wine tasting tour, click on the link to visit our wine tour page for info on how to reserve a limo, van or vintage car for your personalized guided tour of Santa Barbara’s top wineries (sorry, no Winnebagos available).

So, what are the advantages of renting a Santa Barbara wine tours limo when going on a wine tasting tour in SB’s beautiful Wine Country? Well, please allow me to start off my answer with an anecdote.

A couple of years ago, three generations of Hilton men: my father, son and I (no relation to the hotel Hiltons), went on a wine tasting tour in Santa Barbara’s Wine Country,  located in the Santa Ynez Valley, in the mountains behind Santa Barbara city proper. We visited four tasting rooms in all.

The first place we dropped in was Fess Parker Winery and Vineyard, on Foxen Canyon Road. It’s a beautiful place with expansive vineyards and a palatial tasting room, though rustic with its wooden beams and stone pillars–and of course there are coonskin caps in evidence since it was owned and established by the Fess Parker (who, sadly, passed away last year) of  Daniel Boone and Davey Crockett fame. They make very good wine. As far as reds go, they’ve received high marks for both their Pinot Noirs and Syrahs, and when it comes to whites, they’ve won praise for their efforts with Chardonnay and Viognier.

We enjoyed tasting all of those varietals, at least I and my father did–my son was still in high school at the time. Actually, I ended up consuming a disproportionate amount of the pourings, as dad was the designated driver that day. He was sipping and spitting, and I was drinking down what was left in his glass, along with my samples of course.

Before departing, we enjoyed a lunch of sandwiches and sushi under the trees on Fess Parker Winery’s picnic tables before heading off to the next place, Alma Rosa Winery and Vineyards, which was the first winery Miles and Jack visited in the movie Sideways (they also stop in at Fess Parker, but the winery doesn’t come off well in the film). Alma Rosa has a wonderfully cozy and rustic tasting room where you can imbibe their lovingly made Burgundian varietals: Pinot Noir, Chardonnay, Pinot Gris and Pinot Blanc. Here too, I happily consumed the lion’s share of the libations.

We then moved on to Beckmen Vineyards, a small, family owned winery that happens to be set in one of the most picturesque locations in the Santa Barbara Wine Country and produces excellent Rhone style wines. With our routine now firmly established,  I continued to gulp down mass quantities of wine–and enjoy it–but the subtleties of Rhone verses Burgundy style wines now escaped me. By this time it was basically all good. If it was alcoholic, made from grapes and could be poured in a glass, I was willing to drink it.

The last stop on our wine tasting tour was Mandolina in Solvang. According to their website, “Mandolina produces estate-grown Italian varietals including Pinot Grigio, Barbera, Nebbiolo, Moscato, Sangiovese, and ever popular Super-Tuscan blends of Bordeaux and Italian varietals.” I’m sure that’s true enough, but all I can really attest to is that they sure tasted good. What I do remember about this place is that not only the wine, but my mouth also began to runneth over. Before this I was not drunk or even tipsy, but at this last tasting room, though I didn’t get belligerent or make a scene or anything like that,  my speech was not the clearest and I was definitely talking too much and probably too loudly–the type of behavior that would be completely acceptable in a bar, but very gauche in a tasting room.

The moral of this little anecdote is: there can be unforeseeable consequences to the designated driver system when going on a Santa Barbara wine tour. Not only is the driver unable to fully enjoy the experience, his traveling companion might get sloshed.

So, since the designated driver idea is a nonstarter, how is one to get from winery to winery when in the Santa Barbara Wine Country? Well, one option is the “Wine Line.”

The Wine Line is a shuttle service that runs on a loop, and you can hop off at the wineries you’d like to visit and hop back on when the van returns at 40 minute intervals.  The Wine Line is not a bad option if you’re staying in Los Olivos. They do free pick ups there, and there are over 20 tasting rooms in Los Olivos itself, all within a 2 block radius of each other–many of them serving up excellent wine. From Los Olivos, you can hop on the wine line and hop off at your choice of 10 wineries on the Foxen Canyon Wine Trail.

The Wine Line is pretty convenient if you’re staying in Los Olivos, but at $80.00 per person (plus wine tasting fees–usually 10.00 a pop), it’s not particularly cheap and you are limited as to the geographical area and which particular wineries you can visit.

There are other options with tour companies operating out of Santa Barbara–everything from cycling or riding tours to jeep and limousine tours. To my mind, the best option is a Santa Barbara wine tours limo. Horses and jeeps sound like fun I guess, but it may not be a good idea to wine tasting with all that bouncing around. Besides, when you’re going wine tasting you really want to go in style. Also, limousines come in different shapes and sizes, so if your party is either small or large, there should be a vehicle to comfortably accommodate you. As for price, the service I recommend is A and J Limousine–they’re the most affordable in town, and they offer great personalized service.

Here’s one more option in a Santa Barbara wine tours limo: touring the Santa Barbara Wine Country in a vintage car:

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Santa Ynez is a Great Place to Take a Break

Santa Ynez is a sleepy little town of four and half thousand souls in the eponymous Santa Ynez Valley, the heart of the Santa Barbara Wine Country. You can of course taste some great wines at the many nice restaurants in Santa Ynez, but there are good reasons to visit the historic, western town:

• As mentioned above, Santa Ynez has lots of great places to take a break from your wine tour and grab a bite to eat. The Red Barn is a real down to earth steakhouse where they still put a bib around your neck if you order ribs. If you want some good Mexican food, there are a couple of options: Carlito’s, which has their main restaurant on State St. in Santa Barbara, has authentic Mexican dishes and a wide selection of Tequilas, or if you just want to grab a quick burrito, try SY burrito, Santa Ynez’ version of Chipotle. Grappolo serves tasty Italian fare, The Vineyard House offers fine wine country cuisine, and for breakfast, you should hit the Longhorn – they have fantastic omelets.
• The Maverick Saloon, the most popular destination for visitors to this western-style town complete with building facades that make it look like a set for an old Clint Eastwood movie,  is a real country bar and a Santa Ynez landmark.
• Santa Ynez is home to the Chumash Indian Tribe’s casino, appropriately named the Chumash Casino Resort.
• The Santa Ynez Historical Museum has interesting artifacts both from the town’s history as an old stagecoach stop and from the Chumash tribe.

For more on Santa Ynez, you can get more info at Santa Barbara Edhat.

For some more on the wines from the Bien Nacido Vineyards, Nicholas Miller talks about how the Santa Maria Valley’s two transverse mountain ranges suck in the cool air and fog from the Pacific Ocean, cooling the area and making it one of the longest and coolest growing regions in California–which means it offers very good conditions for growing Pinot Noir grapes. In this video, he introduces six wines produced from fruit grown in his families three vineyards: Bien Nacido, Solomon Hills and French Camp Vineyards. The wines are made by Au Bon Climat, Fess Parker Winery, Byron (Pinot Noirs from Bien Nacido), J Wilkes, Summerland (Pinot Noirs from Solomon Hills) and Barrel 27 (a white Rhone blend from French Camp Vineyards). He explains how different some of the Pinot Noirs made from Bien Nacido grapes can be–especially exemplified by the contrast between the Pinots produced by Au Bon Climat with those of Fess Parker Winery. Au Bon Climat produces wines in the traditional Burgundian style: low-alcohol, long-aging and food-friendly; while Fess Parker produces a more powerful, California style wine.

Not just Bien Nacido Vineyards, but the Santa Barbara Wine Country in general, with its beautiful scenery and many excellent wineries, vineyards and tasting rooms, is a wonderful place to go on a wine tasting tour and create memories that you can treasure for a lifetime. For tips on which are the best wineries to visit and all the possibilities for Santa Barbara wine tours, just click on the link.

Sideways Wine Tour Video

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(If you’re interested in booking your own Sideways tour, just follow the link for details.)

This group’s Sideways wine tour starts off at Santa Barbara Airport, then takes us, via State Route 154, over San Marcos Pass and into the Santa Barbara wine country nestled in the Santa Ynez Mountains–the background music for the video is of course the smooth jazz stylings of the Sideways soundtrack. Before checking in for the night, we enjoy a quick tour of the small, picturesque towns of Buellton and Solvang, taking in some Sideways landmarks on the way.

Day 2 takes us through Los Olivos and past the many tasting rooms located within the two blocks which more or less constitute the whole town, and then over to Santa Rosa Road where we get down to business on this Sideways wine tour, visiting, in leisurely succession, the new, Sanford Winery before stopping in at the original, rustic Sanford Winery–now called Alma Rose Winery and Vineyards–that featured in the film, and whose wine pourer did a famous cameo in Miles and Jack’s Sideways wine tour), where Miles attempts to instruct Jack in the subtleties of wine tasting. The next stop is Mosby Winery, which produces Italian varietals. We then head to Hwy 246 and more wine tasting at Melville Vineyards and Winery and Babcock Winery and Vineyards.

On day three, we go to Foxen Canyon Road, on which is located Zaca Mesa Winery, which produces world-renowned Syrah (their 2006 Estate Syrah appeared at no. 29 on Wine Spectators list of the 100 best wines in the world for 2010) and then to Rancho Sisquoc Winery, in the Santa Maria Valley AVA. Next, it’s off to the Hitching Post Restaurant, a steak house which, frankly, is profiting handsomely off its Sideways exposure by also offering wine tastings. Then it’s dinner, and more wine, at the Los Olivos Cafe.

I do have to mention that this is not strictly speaking the Sideways Wine Tour. In the actual movie, Miles and Jack only visit five different wineries, though they do imbibe a wide varieties of wines in the film, including that of Andrew Murray and the Hitching Post, and they also down some vino at the Los Olivos Cafe. But the actual wineries visited in the original Sideways wine tour are Foxen, Sanford, Fess Parker, Firestone and Kalrya.

But, let’s return to this Sideways wine tour. Day Four takes us to the lively and funky Kalrya, run by an Australian who is both fun-loving and a talented wine maker, and then to Sunstone Winery which makes excellent 100% organic wines, and finally to Andrew Murray Vineyards in Los Olivos. And that wraps up a most definitely enjoyable Sideways wine tour in Beautiful Santa Barbara County.

If you are planning your own Sideways wine tour in the Santa Barbara Wine Country, with its beautiful scenery and many excellent wineries, vineyards and tasting rooms, you don’t have to feel restricted by the Sideways wine tour of the film. There are a whole slew of great wineries to visit in the Santa Barbara Wine Country. Click on the link to get more info on  Santa Barbara wine tours, and avoid the pitfall of driving yourself by using a Santa Barbara wine tours limo.