Hello All,

My wife and I will be visiting family in the San Luis Obispo area this
July. As an east coast native, we plan on taking full advantage of wine
country while visiting the west coast. In an earlier post I received
excellent recommendations for visiting vineyards in the Paso
Robles/Astacadero/San Luis Obispo areas. I had originally planned on
staying close to this area, since my relatives live right in its
center, but after consulting a map Santa Barbara seems to be a short
hour and a half drive south.

So with that said, I hoping some of you out there could recommend some
wineries/vineyards in the Santa Barbara area. I hear the area is famous
for its Pinot Noirs and would like to stop at some of the higher rated
vineyards specializing in Pinot.

Also, a friend recommended stopping at some of the vineyards featured
in the movie Sideways (i.e. Foxen Winery, Firestone Winery, Kalyra
Winery, Sanford Winery). Are any of these wineries worth visiting?

Any feedback is greatly appreciated.

Thanks,

- Dave

Jan Bøgh wrote:

Beeing very reluctant when it comes to Pinot Noirs in a warm climate, I was
surprised over the quality of their pinot noirs when I visited Melville
Estate Winery (check google) not so fa from Santa Barbara.

That region is known for Pinot Noirs because it is rather cool. Further
to the north in Paso Robles its much warmer and Zinfandels are whats
popular.

We just got back from 5 days of visiting wineries from Paso Robles to
Solvang.

Paso Robles is known for Zinfandels but has a good variety to suit ones
tastes. My favorites here are Midnight Cellars, Dark Star and Meridian.
Many tend to skip Meridian because they're a big name and everyone
knows their wines already. However, this winery is a treat. They do
not pour any of their mass produced wines here. Instead they pour only
their limited small production wines that can be bought only at the winery.

Near Santa Maria are the wineries of Edna Valley. This area is cool and
rather damp, often foggy. You'll see alot of Chardonnay and other
whites here that benifit from the cooler damp climate. There are not
many wineries here but enough to fill a day. Edna Valley winery is fun
if grapes are on the vine. They have a small amount of each varietal
growing along side the winery. Pick a few to much on and see how they
taste compared to one another.

Further to the south are the wineries around Foxen Canyon Rd. One of
the largest and prettiest is Fess Parker. They appeared in the movie
Sideways where Miles drank the dump bucket but for some reason the
wineries name was fictional in the movie. On the north part of this
wine trail is Cambria. One of my favorites. Foxen winery is a strange
one. It's more of an open barn (shack?) on the side of the road.
However, their wines are some of the best.

Still further south you reach the wineries around Solvang. Generally I
don't find as quality of wines here as to the north. However, some are
truly fantastic. Babcock and Melville make some of the best Pinots
around. Sanford also makes an excellent Pinot and Chardonnay.

As shown in the movie Sideways the Hitching Post restaurant is top
notch. For equally great food a bit cheaper we really love the
Firestone Brewery.





wrote:
Hello All,

My wife and I will be visiting family in the San Luis Obispo area this
July. As an east coast native, we plan on taking full advantage of wine
country while visiting the west coast. In an earlier post I received
excellent recommendations for visiting vineyards in the Paso
Robles/Astacadero/San Luis Obispo areas. I had originally planned on
staying close to this area, since my relatives live right in its
center, but after consulting a map Santa Barbara seems to be a short
hour and a half drive south.

So with that said, I hoping some of you out there could recommend some
wineries/vineyards in the Santa Barbara area. I hear the area is famous
for its Pinot Noirs and would like to stop at some of the higher rated
vineyards specializing in Pinot.

Also, a friend recommended stopping at some of the vineyards featured
in the movie Sideways (i.e. Foxen Winery, Firestone Winery, Kalyra
Winery, Sanford Winery). Are any of these wineries worth visiting?

Any feedback is greatly appreciated.

Thanks,

- Dave