Doing the Wine Thang

It's tough to think about California without thinking about wine and the tasting of it, and in this post-Sideways world, you'd have to be living under a rock not to know that the Santa Ynez Valley and Foxen Canyon area just north of Santa Barbara are home to some of the finest among Santa Barbara County's 200+ wineries and tasting rooms. There are so many, in fact, that we thought we might try to help out the wine enthusiasts among you by sharing some of our favorites within striking distance of downtown Santa Barbara. Of course, this is by no means a definitive list, so if you're interested in pursuing this subject at some depth (wino!), you can get a fairly comprehensive rundown of what's available and where at the Santa Barbara wine country website.

Wineries in Santa Barbara
The Santa Barbara Winery (202 Anacapa St.), established by Pierre Lafond in 1962, is kind of the "gran'pappy" of SB-area wineries. It was actually the first commercial winery in Santa Barbara County to open after the Prohibition, and it is now the oldest in continuous operation. The tasting room is part of the fermentation facility, and all kinds of tasty nibbles--from chocolate Zinfandel sauce to Cabernet fudge--are available therein. The tasting room is open from 10-5 daily, and the tasting fee is $5, glass included. If you're pressed for time, feeling particularly lazy, or craving a flight after the tasting room has shut its doors, you can find the Pierre Lafond Wine Bistro even closer to your hotel (516 State St.). It's a solid choice for lunch or dinner, but we'd recommend it for a light snack and a quick flight after a couple of hours bumming around downtown.

Also in Santa Barbara is Jaffurs Wine Cellars (819 E. Montecito St.) Craig Jaffurs once worked in the aerospace industry, but unlike all those other NASA engineers who, according to various infomercials, left the space program to develop materials for mattresses and non-stick surfaces for pans, Jaffurs handcrafts his own wines. The tasting room is right in the middle of the winery and is open from Friday-Sunday, 1-5 for $5 with wine purchase, $10 without.

Santa Ynez Valley Wineries
The Santa Ynez Valley loop of wineries is probably the closest, quickest and easiest way to dip your big toe into the deep end of the Central California winery pool. Start by taking the 101N up from Santa Barbara. One mile south of Buellton, at the gateway to the Santa Ynez Valley, is the Mosby Winery (9496 Santa Rosa Rd., Buellton). Mosby specializes in Cal-Ital wines made with estate-grown fruit, and its tasting room, open from Monday-Friday 10-4 and Saturday-Sunday 10-5, is located in the vineyard's charming old carriage house. After Mosby, heading east on Rt. 246 will take you right into the thick of things. The Blackjack Ranch Winery (2205 Alamo Pintado Rd., Solvang) got a lot of exposure from Sideways, but even if you're too cool for school, it's worth stopping in just to check out the tasting bar made of wood taken from a lane in the old Solvang Bowling Alley and try Roger Wisted's celebrated Bordeaux varietals. Their tasting room is open from 11-5 daily, with a tasting fee of $10 for 10 wines.

Though it's off the Santa Ynez Valley loop, Rusack Vineyards (1819 Ballard Canyon Rd., Solvang) is worth the detour. Nestled within Ballard Canyon, the vineyard is surrounded by lush rolling hills, and the redwood deck that looks out over them makes an excellent site for a picnic and a glass of wine. Rusack is a tiny winery that specializes in excellent handcrafted wines; while they're all pretty wonderful, make sure you try the Anacapa! You can sample it and the others from 11-5 daily for $6 a tasting (includes glass). Finally, a great place to wind up this tasting loop is at The Gainey Vineyard (3950 E. Hwy. 246, Santa Ynez), which has been hailed as the "best tasting spot on the central coast" by Wine Spectator and "one of the most beautiful wineries in the world" by Robert Lawrence Balzer of the Los Angeles Times. Gainey's Chardonnay is very highly rated, and Stephen Tanzer calls the Pinot Noir, er, "sexy juice." But what makes it a great place to end the day is the fact that you can pick up some non-alcoholic beverages, salami, cheese and pate for a picnic on their extensive grounds (bringing your own picnic is also encouraged). The tasting room is open from 10-5 daily, and the fee is $10 (with glass).

Foxen Canyon Wine Trail
The Foxen Canyon Wine Trail covers the 11 wineries (these would be, in order of appearance, Andrew Murray, Firestone Vineyard, Curtis Winery, Koehler Winery, Fess Parker, Zaca Mesa Winery, Bedford Thompson, Foxen Winery, Rancho Sisquoc Winery, Byron, Cambria, and Cottonwood Canyon Vineyard) that you can get to via the Foxen Canyon Road. Foxen Canyon Road runs from Los Olivos in the Santa Ynez Valley, up the mesa that runs northwestward along the base of the San Rafael Mountains, through the little Santa Maria Valley, and into the city of Santa Maria itself. This trip requires a bit more of a time commitment than does simply tooling around the Santa Ynez Valley area, so it's probably best tackled if you are going to be in the area for awhile.

Of these 11 wineries, we would definitely rank two as "can't miss": Zaca Mesa Winery (6905 Foxen Canyon Rd., Los Olivos) and Foxen Winery (7200 Foxen Canyon Rd., Santa Maria). Aside from offering kick-ass Rhone-style varietals and blends, Zaca Mesa lets you hike along its well-maintained nature trails, camp and picnic on their lawn--plus, they have a giant outdoor chessboard on their patio. It's well worth the seeing even if you aren't a wine drinker. Tastings run from 10-4, and cost $7 for one flight of five wines or $12 for both flights. The Foxen Canyon Winery makes excellent limited-production wines, and we love the no-frills tasting room (Portolets? Oh, yes! But capacious ones). The tasting room's open from 11-4, and the charge is between $3-$5 a glass (you get to keep said glass).

Fans of television's The Bachelor may wish to pop in at the Firestone Vineyard (5000 Zaca Station Rd., Los Olivos) to see if they can catch a glimpse of Andrew, who, we're happy to report, has found love--and spawned--at last. Evidently, the vineyard is supposed to be lovely. We cannot attest. We can, however, vouch that the Rancho Sisquoc Winery (6600 Foxen Canyon Rd., Santa Maria) is a beautiful spot to have a picnic to wind up the day. On that note: since we, like the Boy Scouts, do advocate being prepared, we should warn you that there are no restaurants or delis along the Foxen Canyon Wine Trail. If you do choose to explore this area, make sure you load up on picnic supplies in Los Olivos.

NB: Click on the map at the head of this entry to get a basic, not-to-scale sense of where these wines are in relation to one another. It would be tough to do all of these in one day. More detailed maps such as this one can be found all over the internet to help you plan your trip.