A Brief Wine Sojourn in Santa Barbara County

60 hours of vibrant wine, beautiful scenery, tasty food, and quirky but adorable towns

I used to be a traveler.

For a long time, I took at least one international trip every year, usually more, with frequent domestic adventures between. I wasn’t rolling in money, but I managed by building on work trips and taking full advantage of my ample vacation time. Moving to California has put a damper on my travel, thanks to financial constraints and the painfully limited PTO that comes with starting a new career. But sometimes one just has to get away, even if it’s only for a couple of days. I believe strongly in the soul-clearing value of simply being somewhere else: encountering new surroundings, stepping out of usual patterns, and existing in a space not your own. I’ve been short on soul-clearing this year, and it was past time.

So it was that I ended up in Santa Barbara County.

Getting There

Santa Barbara is a 5-6 hour drive from where I live in Santa Rosa, so I left work slightly early on Monday, loaded the Labrador into the car, and rolled into our hotel in Buellton around 9pm. Val loves a hotel! I wish I had a charming local hotel recommendation here, but instead I had Hilton Honors points. The Hampton Inn was unremarkable but reliably comfortable and dog friendly.

I found it inexplicably difficult to see online whether there would be any restaurants open in Buellton at that time of night, and this being California, I had reason to believe there would not. But one thing you should know about driving through California is that the signage for gas, restrooms, and food along the highway is minimal at best. Will there be food at the next exit? Who knows! Fast food wouldn’t have been my first choice, but in a state of desperation I grabbed McDonald’s along the way. It was a miracle I even found that, since the Golden Arches are required to be unlit and at ground level, and there were no exterior lights at all on this particular restaurant. The restrictions on light and sight pollution are something I love about rural California in theory, but they do make things complicated. I was pretty glad I had stopped when I saw a Firestone Walker Brewing Company right next to my hotel…that closed at 8pm. EIGHT O’CLOCK. A brewery. Dear California, do better.

Day 1 - Los Olivos

Tuesday morning we headed to Los Olivos, a tiny town that seems to entirely consist of wine tasting rooms, with a couple of coffee shops and restaurants smattered between so you can temper your wine consumption. Obviously we had to start off our day with some preparatory caffeine and a biscuit at the delightfully dog-themed Lefty’s Coffee Co.

When I’m doing wine travel, I generally like to schedule the first one or two tastings of the day, and then let the wind blow me where it will. For this day I had scheduled appointments at Stolpman and Brewer-Clifton, both wineries with which I have quite a bit of experience. Stolpman has a broad catalog of wines, some quite classic and some pretty funky, so there’s plenty of room to play around and try some things that might be new to you.

I went in most familiar with their So Fresh line of early harvest, native yeast fermented, uncrushed wines, so I opted to try out mostly their Estate wines along with a couple of the Unfiltered & Esoteric, because who doesn’t love an esoteric wine? I’m not kicking anything I tried off the table, but I was most pleasantly surprised by the Estate Sangiovese. I’m not normally thrilled by California Sangiovese, but this one was intense without being too heavy or fruity, and it had to come home with me, where it has already been consumed with much joy.

The pours were generous, especially first thing in the morning, so lunch was next on my agenda with a terrific tuna and artichoke sandwich at Panino. An awkward amount of free time led to a quick stop at this quirky outdoor store, which housed an amazing conglomeration of metal sculpture, plants, yard art, and assorted items I will never know how to describe.

Then on to Brewer-Clifton, a favorite of mine for a while that I was glad to finally visit in person. The tasting room is bright and elegant, and the wines were every bit as good as I remembered from the last time Greg Brewer came to Cincinnati and we poured a few of his higher end creations. The 3D Chardonnay was a must to bring home.

In the afternoon I took suggestions from tasting room staff, because they always know the good stuff. This brought me to Liquid Farm and Dragonette Cellars, both excellent suggestions that I’m happy to pass on to you. The Liquid Farm tasting room has a comfortable, natural feel with a lot of greenery, warm colors, cozy couches, and inviting communal tables.

Oh, and they make excellent wine! The Chardonnays are their specialty and cover a range from clean and crisp to creamy and opulent, all delicious in their own way. Did I buy some? Yes, but not as much as I wanted. Dragonette wins the prize for the nerdiest tasting room, which of course was a pure delight for this wine nerd. Dragonette deals with a wider variety of grapes than many of the wineries in this area (except Stolpman, whose variety is downright wild), and I ended up with a Syrah.

Now, this is the point in my day that could have taken an ugly turn, because despite spitting liberally, I had been to four tasting rooms and the cumulative effects were beginning to show. Story of Soil came highly recommended and the name alone made me want to drop by for just one last tasting, but safety and awareness of early closing hours won out and I headed back to Buellton. Across the board, locals had recommended Industrial Eats for dinner, and this skirt steak and tomatillo pizza was fire.

Val and I wrapped up the evening with a visit to Paws Dog Park before collapsing into our comfy Hampton beds to dream about this 100% Val- Approved Day.

Day 2 - Accidentally Solvang

I made zero plans for my second day, but I had started to get the lay of the land in terms of where wineries and vineyards are concentrated, so we just hopped in the car and headed east out of Buellton toward Santa Ynez with no particular goals in mind. I made an abrupt right turn when I saw Kaena, where I have positive associations with their Grenache Rosé. Being that it was morning and I was in the mood for something on the lighter side, I went with their flight of whites, which includes some interesting and tasty blends. Nothing blew my socks off, but it was all pretty good and their outdoor seating was a pleasant spot to spend a morning.

On my way here, I had passed the famous Hitching Post restaurant that is featured in the movie Sideways. You know, the one that killed Merlot. During the day they only serve outside, but since I was accompanied by a dog, that suited me just fine. It’s not the most intuitive set-up - you order and pay for food in one place, wine in another, and seat yourself at barrel tables - and the service was ambivalent, but my steak, grilled artichoke, and Pinot Noir made for a satisfying lunch, and I felt like I had appropriately paid homage to one of the landmarks of wine culture.

Now, I know this is difficult to believe, or perhaps for some of to relate, but sometimes I just reach the point where I’m kind of done drinking alcohol for a minute. After a day of four wineries followed by having the equivalent of about three glasses of wine before 1pm, I reached just such a point. This trip being essentially a wine trip, I wasn’t exactly sure what else I would do with myself.

Enter: Solvang! I had never heard of this town and had no idea what I was getting into, so you may understand how I’d be puzzled to drive into this:

Solvang turns out to be a very cute, very quirky, historically Danish community full of shops and restaurants in addition to a few wine tasting rooms. I’m not Danish but I am extremely Scandinavian, so I felt right at home with all the Viking kitsch and interesting preparations of fish. And I did eventually stop by Toccata for a short tasting. Despite appearances and questionable service, the wine was decent, especially this rosato of Barbera.

Dinner was back in Los Olivos at Bar Le Côte, where I was greeted with a glass of Raventos Cava (always a favorite) and anchovy-wrapped olives and seated at a dog-friendly patio table equipped with a heater and blankets against the chill that fell as the sun went down. When I couldn’t decide between branzino with citrus and fennel or squid ink paella, they offered smaller portions so I could enjoy both - and enjoy them I did. The food was all delicious, the service was flawless, and the wine list was a fun and intriguing mix of local and Spanish options. They even have real Spanish vermut served in the proper Spanish way that seems so puzzling to many American bartenders, with orange and olive. If I lived in the area, I would be at this restaurant constantly.

Day 3 - Back home, but not without one more wine stop

I had one last appointment on the way home, for a tasting and mezze picnic lunch at Presqu’ile. Once upon a time, I selected their Santa Maria Valley Chardonnay for Taylor Swift, because I was so confident that anyone with any taste at all would love it. The Presqu’ile estate is a special place, and the tasting and lunch combo really could not be better. I mean, come on.

This was way too much food for one person, so it’s a good thing I brought Val. It was so good. Also, the wine. So good. Their sparkling really caught my attention, as did their estate Chardonnay, which manages to be rich and a little creamy without verging into unpleasantly heavy butteriness. I might have been subject to a little vineyard magic with these views and this food, but I wanted to buy all the wine. I didn’t, but I wanted to.

Sadly, that was the end of our Santa Barbara adventures - for now. You could spend an entire week in Los Olivos alone and not make it to all the tasting rooms, so I think I owe them another visit at some point. Hopefully next time I’ll have a bit longer than two and a half days to explore.