santa barbara wine touring

[joeyz6]

My brother is getting married next weekend in Los Angeles -- thanks to Roberto for providing some great wine for great prices! -- and I'm going to go up to Santa Barbara to go wine tasting for a day after the wedding. Any winery recommendations?

[Bucko]

There are so many nice ones -- Babcock, Byron, Sanford, Qupe/Au Bon Climat, Hitching Post, Zaca Mesa, Gainey, Fess Parker.......

[Innkeeper]

If you go by Solvang, which you should, there is a wine shop/tasting room on the north side of the main drag called Wine Country. You can kill many birds with one stone there, and then strike out for the winery whose wines impressed you most in the tasting room.

[winoweenie]

IK Solvang is north of Santa Barbara. Herr Buckster has given you more than can be handeled in a day.WW Santa Barbara Winery has a nice tasting room west of 101 downtown

[This message has been edited by winoweenie (edited 08-28-2003).]

[joeyz6]

OK thanks guys.
-Joe

[joeyz6]

My cousin and I got the chance to spend a few hours in Santa Barbara last Monday afternoon, the day after the wedding. Unfortunately , we didn't have a ton of time, so we were only able to hit three places: Sanford, Longoria and then a tasting room on Grand Ave. in Los Olivos where we were able to taste (among others) Fiddlehead, Au Bon Climat, Qupé, etc. Santa Barbara "wine country" is really charming -- there is much less density and concentration of vineyards and tasting rooms than in Sonoma/Napa, and even less than Paso Robles, I would say.
Anyways, I brought home a little souvenir: a bottle of the 2001 Fiddlehead 728 Fiddlestix Pinot Noir.

[Innkeeper]

Sounds like a nice little foray Joe.

[Kcwhippet]

Too bad you didn't get any Sea Smoke. I've been hearing some really good things about them.

[winoweenie]

KC don't mortgage the farm for a case. Picked up my allocation at Hi-Time and they opened a bottle of each when we were in Newport last week. Really nice wines but, not, IMHO, of the calibre of Dehlingers "Octogon" bottling. And I KNOW the Octogon has nowhere to go but up. Plus the stuff from Tom has a long and proven history. The Southing could develop into a nice bottle but I look at ANY new bottling with lots of hype with my one un-bloodshot jaundiced eye. WW

[Kcwhippet]

I've resisted the urge on Sea Smoke so far myself, ww, but if I can can get at least one of each back here in MA, I'd like to try them. There are a bunch of Oregon PNs I like and a couple from CA (Siduri and Loring top the list). However, I've yet to have a Dehlinger, and they're harder to find in MA than BYOBs. We were supposed to visit there a few years ago but the timing fell through and we didn't make it. You offered the contact this past May when we were out there, but Judy had other plans (blame the wife). Someday.

[joeyz6]

I'm planning on going back and spending two days there in SB next summer, so I'll try to check out Sea Smoke then.