Wine Tasting in the Santa Ynez Valley

 

August 2022

Los Olivos

Los Olivos in the Santa Ynez Valley has been around since 1861 when The Overland/Coast Line Stage built a station to the south in Ballard. It is a nice place to spend the weekend while touring Santa Barbara County’s vineyards. Just to get started, there are 27 Los Olivos tasting rooms and wineries. And beginning in Los Olivos, the Foxen Canyon Wine Trail heads north through scenic vineyards with 16 wineries and tasting rooms along the way stretching 30 miles to Santa Maria. And even more in the Sta. Rita Hills... I suppose you'd want to stay longer than a weekend to cover even half of all the wineries.

Santa Ynez Valley AVA

The restaurants in and around Los Olivos are world class. 

We enjoyed lunch at Los Olivos Wine Merchant & Cafe - very good as usual - and small plates for dinner at Nella Kitchen & Bar. Fantastic food at their bar!

I ordered a glass of 2019 San Sé Pinot Noir, Donnachadh Vineyard, SRH. WOW! It was a fantastic find! I don't think San Sé has a tasting room, but you can order it online.

Bob's Well Bread Bakery (Ballard location) bakes old world style artisan breads and is a great place for breakfast or lunch. Their Cafe Mocha is a work of art!

We missed the relatively new seafood tavern, Bar Le Côte, that replaced Sides Hardware and Shoes restaurant in Los Olivos in 2020. I've heard good things about Bar Le Côte and from looking in the door I can say that it's still a relatively small seating area. Maybe next trip.

Meanwhile, former owners of Sides, Matt and Jeff Nichols, are doing a great business at Brothers Restaurant at the Red Barn in Santa Ynez. We have been there a few times and it is always special. We met up with two friends and enjoyed a gourmet meal and some very good wines at Brothers on a Monday night. The only downside was the wait staff, while excellent in many ways, seemed in a rush to pick up our plates before we finished. Otherwise, I highly recommend it.

Devon, Doug & Tricia after dinner.

 Koehler Winery

Our trip to Santa Barbara Wine Country began with Devon and her friends going to Koehler Winery for an Art Spot watercolor painting class. I met them after their class at Koehler and tasted some of the wines being poured that day. 

Devon

Maggie

Robin

Anon

While waiting for the artists I had the 2020 Rosé of Grenache, 2019 Gewürztraminer, 2018 Viognier, 2018 Red Quartette, 2017 Syrah, and 2017 Rebel (60% Syrah and 40% Cabernet Sauvignon). The last three reds I sampled were pretty good and the watercolor paintings by the group looked even better as I tasted.
 

Chateau Relaxeau 

It was good to visit Los Olivos and we stayed at Chateau Relaxeau, part of the Fess Parker Wine Country Inn and next to The (currently closed) Bubble Shack sparkling wine tasting room. We enjoyed our view of the Epiphany wines tasting area in front of the cabin during the day, it was convenient to tasting and dining in Los Olivos, and was very tranquil (or should I say "Relaxeau"?) after tasting room hours on the patio. There was also fire pit in the back of the cabin, but we didn't want to start any wildfire.
 

Tercero Wines 

After lunch at the Los Olivos Wine Merchant & Cafe I walked over to one of my favorite wineries in Los Olivos.  I was on a mission to taste Tercero's 2021 Outlier (Gewürztraminer), Carrari Vineyard. I'm not much of a Gewürztraminer fan and it was good having a frame of reference tasting the Koehler Gewürztraminer earlier. I wasn't crazy about the spice in Koehler's Gewürz. The Outlier, on the other hand, was dry and I liked the flavor profile (mineral, earthy, tropical, stone fruit). 

In addition to buying the Outlier, I picked up a few more bottles: the 2021 Trilogia (60% Grenache Blanc, 24% Clairette Blanche, 16% Gewürztraminer) which had a nice amount of Gewürz in it, the 2017 Carignane - always a favorite, and the 2014 Verbiage Rouge (46% Grenache, 30% Syrah, 20 Mourvèdre, 4% Cinsault) - a great red blend. I'm glad to see that a 2020 Pinot Noir (Clone 114), Kessler-Haak Vineyard, SRH has been added to the Tercero wine list. Tercero is a wonderful place to taste wine and talking with winemaker Larry Schaffer is a great way to learn about wine.

Dragonette Cellars

Somehow, we can't seem to visit Los Olivos without tasting at Dragonette Cellars. All of their limited production wines have been called world class and I agree with those reviews.

We liked everything on their tasting list and brought home these great wines:
2021 Rosé, Santa Ynez Valley (80% Grenache, 14% Mourvedre, 6% Graciano)
2020 Sauvignon Blanc, Grimms Bluff Vineyard
2021 Sauvignon Blanc, Happy Canyon of Santa Barbara
2020 Syrah, Seven (96% Syrah, 4% Grenache)

Rusack Vineyards

It was probably some time in the late 90s that I discovered Rusack Pinot Noir at the LA Wine Company. I remember buying cases of it because it was very good and reasonably priced. Years later we began visiting the winery in Ballard Canyon and enjoyed both the wines and the scenery. 

Our visit this past week was a bit of a surprise; the outdoor tasting scene was even better, but the wines we tasted were not, except for the 2018 Chardonnay, Santa Barbara County, which was very good. All together we tasted a flight of six wines. There were a few sparse tasting notes on the menu and very little interaction with anyone to share more info, just someone to deliver the flight and pick up the payment.

 

Math Quiz - Price Break for 5 oz?

Actually about 6% higher per ounce than the first 5 (2 oz) items.

We tasted ...

2019 Sauvignon Blanc, Ballard Canyon Estate
2019 Chardonnay, Mt. Carmel Vineyard
2018 Chardonnay, Santa Barbara County  
2018 Chardonnay, Bien Nacido Vineyard
2017 Reserve Pinot Noir, Sta. Rita Hills
2016 Pinot Noir, Solomon Hills Vineyard

If you're looking for a great getaway I highly recommend wine tasting in the Santa Ynez Valley and staying in Los Olivos.

 

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