A couple weeks ago I took a week long trip to Santa Barbara, California. I spent 3 days wine tasting through the Santa Rita Hills and 3 days in Santa Barbara for a bachelorette party.

The wine tasting was such a great experience, and I was able to visit some of my favorite wineries and meet the winemakers who make some of my favorite wines. Through out the three days I visited Melville, Brewer Clifton, Alma Rosa, Fiddlehead Cellars, Evening Land, Stolpman Vineyards, Longoria, and I visited the tasting rooms of Qupe, Alta Maria, and Epiphany. It was a wine filled three days if you could’t tell, and I was exhausted by the end of the trip.

Santa Rita Hills is about 45 min to an hour from Santa Barbara, and it is a beautiful country side, but very spread out.

My first stop was Melville. Already being a huge fan of Melville’s Syrah and Pinot Noir, I was very excited to see the estate and learn about the vineyards and winemaking process.

It was the cutest little property and everything was decorated for fall. The morning started out cool and dewey, which was one of the very few days in the Central Coast that was cloudy and a bit rainy. But that didn’t stop me from enjoying myself and learning about wine.

I took a tour through the vineyard and cellar and not only learned about Melville, but learned about the area itself.

The Santa Rita Hills are the only East/West mountain range in North America. This keeps the area cool because of the cool air that comes off the ocean, which is only about 10 miles away. That cooler air allows grapes like Chardonnay, Pinot Noir and cool climate Syrah to grow well, which is mainly what is made in that area.

The soil is a sandy soil with lots of limestone and a clay base because it was once the sea floor of the ocean many years ago. The area around Melville is considered Diatomaceous earth and is made up of fossilized plankton which tends to add texture and salinity to the wine. Because the ocean is so close to the vineyard, the ocean fog blows in and lands on the grapes adding that oceanic influence to the wines.

I am so thankful the staff at Melville took the time to show me around and teach me the history behind Melville and the area. I am a very hands on learner, and sometimes I need to see and feel things for them to make sense. After this visit, I understood the Central coast that much more.

After tasting through Melville’s wines I headed over to Brewer Clifton which is a small garage winery in Lompoc. The winemaker for Melville, Greg Brewer, is also the winemaker and co-owner of Brewer Clifton. I tasted through their delicious Chardonnays and Pinot Noir’s, and of course I asked to get a picture with Greg since I’m such a huge fan of his wines.

I was very impressed with the Brewer Clifton wines. A little more expensive, but very well made, and in my opinion, worth the money.

I stopped for lunch at Sissy’s, a local favorite, for the towns famous pea soup and a veggie sandwich. Perfect pick me up to keep wine tasting. I love asking locals for restaurant recommendations. This particular restaurant was recommended to me by three different people so I knew I had to check it out.

Next was Alma Rosa, which was way out in the middle of no where.

I think by this time I was pretty tired, and even though this is a very well known winery with fantastic wines, nothing was really hitting my fancy. Maybe I’ll just have to come back and try them all again.

The next morning I started at Fiddlehead Cellars. To be honest, I was pretty excited to be able to taste here. Fiddlehead Cellars is like the flagship winery in the area. High end Sauvignon Blanc and Pinot Noirs that are a step above all the rest. Located in the Lompoc Wine Ghetto is their little winery where they make all the magic happen.

I was able to taste some barrel samples, taste through some of their wines, and best of all, meet Kathy, the owner and winemaker of Fiddlehead. This was kind of like meeting a celebrity for me. Kathy has an extreme amount of passion for winemaking, and she puts that passion into each bottle of wine she makes. It is quite an intense process, but whatever she is doing…she is doing it right.

After Fiddlehead I walked over to Stolpman Vineyards, whose winery is also located in the Lompoc Wine Ghetto. Here I met Pete Stolpman, the son of the owner, who showed me around their small winery, introduced me to ‘celebrity’ winemaker Sashi Moorman, and then took me through their vineyards to get a better look at the land. Stolpman grows some interesting varietals for the area like Roussanne, and Sangiovese.

We stopped for lunch in the little town of Los Olivos and then headed to their tasting room to taste through their wines. I had tried their Syrah in my store before, but I was really impressed with both the L’Avion, and LaCuadrilla.

I had some time to spare so I spent the rest of the day walking through the cute little town of Los Olivos and popped into some other tasting rooms to check out their wines including Qupe. My favorite of the afternoon was Alta Maria. I loved their Sauvignon Blanc.

The third and final day was nothing short of amazing. I started the day at Longoria where I met with Rick Longoria, owner and winemaker, who I had met a while back for a tasting at my store. He showed me around their small winery in the Lompoc Wine Ghetto, and then took me on a ride through the Santa Rita Hills explaining to me about all the different vineyards, more about the soil and climate, history behind the land and different wineries, and basically an overview of who owns what. We walked through some of his La Encantada vineyards and saw his ‘baby’, Fe Ciega vineyard, from afar.

Back at the winery I tasted some barrel samples which gave me an idea of what his new releases will taste like. After a educational morning I headed to his tasting room in Los Olivos, but stopped at Foley on my way.

Foley was a beautiful estate, and we used to carry their Pinot Noir so I wanted to taste through their other wines. Of course I was very impressed and happy I stopped by, but only two are available outside the winery.

I tasted through all the Longoria wines at the Los Olivos tasting room and refreshed my memory after tasting them at my store a while back. Still love them all just as much as I did before. Rick is another winemaker who puts his heart and soul into his winemaking and it shows in his wines.

After that impressive tasting I headed to a small little restaurant called Panino for lunch and then headed back to Santa Barbara to end my winery trip and start the bachelorette party.

I could not have been more happy with this trip. I was taken such good care of at each winery, I learned an incredible amount of information about the area, the winemakers, the estates, and just about the wines in general. It was such a beneficial experience, and I couldn’t be more thankful to have had this opportunity.

After being in the area for three days meeting winemakers, vineyard owners, and other people in the business I realized what a small town this really was. Everyone knew everyone. Winemakers worked on many different projects and seemed to bounce around from winery to winery. It amazed me how much everyone was connected. I guess that is just the nature of the business,and I loved learning about every second of it.

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