Happy days are here again!
We just returned from our first little road trip getaway for 2020, and it was good to see how people have adapted to get some business going again. Of course, everyone is careful to take steps to keep germs from spreading, but it seems they are finding ways to do that.
For this road trip “experiment,” we decided to head north, to Wine Country – the one in Santa Barbara County, just about a two-hour drive north of Los Angeles. We actually planned to take this road trip a few weeks earlier, but at that time California’s wildfires were too massive, and the air was full of ashes and unhealthy. Happily, we enjoyed better air and great weather on the trip, so I’m glad we waited.
When most people think of “Wine Country” in California, they think of the vineyards north of San Francisco, in the Napa, Sonoma, and Mendocino areas, but California’s beneficent Mediterranean climate seems to be good for growing grapes all up and down the state. There are delicious and thriving vineyards in several other areas, and it turns out Santa Barbara Wine Country is a hidden gem, and much closer to Los Angeles. In fact, there are more than 100 wineries operating in the coastal hills and valleys in Santa Barbara County. Along with the picturesque vineyards, the area is full of horse ranches and dairy farms, so driving around there is very enjoyable.
(Picture above: provided by Grassini Family Vineyards)
While the city of Santa Barbara has loads of winetasting rooms, operated by the different wineries, we wanted to relax among the vineyards, so we headed to the Santa Ynez Valley area, about 40 miles north of Santa Barbara. A cluster of small towns is there — Los Olivos, Solvang, Santa Ynez, and Ballard, all within a handful of miles of each other, and all with charm and winetasting rooms. None of us had ever actually been to Los Olivos, so we made that our main destination.
Our first stop, Saturday afternoon, was a very special one, arranged by my friend Sonja, who works with wineries in Santa Barbara County. We had planned to stay in a hotel in Solvang, but Sonja set us up with a private winetasting adventure at Grassini Family Vineyards, and an invitation to spend the night in a private apartment built right above the winery. The Grassini Family vineyards (website: www.grassinifamilyvineyards.com, Tel: (805) 897-3366 , call before you go visit, they are by appointment only!) cover 65 acres of gentle hills, and the property has been developed artistically, and includes a private lake. It is a beautiful, special place to visit.
Katie Grassini, the CEO of the company, met us and personally conducted our winetasting. Katie is so warm and friendly, and she patiently explained to us about the Grassini family’s history in winemaking. She also shared some other details, such as that their wine labels share the theme of birds and the number 5 – because there are 5 women in the family (mom and 4 daughters). Learning that, it was fun to find that theme carried through not just on the wine labels, but also In décor around the tasting room.
We spent a lot of time with Katie, tasting several wines as she discussed each of them. They were all so tasty, but in the end we could not make up our mind which was our favorite – so we ended with a tie, 2 favorites! One was the 2016 Estate Cabernet Sauvignon, so rich and velvety, and the other was the 2017 Articondo, a proprietary blend named after the first Grassini to move to America from Italy – my husband called this wine the “Big Daddy” of the wines because of its wonderful, deep flavor.
There is much to see at the Grassini Family Vineyards, not the least of which is the structure of the winery and tasting room building, with the apartment on top of it. The appearance is like a traditional European farm building (my husband and I debated whether it was more French or Italian, but it is charming), but the exterior walls are concrete, nearly 3 feet thick, to maintain constant temperature. The décor is elegant and luxurious, and the Grassini family went to great lengths to prioritize sustainability and character. The floors are thick wood planks, recycled from antique uses, and the massive beams were milled from ancient timber, either from dismantled century-old lumber barges or recovered from under the Columbia River.
What I wore: Top & Dress All From charinasarte.com // Bag is from Mango // Shoes are from here //
Next day was Sunday, and our main mission was to do some wine tasting in Los Olivos. It is a small, walkable town, seemingly populated entirely with wine tasting rooms and restaurants – really, the business part of town is about 2 blocks in one direction, and 2 more blocks in the other direction, with a flagpole in the middle of the intersection where they cross. Quaint and lovely! And the businesses seem to have adapted and improvised to keep things going in quite a pleasant way — there is no indoor dining, for example, but every place seemed to find attractive outdoor areas for their patrons.
We went first to the Zinke Wine Company(website: www.zinkewines.com , location: 2366 Alamo Pintado Ave., Los Olivos, CA 93441), which has its tastings in the yard and patio of an unusual old house. It is one of the houses that the Sears & Roebuck Company used to sell by mail order, a century ago. It looked like a lot of nice house for a DIY kit! At Zinke, we were served a flight of 6 different wines in small carafes, all lined up on a custom-made wooden tray, along with a cheese and fruit plate.
You can choose to taste reds only, or a sample of both white and red wines – we tried the whites and reds. So pleasant and relaxing, and after due tasting and consideration, we selected a 2016 Viognier as our favorite – somehow, its gentle aroma reminded me of lychee fruit, a favorite in Asia.
Our next stop was a double-header – Stolpman Vineyards (website: www.stolpmanvineyards.com , location: Stolpman tasting patio/so Fresh Garage, 2434, Alamo Pintado Ave., Los Olivos, CA 93441) has 2 tasting rooms, side-by-side, in Los Olivos. By this time, we had met up with our friends Sonja, Lamar, and Phil, and were thinking about ordering some food. Many of the tasting rooms allow you to bring food in to enjoy with your wine. Los Olivos is a very civilized town! First we visited the Fresh Garage, a fun new tasting room where Stolpman offers tastings of their “So Fresh” roster of carbonic wines (more about what that means below); right next to that is a house with the tasting room for their traditional wines. Being ambitious and basking in beautiful Fall weather, we sampled wines at both places, and ate some sandwiches and salads from a restaurant across the street, and had a wonderful time laughing with our friends. In the end, we selected the So Fresh Crunchy Roastie (a carbonic blend of syrah and viognier grapes) and, from the traditional side, we favored the 2018 Grenache.
Our final stop for this road trip was at the Samsara Wine Co.,(website: www.samsarawine.com , location: Los Olivos Tasting Room, 2446 Alamo Pintado Ave., Los Olivos, Ca 93441), just a few steps down the street. This winery specializes in making wine from grapes grown in a small area nearby, the Santa Rita Hills, which they judge to have just the right combination of soil, temperature, fog, and other climate conditions. For some of their wines, they use a trending process called “carbonic maceration.” Traditional winemaking involves mashing the grapes and using yeast to start the fermentation process to make alcohol; with the carbonic process, whole grapes are exposed to carbon dioxide, and they are fermented in the skin – in effect, each individual grape becomes its own unique wine! The result is wines that are light, with less taste of tannin than traditional wines, and I liked that result very much. I think my favorite was the last one I tasted, their 2019 Jorian Hill Syrah, a rich red wine with a nice taste that lingered.
Finally, it was time to head for home. It was a really happy and uplifting weekend for us, even though we did not go far. I must say, we will head back to Santa Barbara Wine Country often in the future, we believe!
We specially thank our friends from The Wine Militia & Imw Agency & Santa Barbara Wine Country for working with us on this story.
Thank you for your visiting!
