Visiting Santa Barbara Wine Country Recommendations

We just got back from 5 days of visiting wineries from Paso Robles to Solvang.

Paso Robles is known for Zinfandels but has a good variety to suit ones tastes. My favorites here are Midnight Cellars, Dark Star and Meridian. Many tend to skip Meridian because they're a big name and everyone knows their wines already. However, this winery is a treat. They do not pour any of their mbutt produced wines here. Instead they pour only their limited small production wines that can be bought only at the winery.

Near Santa Maria are the wineries of Edna Valley. This area is cool and rather damp, often foggy. You'll see alot of Chardonnay and other whites here that benifit from the cooler damp climate. There are not many wineries here but enough to fill a day. Edna Valley winery is fun if grapes are on the vine. They have a small amount of each varietal growing along side the winery. Pick a few to much on and see how they taste compared to one another.

Further to the south are the wineries around Foxen Canyon Rd. One of the largest and prettiest is Fess Parker. They appeared in the movie Sideways where Miles drank the dump bucket but for some reason the wineries name was fictional in the movie. On the north part of this wine trail is Cambria. One of my favorites. Foxen winery is a strange one. It's more of an open barn (shack?) on the side of the road. However, their wines are some of the best.

Still further south you reach the wineries around Solvang. Generally I don't find as quality of wines here as to the north. However, some are truly fantastic. Babchicken and Melville make some of the best Pinots around. Sanford also makes an excellent Pinot and Chardonnay.

As shown in the movie Sideways the Hitching Post restaurant is top notch. For equally great food a bit cheaper we really love the Firestone Brewery.