Solvang

Travelers' Takes

Rates and Deals

Santa Ynez Wineries

StephCat
StephCat
First Reviewer
5 out of 5
Avg. Member Rating
1
Review
Editor Pick

Santa Ynez Wineries

  • December 9, 2005
  • Rated 5 of 5 by StephCat from Redondo Beach, California
After the bike ride, we deserved some wine.

We visited Zaca Mesa, my favorite Santa Ynez winery, first--and luckily so, because they close earlier than many of the other wineries (open 10am to 4pm). Since I belong to their wine club, we were able to do the reserve tasting for free, including our friends Mel, Arlene, and Mike. If you do the reserve tasting, you get to taste all the wines, both those normally included in the free tasting and the library wines, in wonderful Reidel glasses (which I truly believe DO make a difference).

On the recommendation of the guy at Zaca Mesa--we told him we prefer reds to whites--we next visited Epiphany, which is located in downtown Los Olivos. Epiphany is a small tasting room, about a fourth the size of Zaca Mesa, that had the typical selection of sweatshirts, corkscrews, wine cookbooks, etc. The guy pouring was friendly and started us off with several whites, none of which impressed us (by this time we were doubting the taste of the guy from Zaca Mesa). However, once onto the reds--yum! Especially when he gave us some chocolate to eat with one of the wines--even better! If I visit Epiphany again, I'd skip the whites and taste reds only.

On Sunday, we chose to visit Fess Parker simply because they were open early enough. I've tasted there before--tasty but not as good as some of the other wineries. Of course, we chatted with the guy about the scene in Sideways when Miles dumps the spit bucket over his head. Overall, we had a nice time and were well prepped for our next stop.

You don't find Cambria unless you're really persistent. I'd never tasted there before, so we were all up for trying something new. However, it is located very far from Los Olivos and the other wineries on Foxen Canyon Road, well past Zaca Mesa. We had faith in the signs that pointed the direction to different wineries and eventually found the turn off. Be warned--you do have to drive on a dirt/gravel road to get to the tasting room.

We tried a variety of Chards and Pinot Noirs, but what really won my heart was their dessert wine--candy (but not too sweet) and flowers in a glass.

Plus, they had a knock-your-socks-off view of the surrounding vineyards, nearly worth the drive itself.

We stopped at Foxen on the way back. They had a tasty dessert wine as well, but at twice the cost of the Cambria wine, it was not worth it (plus, it smelled a lot better than it tasted). The Foxen tasting room itself is a little tin shack with an entertaining wine altar full of different memorabilia and stuff.

Our last tasting was at Longoria in Los Olivos. Okay but not great, but they had nice glasses.

From journal Solvang Prelude Biking and Wine Tasting Weekend

Compare Solvang Rates

1. Enter travel information

City

2. Select websites to compare rates

Each selected website will open a new window.

Solvang Travel Deals