Soft rain sprinkled down on us as we loaded the car. Under normal circumstances, I’d be slightly worried to venture onto a Southern California freeway in the rain (as SoCal residents seem to become even worse drivers in the rain, if that’s even possible), but it wasn’t yet 9:00 a.m. on a Saturday morning, so we were pretty much assured of a wide open road for most of the 150-mile trip from Venice to Buellton.Image may be NSFW.
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We picked a good road trip playlist on the iPod and hit the road – the 10 East to the 405 North to the 101 North, blazing the whole way (as much as one can blaze in a Prius, of course). The tiny Buddha on my dashboard (he’s been with me in every car I’ve ever owned) smiled at us, happy to be on another road trip. The hills as we drove through Calabasas sparkled an almost Irish green, and the strawberry fields in Camarillo peeked out at us from under their white tarpaulin protective layer, the berries just begging to be picked and slurped up right off the vine.
And then the ocean. I grew up surrounded by the Pacific Ocean, mind you, but no matter how many times I make the drive from Los Angeles to Santa Barbara, I am always overwhelmed by that first sighting of the water as you leave Ventura on the 101 North. Vast and sparkling for miles from the light of the sun just peeking through the rain clouds, the view is interrupted only by the Channel Islands and a few oil rigs in the distance.* I am unashamed to say that the sight still makes me teary-eyed and nostalgic for the days when I made this drive on my way back to college after a weekend or break at home.
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Pinot Noir vines along Santa Rosa Road
We continued to wind our way north along the coast, stopping only for a few minutes in Isla Vista** for breakfast burritos at The Cantina, a familiar haunt from my days as a UCSB undergrad. What better base for a long day of wine tasting, after all, than a stomach full of tortillas, sausage, potatoes and cheese? Mmmmmm…..
Having sated ourselves for the time being, we hopped back in the car. We left the ocean behind at Gaviota, heading inland into the rolling hills dotted with solitary oaks, cattle here and there grazing on the lush late winter grasses. Happy cows, if you will. J rolled his eyes teasingly at me as I said for the zillionth time how beautiful it all was and how lucky we really are. Truly.
The Santa Rita Hills AVA stretched out before us as we pulled off the 101 North at Santa Rosa Road, headed to our first stop of the day, Alma Rosa. The Santa Rita Hills are nestled in the area’s unique transverse mountain range, which lies east-west (rather than north-south like other California ranges), creating something of a baseball mitt to catch the coastal fog that rolls in from the Pacific Ocean each night. Paired with a long, warm growing season and mineral-rich but rocky soil, Santa Rita Hills has proves itself to be one of the premier regions for growing and producing Pinot Noir, a notoriously finicky grape that thrives in this type of climate.
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Alma Rosa Tasting Room
It began to sprinkle again as we drove up the long driveway to Alma Rosa. Some of you may know the Alma Rosa tasting room from the movie Sideways, back when the winery was known as Sanford. Following some sort of family dispute, the details of which I am unaware (and don’t care to pry), Richard Sanford, the patriarch of the family, and his wife Thekla began a new label, though the quality of the wine and, indeed, the faces of the staff at the tasting room, have not changed much over time. Richard Sanford was one of the first to recognize the potential of the Santa Rita Hills region when it came to growing the Burgundian varietals of Pinot Noir and Chardonnay, planting the area’s first Pinot Noir vineyard in 1970. In the decades since, the Sanfords have continued to perfect their Pinot and Chardonnay, as well as venturing into Pinot Gris and Pinot Blanc. All of the winery’s vineyards are certified organic, and Alma Rosa is dedicated to sustainability in its agricultural methods and its business generally. And as an added plus, Chris, the tasting room manager,*** is a chef in his own right and develops recipes for each of Alma Rosa’s wines. Check some of them out here. J and I tasted through all of their offerings and took home three for a later CorkPopper Dinner (stay tuned).
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Ampelos barrel room
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Bacchus the winery dog
Next, we headed west to Lompoc to visit with Peter and Rebecca Work of Ampelos Cellars. Ampelos has a tasting room in Lompoc’s Wine Ghetto, but I arranged to meet Rebecca at their winery, where we toured their chilly barrel room and did a private tasting of their wines, their wine dog Bacchus napping quietly in the corner. I didn’t know much about Ampelos before meeting Peter and Rebecca at this year’s Pinot Days, but, as you can see from their website, there’s quite a story behind their venturing into the wine biz. Though situated in the Pinot Noir-focused Santa Rita Hills, Ampelos produces a fair amount of Rhone varietals as well, including Grenache and Syrah, a compromise on Peter’s behalf to satisfy Rebecca’s Rhone-loving palate. And while Rebecca and Peter are fairly new to the process of winemaking, they have, under the tutelage of their son, the winemaker at Sea Smoke, learned very quickly to make some pretty fantastic wines, three of which I ordered for an upcoming CorkPopper Dinner (again, stay tuned). And, like Alma Rosa, the Works are dedicated to sustainability, being one of the first vineyards in the U.S. to be certified as sustainable in practice, organic, and biodynamic.****
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Melville
After Ampelos, we headed back east along Highway 246 to Melville, where I had scheduled a library tour andtasting.***** Our guide, Alvin, took us on a tour of the interior of the facility (it was pouring out; otherwise, our tour would have included some of the vineyard grounds as well) before escorting us upstairs to a private room where we enjoyed several of Melville’s current releases as well as a couple of library wines (which are, as the phrase suggests, not available for purchase) along with some cheese and crackers and a fair amount of great conversation with Alvin. Though Melville charges $40/person for this kind of treatment, J and I found it to be well worth it. Indeed, we both agreed that the 2004 library Chardonnay we tasted was one of the best we’d ever had and perhaps worth the $40 all on its own. Though we could easily have hung around and tasted some more wine downstairs, we wanted to
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Melville library wines
try to hit one more place before the end of the day, so I picked up my club shipment (yep, I’m a club member) as well as a couple of extra bottles for a CorkPopper Dinner (you guessed it; stay tuned) and rushed out in the rain to the car.
Our last stop of the day was to be Babcock, which actually shares a driveway with Melville and is situated just up the hill. Sadly, the Babcock tasting room was still on its Winter schedule, so by the time we ran in (soaking wet, mind you), the staff was already trying to pack up for the night. Fred, the tasting room manager, did take a bit of pity on us, however, and offered to pour us each a taste of whatever we wanted. Though I was a little irritated, especially since I had attempted to contact them the week prior, I understood that they just wanted to go home, so we enjoyed our tastes and left them alone.
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Double rainbow over Santa Rita Hills
A solid day of tasting behind us, J and I headed over to Buellton to check in to our hotel and take a nap before dinner,a double rainbow signaling a day of tasting well done. My preferred hotel in the area, the Hadsten House in Solvang, was sold out for the night, so J and I opted to stay at our second standby – the Days Inn in Buellton (which you also might recognize from Sideways). Though not posh by any means, the Days Inn is convenient and has the added benefit of a bar downstairs for when you want a beer at the end of the night instead of more wine.
For dinner, we opted to continue our mini-Sideways experience and walk down to the Hitching Post for some steaks
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Hitching Post II
and more great wine (J is a particular fan of the Hitching Post Highliner). The Hitching Post, for those of you who have never been, is pretty much your typical steak house with the exception of the fact that in the middle of the dining room is a glass wall where you can see the chefs cooking up your steak on the restaurant’s famous wood-burning grill. Add to that the “Magic Dust” (aka crack) seasoning they throw on everything, and you’ve got yourself a solid meal to finish off a solid day in the Santa Rita Hills.
This, of course, doesn’t even scratch the surface of what the Santa Rita Hills has to offer. Indeed, there are literally dozens of wineries in the AVA these days, all of which are well worth trying at one point or another….. I know I plan to. How about you?
Cheers and happy travels,
Image may be NSFW.
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* As an aside, one of my good college girlfriends and I used to like to try to convince somewhat less intelligent underclassmen at UCSB that the oil rigs were offshore prisons a la that John Travolta movie, Face/Off. Believe it or not, it actually worked a time or two. Classic…
** For anyone unfamiliar with Isla Vista, it is the mostly-student community next to the University of California at Santa Barbara campus. Though there has been a fair amount of construction in Isla Vista since I graduated college all those years ago, it still has the familiar smell of stale beer (and, dare I say it, burnt couches) all UCSB grads remember fondly, especially early on a Saturday morning.
*** You might recognize him from Sideways.
**** The idea of being “biodynamic” is still somewhat fuzzy to me, but, from what I understand, it centers around the idea of the vineyard (or farm) being a self-sustaining organism through the use of, among other things, particular agricultural, composting and irrigation practices. You can read more about it here.
***** You should note that many wineries will offer private tours and tastings, especially smaller wineries. Just ask. The worst they can do is say no.