Santa Barbara/Temecula

Heading to LA this summer and looking to visit some wineries around Santa Barbara and have to head out towards Temecula to visit family if anyone deems something out that way worth visiting. Thank you in advance for any input or feedback.

What style/type of experience are you looking for in the SB area?

No offense and IMO: SB area (Santa Ynez, Sta Rita Hills, Los Alamos, Santa Maria, etc) should be your wine tasting destination within driving distance from LA. Many choices, wonderful appellations.

Even better if you can book a room there for a couple of days.

I would not focus on Temecula as good wines are hard to find there.

Given that you have to go to Temecula for family, I would focus on beer. There are at least a dozen brew pubs in the area, probably more. Agree that SB is head and shoulders above Temecula for wine.

For beer, although I haven’t been, I have enjoyed the beers from these guys http://www.wiensbrewing.com/index.html Seem like nice folks as well.

Jason

Come on folks - there are diamonds in every rough. Hit Temecula and possibly reach out to a winemaker in the area for recs rather than those here :slight_smile:

It’s nice of you to be gracious, Larry. But we can be honest - there are really good wines coming out of Santa Barbara. That’s not the case in Temecula. have you been there in the summer? It’s simply too hot to make great wine (average highs: June 92, July 98, Aug 98, Sept 93)

There are those here that can recommend the better wineries but if you don’t do research you are going to end up a place that is more about esthetic than wine. And then over pay for mediocre wine. And quite possibly made from grapes that are not from Temecula.

If you are only going to Temecula that is one thing but since you are going to SB & SY and maybe even Lompoc, I would put all your focus and $$ there.

Happy to have someone prove me wrong since I am lot closer to Temecula than SB.

It is like when I started working for a company based in TX in 2005 and they always wanted to give me TX wine. Some were fine and some were not. Then I held a board meeting in Oregon and took them tasting. Let’s just say they never ever bought TX wine again. Mediocre Willamette Valley wine is cheaper and superior to anything TX can make. At least at this stage of the game.

And Matthew, of course you will want to set up some time with Larry.

If you were going to drive a little further (or is it farther) you could hit the Lompoc Wine Ghetto.

Jason

P.S. Larry - That Camp 4 Grenache was outstanding! I’ll post a note soon.

How hot is it in Napa in the summer? Bordeaux? The Languedoc?

The one winery my wife and I have enjoyed over the years is Hart. Yes, there are many places we don’t care for, so pickings can be rather slim.

Not as hot as Temecula. :wink:

Since you will be in Temecula, one place there that I’d be inclined to check out is Thornton Winery. Although I haven’t tried any of their wines, their winemaker, David Vergari, is quite good. David joined Thornton about 6-7 years ago - before that he had his own Vergari label and made some very good wines in Sonoma County, from Sonoma, Napa, and Marin fruit.

Wow. I don’t think I knew this. David is a great guy and a serious wine-maker. But again, I would need have my tasted buds shocked before I would buy a $40 domestic Tempranillo.

Jason

Yep. Saint Helena (even warmer than Napa) is a good 10 degrees cooler on average, both high and low temps. And Napa is already warm enough for wine :wink:

I live in San Diego and yes Temecula gets hot in the summer, not uncommon to be above 100 degrees especially these days.
I live on the coast and it sometimes gets that hot.
However I think Paso and inland areas of SB county get that hot as well so I think there are other factors than just temperature.
I have seen more and more vineyards being planted here, mostly small pockets and some of them are closer to the coast. Yes land here is very expensive and I think Marijuana may soon be the highest profit crop growing here.
While I have gone on many trips to Santa Barbara and Paso I have yet to really explore the wineries here but hope to do so soon.
I stumbled onto a hidden winery in the back county hills while on a bike ride and they had quite a range of varietals and was planning to go back there to do some tasting. I think the area will continue to evolve as more vineyards are planted and managers figure out how to get good quality grapes. There is probably a lack of expertise because its never been a real wine region and mediocre wineries can get by.