Santa Barbara Wine Tasting

Santa Barbara is a deservedly popular and well-known destination for wine tasting tours. The majority of wine tourists go on wine tasting tours in the scenic mountains behind Santa Barbara, at a couple, few or several of the fantastic wineries which are located in the Santa Ynez and Santa Maria Valleys – also known as the Santa Barbara Wine Country.

This course of action has much to recommend it: the scenery in the Santa Ynez Mountains–which is bucolic, rustic and magnificent; a large number of wineries to visit in a relatively small area; a surprising variety of wines to imbibe; the diversity of the wineries themselves–ranging from funky to stately; the charming community of Los Olivos and its large number of tasting rooms; and lots of excellent picnicking spots. The only downside to heading out on a wine tasting excursion in the Santa Ynez Mountains is that you really need some kind of four-wheeled transportation to do so. That means you need to have a designated driver, hire a limo or go on an organized tour.

But, as luck would have it, there is another option for the wine lover that is either without wheels or prefers to do their wine tasting more economically, which is to take advantage of the wine tasting rooms located in downtown Santa Barbara–pretty much within a reasonable hike of each other. There are 15 or so wineries, bars and tasting rooms on the Urban Wine Trail, but I suggest the following 7 tasting rooms, which are listed in order of my personal preferences and druthers:

• Carr Vineyards and Winery
• Jaffurs Wine Cellars
• Au Bon Climat Tasting Room
• Kalyra By The Sea
• Whitcraft Winery
• Santa Barbara Winery
• Deep Sea Wine Tasting Room

Carr Vineyards and Winery: Of all the tasting rooms within the Santa Barbara city limits, Carr Vineyards and Winery gets my most emphatic seal of approval because I really like the combination of its casual atmosphere and delicious wines. The place itself is not what you’d ever imagine a winery to look like. It’s located in an industrial area of downtown, and housed in a 1940s vintage quonset hut, which looks for all the world like an old airplane hangar. Once inside, it still looks an airplane hangar from an earlier era, except for the wine casks you can see in the back. But the first thing that catches your eye is the cozy and inviting wine tasting counter. Carr’s wines are excellent. They offer an unusual mix of varietals that includes Pinot Noir, Syrah, Grenache, Cabernet Franc and Pinot Gris. The proprietor, Ryan Carr, believes in a hands on approach to his winemaking . He insists that “I love the vineyards. 90% of wine making is done in the vineyards. Wine makers, people, will tell you differently, which way or another, but the fact of the matter is the grapes don’t get any better than the day they are picked.”

Wine tastings at Carr Vineyards and Winery, situated at 414 N. Salsipuedes Street, are $10.00 per person. They are open for tasting from 11 am to 5 pm, and Thursday, Friday and Saturday from 11 am to 8 pm.

Jaffurs Wine Cellars: Jaffurs (like Carr and 5 other stops on the Urban Wine Trail) is an actual winery that produces its wine in downtown Santa Barbara. And For those who would like to taste world famous wines produced in the City, Jaffurs’ tasting room is a fine place to go. They are known for their Rhone varietals, especially their Syrahs, that are given consistently high marks by wine critics. Robert Parker praised Jaffurs’ owner back in 2008, stating that, “Over the last few vintages, Greg Jaffurs has emerged as one of Santa Barbara’s finest, most consistent winemakers, and his wines continue to go from strength to strength.” Naturally, when he uses the name “Santa Barbara” he is referring to the whole of the Santa Barbara County winemaking region, not just Santa Barbara City.

Jaffurs Wine Cellars, located at 819 E. Montecito Street, is open to the general public Friday, Saturday, Sunday, and Monday from 11 am to 5 pm. Throughout the summer season, they are open daily from 11 am to 5 pm. They charge $10.00 per person.

Au Bon Climat’s Santa Barbara Tasting Room: Au Bon Climat is one of the most famous wineries in the Santa Barbara Wine Country and its founder and owner, Jim Clendenen, is probably the most well-known winemaker in the region. Au Bon Climat is especially known for its fantastic Burgundian-style Pinot Noir and Chardonnay, but they make a wide range of great wines, mostly from grapes sourced from the famous Bien Nacido Vineyard in the Santa Maria Valley appellation. The winery itself is located on the edge of Bien Nacido Vineyard, but to the chagrin of Au Bon Climat’s many fans, the winery doesn’t have a tasting room that is regularly open to the public. So we were ecstatic when Au Bon Climat opened its Santa Barbara Tasting Room and Jim Cendenen Wine Library in June of 2011.

The Au Bon Climat Tasting Room & Jim Clendenen Wine Library is located at 813 Anacapa St., next to the Wine Cask restaurant, which is operated by the Margerum Wine Company. I’ve included a video of a Jim Clendenen interview below.

Kalyra by the Sea: This lively place is situated at 212 State St., which is Lower State, not too far from the beach. It’s Kalyra Winery’s city tasting room. The Winery itself is situated in the Santa Ynez Valley. The owner, Mike Brown, is an Australian winemaker’s son. He has years of experience as a winemaker in both Australia and Santa Barbara County, and is a typical Australian in his absence of pretentiousness and love of fun. Kalyra produces an extensive variety of wines with grapes from a wide variety of sources, including Australia. Their unusual handle is an Aborigine expression that means “a wild and pleasant place.” That is a great description of Kalyra by the Sea, with its youthful crowd and striking decor–an unusual blend of Aborigine and surfer motifs.

Kalyra by the Sea is open for tasting Monday to Thursday, from 12 pm to 7 pm and on Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays, from 12 pm to 8 pm, at $10.00 per person .

Whitcraft Winery: Like Carr Vineyards and Winery, Whitcraft is located in the industrial district (It’s actually only 5 1/2 blocks down from Carr, on the same road but, oddly, the street changes names twice inside of that brief distance. Up to the block that Carr is on, it’s referred to as N. Salsipuedes Street, afterwards abruptly becomes N. Calle Cesar Chavez, and once you move underneath the freeway, the name changes to S. Calle Cesar Chavez.) in downtown Santa Barbara. It’s just two blocks up from the East Beach and located quite near Fess Parkers Double Tree Resort, but it’s quite inconspicuous. It occupies the variety of structure commonly found in an industrial park, and has no distinguishing characteristics to identify it as either a winery or a tasting room. It’s really worth the hassle to find it though. Whitcraft Winery is known for it’s Pinot Noirs and Chardonnays made in the classic Burgundian style. A bottle of their wine even appeared in a cameo role in the movie Sideways. They make, at most, 2000 cases of hand (and foot) made vino annually; even the labels are pasted on by hand. it is currently managed by the son of the original founder, Drake Whitcraft, who even now follows his dad’s philosophy that, “great wine is nothing more than Mother Nature at her best, with the grape shepherded by a vintner with no ego to impart upon its natural qualities.”

Whitcraft Winery is located at 36 A S. Calle Cesar Chavez, and open for tasting Friday to Sunday, from 12 pm to 4 pm.

Santa Barbara Winery: Opened in 1962, it’s Santa Barbara’s oldest winery, at least since Prohibition. When they first began operations, there were no vineyards in Santa Barbara County so they had grapes shipped down from Northern California. Their early wines did not exactly take the world by storm, but as Santa Barbara has become more and more of a big name in the wine industry in recent years, so has Santa Barbara Winery grown up. There are now a lot of high quality grapes readily available to them in Santa Barbara County (which includes those from their own vineyards, some of the oldest in the region), and they produce a broad range of wines, with an emphasis on food-friendly varietals. They also create a unique blend named ZCS for the three varietals employed in its production: Zinfandel, Carignane and Sangiovese.

Santa Barbara Winery’s spacious tasting room, located at 202 Anacapa Street (two blocks over from State Street, and two blocks up from the beach) is Open every day from 10 am to 5 pm.

Deep Sea Wine Tasting Room: I recommend this tasting room more for the place than for the actual wine available there. Not that their wines aren’t good. They’re very good, but not really up to the same level of quality as my other recommendations. The location is fantastic though. It’s on Stearns Wharf, in a beautiful second floor location and with a spacious deck. Stearns Wharf is kind of on the touristy side, but it’s typically not particularly crowded and it affords great vistas of Santa Barbara City, the Santa Ynez Mountains, and naturally, the ocean. This is not the tasting room I’d suggest to someone who is all about the wine itself, but it’s a good place to kick back and take in stunning views, a nice atmosphere and get into some Santa Barbara wine tasting.

Deep Sea Wine Tasting Room is open 7 days a week from 11:00am to 7:00pm.

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