Deuteronomy 8:7-8
For the Lord your God is bringing you into a good land, a land with flowing streams, with springs and underground waters welling up in valleys and hills, a land of wheat and barley, of vines and fig trees and pomegranates, a land of olive trees and honey.
Santa Barbara County was all about the tasting experience.
We left Dennison Campground and drove for about three-ish hours. Our first stop was at a place near the coast called East Beach Tacos. This place was at a batting cage establishment. As we ate pretty good tacos, we were able to watch over-aged gentlemen swing and miss baseballs. You could see the very different speeds of the pitch and the swing. Unfortunately, we also saw a younger gentleman get hit by his own foul ball and hold his face near his eye as he exited to what I hoped to be urgent care.
After East Bench Tacos we headed to the Funk Zone of Santa Barbara and The Valley Project tasting room. It opened at 12 pm and we were tasting by 12:06. We liked most of their wines but really liked their French-style whites that were not typical grapes for this region. The wine tasting guide was very knowledgeable and seemed to really love what he was doing. We had a really great experience tasting wines there. It seemed that the primary grapes were Chardonnay and Pinot Noir, but we opted for just a few wines to take on the road with us.
After the tasting, we headed to a burrito place called Mony’s. We split a chile verde burrito. It was big and yummy! Following the advice of our tasting guide at The Valley project, we went to the Riverbench Tasting Room. They had several sparkling wines to try, which normally excites me, but our tasting guide was underwhelming and turned me off of Riverbench wines and sparkling, at least for the rest of the day.
After being tasted out, we drove to Ballard, California, to our cute hotel, the Ballard Inn. This place was really a treat. Our first night was a bit awful as our bed looked like a sine wave and trying to sleep on it the first night was nearly impossible. We decided to sleep perpendicular to the maximum points on the curve to try to get some sleep. The hotel was so wonderful that they allowed us to lay on three other beds in the inn to choose the best bed. We ended up in a nicer room all around called Cynthia’s Room. The Ballard Inn served nice breakfasts eggs, muffins, fruit… and had a happy hour in the afternoon to welcome guests. And they always had chocolate chip cookies available for snacking. Michael and I loved the town but adored the next town over, Los Olivas. I think this town was put on the map to just show the world how cute a town could be.
On the middle day of our trip in this area, we visited three wineries in and around Santa Maria. Our first, Presqu’ile Winery, was my favorite. We started the tasting at noon under an umbrella looking over their estate. This winery had some very memorable wines, which we bought several, and amazing food pairings. I could have stayed at this winery all day, but we had two more to visit. I felt that the experience at Presqu’ile was perfect in every way: great wines, great food, great view, great weather, and my husband, great company. The second winery was as underwhelming as the first one was overwhelming. We will let that one remain nameless. The last winery of the day, Andrew Murray Vineyards was just in between the two experiences… but it was not Goldilocks. I liked the first one the best, but the ambiance of this winery was very nice too. The interior tasting room was totally modern but the outer tasting area felt like you were in the woods. There were two huge live oaks as center pieces to the tasting room which gave the space a very rustic feel. The wines were nice too. I would recommend this winery too.
The next day, we took a break from the day drinking and went on a lovely hike outside of Ballard called Lovers Loop. It was on Figueroa Mountain. It was a sureal hike as we were hiking through last year’s forest fire. Our hotel, The Ballard Inn, was a evacuation and housing point for residents and their four legged friends during this fire
But by 4:15, we were ready for maybe just one more tasting, so we drove the 4 minute drive up to Los Olivos to try The Story of Soil, which our wine steward back in Santa Barbara had recommended. It was good but didnt wow us. As we were about to step into our car at 4:55, we ran next door to Donnachadh Family Wines and asked if they could squeeze in a speed tasting with us. They nicely complied and I think Michael is still dreaming about the Pinot Noir he tasted there.
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The Santa Barbara County time was nearing an end but not before we had my birthday dinner
vigil meal. We ate at a sweet restaurant in Los Alamos, called Bell’s. This meal was a fixed price five course French style meal. I tried caviar for the first time in my life, and loved it. My favorite bite of the evening was a tomato tarte and a special mention has to be given to the cantaloupe ice cream. This was a wonderful way to round out our adventure here and to celebrate my birthday!
Next stop, Palm Desert.