Wine Tasting in the Santa Ynez Valley

Happy Friday friends!

Since the weekend is almost here, I thought that today I’d talk about one of my favorite weekend activities: wine tasting. Besides just loving to try new wines and compare and contrast different varietals and vintages, I enjoy visiting wineries because I like to hear firsthand the stories behind the wineries and their products. There tends to be so much passion put into winemaking, and I love hearing about it.

I also am in love with the beauty that typically surrounds wine country. This love affair first started when I studied abroad in Italy in college, met a local restaurant owner who offered to take two of my friends and me on a winery tour, and spent a day in the Italian countryside sipping wine with winery owners who spit their wine out in a seemingly angry matter, spoke too quickly in Italian for me to understand anything they were saying, as they pushed plates of cheese and bread at me. True story.

I find wineries to be romantic and relaxing. Usually the people at wineries are in good moods – I mean, why wouldn’t they be?! Since moving to California, I’ve taken full advantage of all of the wine regions in this state. There have been weekends in Napa and Sonoma and day trips to places like Livermore Valley….oh, and I spent many days at my favorite winery in Santa Clara Valley during our stint of living in the Bay Area. It was only a 5 minute drive from my place, so how could I resist?

This brings me to last weekend’s getaway in Solvang. Earlier this week I talked about the town itself, and today I’m recapping the wineries that we visited there during our stay.

I did some research beforehand to choose some wineries I wanted to visit. I’ve definitely done wine tasting days where I just have kind of winged it, but sometimes that leads to me tasting at places that specializes in varietals I don’t care for (sauvignon blanc – no thanks!) or have $30 tasting fees (borderline ridiculous). This time, I picked the nearby Santa Ynez Trail and scoped out a bunch of wineries ahead of time. All of the wineries we tasted at were within a 10-minute drive from the hotel, which was great.

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After having breakfast, walking around exploring Solvang, and eating Danish pastries, we headed out to our first winery of the day: Gainey Vineyard. I had read online that they offer barrel pour tastings, which are always kind of interesting and fun to me. When we arrived, we found out that they aren’t offering barrel pours anymore since they had undergone some winery renovations. It would have been nice if they had updated their website, but it was no big deal. We purchased regular tastings instead, which led us to this large room that had their wines showcased on various tables spread around.

While the tasting room was really big with lots of space for guests, there was only one pourer at a small table, so people were kind of huddling around waiting for tastings. It was kind of an odd setup. However, Gainey redeemed themselves in my book with their wine – particularly with one wine: their 2012 chardonnay.

I like chardonnays that are really buttery and smooth, and Gainey’s was exactly that. It was awarded 92 points by Wine Enthusiast, and I totally agree that it’s a great chardonnay. We nabbed a bottle to take home that I probably won’t be able to sit on for too long!

The next winery we visited was Rideau Vineyard – whose tasting room is housed in a historic building. The property’s history dates back to 1769 when it was owned by the King of Spain, and the interior has a very antiquey feel to it.

Walking in, I felt more like I was in the house of a friend’s wealthy grandmother than a tasting room. The winery is owned by a New Orleans native, and she definitely put touches of her Creole roots into the place. Rideau has a unique vibe to it, complete with gaudy decor, Mardi Gras beads and wine blends in kegs, available for purchase in growlers in the tasting room. I liked Rideau’s estate syrah and their port the most. I’m a sucker for a sweet, strong port as a dessert drink.

For our third winery of the day, A and I visited Sunstone Winery. The winery was pretty crowded with bachelorette party and ladies celebrating birthdays – this was something we saw a lot in general that day – and we settled in the corner of the tasting room to try a couple of their wines.

Both of us liked Sunstone’s 2012 Reserve Merlot the best, but quite honestly, we didn’t like it enough to pay $50 for a bottle. None of their wines really stuck out to me as being phenomenal, but we bought a bottle of their 2011 Merlot since we were having a picnic on their grounds.

The word Solvang means ‘sunny fields’ in Dutch, but funny enough, last Saturday it was not sunny. While we were at the first winery it started down pouring. It cleared up and was just a bit chilly and overcast in the afternoon, so we decided to go ahead with a picnic lunch at Sunstone.

I had read online that Sunstone is a great spot for picnicking, and I have to agree that it was a nice place to park our wine loving selves for a lunch break. There are a bunch of picnic tables in a large open area.

A little cloudiness can’t stop me from having a sweet picnic setup!

After munching, sipping, and lounging for awhile, we headed out of Sunstone and onwards to our last winery stop of the day: Kalyra Winery. I immediately liked the place when we were greeted by some winery pups.

Kalyra has a big patio, where we sat as we enjoyed our tasting and were entertained but the vineyard dogs. I got to love on the winery beagle’s (I believe her name was Daisy) floppy ears for awhile. I imagine that the life of a vineyard dog is pretty sweet….

Kalyra Winery is a good spot to lounge around and leisurely sip wine. It just strikes me as a fun, laid-back place where the tasting room reminds you more of a regular bar. Speaking of the bar, we learned that it was featured in the movie Sideways. Pretty much the entire movie was shot in Santa Barbara wine country. We got a kick out of seeing the “Featured in Sideways!” signs everywhere, because while the movie was a big hit, neither one of us are fans of it. In our opinion, Bottleshock is a way better California wine country movie!

After Kalyra, A and I headed back to our hotel in Solvang to relax before dinnertime. I’m usually not much of a napper, but I somehow passed out cold for 2 hours… I suppose that’s what an awesome, relaxing day of wine sipping will do to ya. 🙂

Tell me… Wine tasting – yay or nay in your book? Ever been to wine country – if so, where?