During a beautiful afternoon walking around the downtown streets of Santa Barbara I noticed signs pointing to the Santa Barbara Winery tasting room. Needless to say, it didn't take long for us to start tasting. The tasting room we stopped at is Santa Barbara Winery's main production location for their white wines. They also own a location about 40 minutes north in Buellton at Lafond Winery where they produce their reds. They're currently working on building a new location where they'll be able to double production from 20,000 cases to a whopping 44,000!
The founder, Pierre Lafond, created the Santa Barbara Winery in 1962 making it the first commercial winery in the county after prohibition. They make an impressive line up of wines - everything from Rieslings to Cabernet Sauvignon. Unlike other Central Coast Wineries they have a broader, more classical line up as opposed to the focused Rhone approach.
The tasting room in downtown Santa Barbara is very nice. The back drop of their stacked barrels is amazing and like many others, they have trinkets for shoppers passing through. Their library wines are exposed for all to pick up for purchase along with the current releases.
They offered everyone tasting their own personal serving of crackers for cleansing which was a nice touch. Their staff didn't know too much about production or anything beyond what we could read on the tasting notes. It was an in-and-out visit. The poured the wine, we tasted the wine. There was little communication or interaction from those pouring.
Overall, our experience was moderate. I missed being able to talk specifics with someone who could answer my questions. There was little to no personal attention beyond the act of pouring and telling me what it was. It wasn't a bad experience by any means but nothing made it above average either. We did enjoyed their outside seating and the atmosphere in the room. Their wines shown nice quality for a great value. For every day wines, they definitely rise to the top of the list. Finding wines for under the $20 mark can be a challenge but the Santa Barbara Winery offers a great selection for frugal shoppers.
They're worth the visit if you're looking for an array of wine that you don't want to feel guilty about opening on a Tuesday night with your run-of-the-mill dinner. I'm curious to taste some of their reserve and late harvest wines. Out of the >$20 range but I'm always on the hunt for quality gems.
