What Is the Urban Wine Trail Santa Barbara, and Is It Worth Skipping the Drive Out?
The Urban Wine Trail Santa Barbara is a collection of 20+ tasting rooms spread across several walkable downtown neighborhoods, letting visitors sample wines from across Santa Barbara County without driving 45 minutes into the valleys where the grapes actually grow. It is free to join, requires no reservations at most stops, and covers areas like…
Why Do Sta. Rita Hills Winemakers Actually Make Their Wine at the Lompoc Wine Ghetto?
Most Sta. Rita Hills winemakers don’t produce wine at a vineyard. They make it inside gray warehouses in an industrial park called the Lompoc Wine Ghetto. The grapes grow in one of the best cool-climate AVAs in the state. But the wine gets made a short drive away, in Lompoc, tucked behind a Home Depot…
What Makes Sta Rita Hills Wine So Distinct from the Rest of Santa Barbara Wine Country?
Santa Barbara wine country covers a lot of ground. You’ve got Happy Canyon making Bordeaux-style reds in the east. Ballard Canyon is doing bold Syrahs. Los Olivos is turning out textured Rhônes. They’re all part of the same county and yet taste completely different from one another. But no sub-region within Santa Barbara pulls quite…