During the February record rainfall, we decided to head somewhere sunny. Anywhere sunny. Originally thinking about Oahu, we found an incredibly reasonable airfare to Los Angeles. We feel most comfortable around water: ocean, sound, lake. So our itinerary followed along the California coastline. Waves to wine.
Interestingly, you can encompass wine touring into almost every locale. We decided to roughly follow the route of the 2004 movie “Sideways” as we explored Santa Barbara wine country.
“Sideways” was about a week-long road trip. Two men — a bridegroom-to-be and his best man — take a trip through Santa Barbara wine country to sow wild oats before the wedding. It received an Oscar for best adapted screenplay and had four other Oscar nominations. The movie also received various Screen Actor Guild and Golden Globe awards. It is listed as one of the best 500 movies of all time by Empire, a British film magazine.
Three things that the movie did:
• It focused interest in the Santa Barbara area where, because of climate, pinot noir is the predominant varietal. The pinot grape loves cool mornings by the ocean. Me too!
• According to a study done by Sonoma State University, the sales of pinot noir went up 16 percent.
• Thanks to “If anyone orders merlot, I’m leaving. I am NOT drinking any stinkin’ merlot,” the sales of merlot fell.
We had a loose itinerary, which is the sane way to visit wineries. Most wineries are open from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. If wineries are a distance apart and you spend quality time tasting wine and talking to the staff, three wineries is a safe goal with a fourth possibility. Schedule more and you are making yourself crazy. It saves time to take a lunch to eat in the car.
Most wineries charge a tasting fee. Many refund the tasting fee if you purchase wine.
When we first visited Napa Valley, there were no tasting fees anywhere. Then, the wineries started providing logo glasses for $3. You were welcome to take the glasses home. After the first suitcase full of glasses, you tended to leave them behind. Now, almost every winery charges a tasting fee. Indeed, during the economic downturn, many wineries closed their tasting rooms altogether.
In the Santa Ynez Valley of Santa Barbara, the wineries are not very close to each other but are in rolling hills full of various livestock. Beautifully scenic. We were there in March with no tourists. We were also told that the hills become brown in the summer.
The wineries in “Sideways” were Sanford, Foxen, Kalyra, Firestone and Fess Parker. Fess Parker was the winery where Miles drank from the spit bucket.
Fess Parker was an actor who played in Disney’s “Davy Crockett” from 1955-56. I give you points if you know the theme song. Better yet, I will double those points if you know the other 19 verses. He also played Daniel Boone in the television series from 1964-1970. Not willing to just lounge on his acting laurels, Parker began buying land.
Besides the winery surrounded by impressive grounds managed by his family, there is a huge hotel along the shoreline in Santa Barbara, which is now a Doubletree by Hilton Resort that is on 24 acres on the ocean. Over 700 acres in the Santa Ynez Valley encompasses the Fess Parker winery, vineyards and the Wine Country Inn.
With the advent of modern winemaking equipment complete with measuring apparatus, there is really not any bad wine anymore — or certainly no excuse for poor wine. We enjoyed wine at each of the wineries but did not take any home. Suffice that we enjoyed meandering through Santa Barbara’s Ynez Valley. There are tour companies who will drive you on a tour of wineries that you select yourself.
Our respite from the rain took us from San Simeon along the ocean to Pismo Beach, Santa Barbara and San Clemente hugging the ocean coastline all the way. We finished visiting Washington state snowbirds in the Palm Desert area. It is easy to incorporate wine tasting into almost any trip. We could have also visited Ventura County, Paso Robles and Temecula Valley, which are other nearby wine destinations.
The convenient thing about wine as a souvenir — it brings back great memories and then there’s nothing to collect dust.
Dee Hitch can be reached at rockypointlane@aol.com.
