Tour The World’s Best Vineyards
Category: Central Coast
Every Friday thru Sunday, a farm house on 10th Street in San Miguel turns into a Basque party. The Tenth Street Cafe offers an eight-course dinner native to the Basque regions of Spain and France. The seating is family-style, so dining next to local winemakers is not just possible, but likely.
Sanford Winery welcomes you to our new tasting room adjacent to our beautiful stone and adobe winery and estate vineyards at Rancho La Rinconada. The new tasting room, in the heart of Santa Barbara County’s Sta. Rita Hills, provides visitors with a complete winery experience, all in one location, including tours of the winery and vineyards, a tasting room and wine retail sales.
Presidio Vineyard & Winery’s goal is to produce handcrafted ultra-premium varietal wines from our certified organic and Biodynamic® estate vineyard (the Presidio Vineyard) located west of the Santa Rita Hills in Santa Barbara County. Over the years, Presidio has found that using chemical fertilizers leads to unbalanced wines with undesirable aromatics. In the Presidio Vineyard, organic and Biodynamic® techniques are practiced by using composts to create a healthy and more balanced soil, accentuating the desirable aromatics of the fruit. The Presidio Vineyard’s cool climate is particularly well-suited for Pinot Noir, Syrah, and Chardonnay.
The Paraiso Tasting Room is perched high on the Santa Lucia Bench, above the Salinas River Valley. From this beautiful overlook, vineyards trail off into the distance and solitary hawks slowly circle on the valley breezes. In addition to daily complimentary sampling, our Hospitality Center also boasts a stunning Home Décor & Gift Boutique.
Located in the Carmel Valley Village 12 miles east of Carmel, the Talbott Tasting Room opened in the spring of 1999. Designed with the feel of the Talbott’s home in mind, it is a perfect showcase not only for their wines, but also for the beautifully handmade neckwear and silk accessories from the Robert Talbott Company. Decorated in Early California style with antiques and artwork, the Tasting Room has a sunny garden patio that is perfect for picnic dining, or just relaxing. In addition to hand-woven silk products custom made by Talbott, the tasting room offers a variety of wine-related literature and accessories.
Tablas Creek follows the centuries-old Châteauneuf du Pape tradition of blending chosen varietals, which produces wines that are more complex, better balanced, and richer than single varietal wines. Each varietal is hand-harvested when completely ripe and fermented separately. Winemaking, including native yeast fermentation and neutral French oak barrels, preserves the wines’ ties to their soil, climate, and varietal character. The signature red Esprit de Beaucastel is a richly intense wine, with aromatics of roasted meats, licorice and currants, and flavors of ripe cherries, blackberries, leather, earth and spice, held together in a velvety tannic structure.
Laetitia Vineyard & Winery has long been known for its warm hospitality and generous community spirit. Located just off Highway 101 near the quaint village of Arroyo Grande, Laetitia offers wine tasting of Barnwood and Laetitia wines at a beautiful hilltop visitor center that features commanding views of the vineyards, the Arroyo Grande Valley, and the Pacific Ocean. Visitors are invited to use the scenic picnic area.
Located in the western Santa Ynez Valley, the Santa Rita Hills AVA is an ideal environment for growing intensely flavored full-bodied Pinot Noir and Chardonnay. Lafond Winery was established in 1972 and produces Pinot Noir, Chardonnay, Syrah and a Syrah/Grenache blend wines. After the movie Sideways, greater attention has been drawn to this region and to Pinot Noir in general. This was a welcome surprise for Lafond as their wines have consistently received high ratings and their membership club has reached an impressive 1,000 people.
The JUSTIN Tasting Room is breathtaking in its scope of beauty and diversity. Entering through the wrought iron gates an array of wines in handsome wooden bins in an atmosphere of old world fresco and limestone floors awaits you. At the tasting bars, you will be greeted by our certificate-trained staff and experience current wine releases, educational seminars and an introduction to our wine club – The JUSTIN Wine Society. Limited release wines available only in the tasting room and barrel samples are often an additional surprise.
We produce very limited quantities of Estate Bottled 100% Cabernet Sauvignon from two single vineyards, Red Rose Hill and Blackjack Pasture. We also produce our Rancho Galante from a blend of Cabernet grapes from several of our other vineyard parcels. In addition, we produce extremely limited quantities of Merlot, Pinot Noir, Sauvignon Blanc and Petit Sirah.