Santa Barbara is about 90 minutes north of the valley. Figure 2 hours north of downtown LA.

A friend of mine is the assistant winemaker at Fess Parker. He helped with our research.

Research or not, having a little upfront information helps to relieve the stress of where to stop.

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Our first stop was at Fess Parker. James did the pouring for us. This is a beautiful place. Nice grounds. You can walk up to the vines from the parking lot. A friend of mine told me to expect loads of tour busses. This wasn't the case on Saturday 29 December.

We started with the 2005 Chard American Tradition Reserve. $28.

I bought a couple of bottles of the 2005 Melange Blanc, Santa Barbara County. $20. I liked this better than the chard. It was a viongier type blend. I even tasted the jasmine.

The 2006 White Resling $12 was sweet, but not overly sweet. Good value.
The 2005 Pinot Noir was $35. I did expect this to blow my socks off, but it didn't. My cousin, on the other hand, purchased 4 bottles. Goes to show you that we all have different tastes.

I loved the smell of the 2004 Sarah, The Big Easy $45.

Next stop... Los Olivos for lunch.

We backtracked a few miles back to town. Los Olivos is a small cute town nestled in the wine country. A few blocks of restaurants, stores, and tasting rooms. We had lunch (sandwiches) at a place located on a corner. You'll know it by the lines!

My friend suggested several tasting rooms to try wine. I was appreciative of his help because there's a lot to pick from.

We headed to Epiphany Cellars first. We tasted 9 different wines.
My favorites were the 2005 Inspiration $20. It's a blend of viongier and Grenache Blanc. Also, the 2004 Revelation had a nice smell and color. It's their signature wine. The 2004 Block F Syrah 92 RP $45 was a hint sweet, but not the blow-a-way syrah I was looking for.

We were going to taste at Murray, but it was very busy (a good thing).
From here, we headed around the corner to Tensley. Tensley shares a tasting room with someone else whose name eludes me. My friend made a point to say that Joey Tensley produces a good syrah.

Joey Tensley was doing the pouring. I had no idea, until I read the Wine Spectator article he had on the wall (picture included).

Just like there's WOTN (wine of the night) at off-line wine events, Tensleys syrahs were my WOTD (wine of the day). Finally had a syrah that blew my socks off. $25 and $38.

He'll be at Astor Wines in NYC on Thursday eve, January 17 at 6:00pm. I'll be there too.


Tasting fees were waived at Fess Parker and Epiphany. When I mentioned that Larry suggested we stop at Tensley, we were comped. Come to think of it, I have no idea if he charged a fee.

One last thing. Our last stop was at the very crowded, they must be having a sale, Foley. Here we paid $10. Of the 5 pours, the best here was the 2005 Syrah, Rancho Santa Rosa. $30.

The other wines we tasted here were:

2006 Chard, Rancho Santa Fe $30 (and not worth it).
2006 Chard, Clone 96 $35. (give me a break).
2005 Pinot Noir, Rancho Santa Rosa. $40. A nice, easy drinking wine, but not a blow-a-way. I'll take a good Oregon PN anyday over this.
2006 Ponot Noir, Pommard Clone $45. which tasted better than the Rancho Santa Rosa.

dh
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