For ***kimamom***
 

Sanford has opened up a tasting room and their Pinot is one of the best in the area.Hartley Ostini also makes one that is very yummy and you can taste it at the Hitching Post restaurant in Buellton, which is owned by Frank Ostini. (Yes, this is one of the restaurants in the movie Sideways.)The food is great and you won't be dissapointed!

moneygirl/kimamom...i'm on long island and not a wine connoisseur
but an enthusiast! and oregon pinot noirs are handsdown my favorite!! are these available on line? thanks!

In general, any grapes grown by Bien Nacido are the best,no matter which winery bottles them. So if you are careful to read the labels, you an get some great stuff! ( Yes, I am spoiled!) You can cheat and go to the Bien Nacido Vineyard website to see a listing of wineries that use their grapes, most have their own websites with shipping information.

Jasper, I can never remember the shipping laws from California so I am clueless... hopefully the websites will help!

jasper this is a great site for Northwest wines:

http://www.avalonwine.com/

The wine/grapes that moneygirl is talking about however are CA not Oregon.

money/stormy girl...(from jaspergirl!)
thanks, i checked it out yesterday. i see that they were from california. it seems you can't ship to new york from the vineyards websites (generally) but from wine.com you can. benton lane is good oregon pinot that i pick up often.
some local long island one's are getting good too.

Thanks, moneygirl. How about the Sunstone wines or the Fess Parker wines? And do you happen to know if Blackstone has a winery in SB. We just had a very nice Pinot Noir from them last night.

I've also heard good things about Gainey. Any opinions on them? One las inquiry: how far out is the wine country from downtown SB? We'll only have three days. ***kim*** :)

Kim, we enjoyed a Sunstone '01 Syrah Reserve, Santa Ynez Valley with Thanksgiving dinner (among others) and everyone loved it! They were pouring it at the winery and although pricey, we couldn't resist. Do go there, it's like stepping into Provence, very charming, reminds me of Casanova in Carmel. If you go, be sure to take a look into the wine rooms behind the tasting room--nice. You can drive right through Solvang to Refugio Road, turn right and go a few miles. Pretty easy. Fess's is big, has some good reserve wines, but I'm really not all that hot on his regular stuff they pour, it's ok.

There's no Blackstone in Santa Ynez Valley, but there's a nice one on the Monterey Wine Trail in Gonzales, south of Salinas. We saw it last time we did the wineries there, another good place to go wine tasting, but that's another trip.

Thanks, winerycat! The corkage fee at Wine Cask is $25. We were planning on bringing a special bottle of Rex Hill Reserve Pinot Noir, but will probably take it to Olie e Limone.

I'm hoping that the Wine Cask will have some very nice wines for us to have with our anniversary dinner. ***kim*** :)

I want to ask.But pleese dont get angries.Our these *** babbles or snow flakes or some things codes that people use now?

The Gainey Tasting room is one of the most beautiful in the area along with Bridlewood and they are fairly close together. Gainey has a wonderful Chardonnay!You could get to Sanford, Gainey, Arthur Earl and Bridlewood all in an afternoon and with a lunch in Los Olivos your day would be perfect. Enjoy your trip and post when you get back. Sorry I'm not more help about the Biltmore and Fess Parker's.. All I know is that Fess Parker was Davy Crockett so they have lots of memorabilia stuff in addition to wine!

kim,

thanks for your complliments on my trip report. I am still blushing.

Driving time from Santa Barbara to Los Olivos should be something around 40 minutes, I presume.

I have been very impressed with the handful of Pinot Noirs from the Sta. Lucia Highlands I have tasted.
M

moneygirl, I'll put your suggestions on our list. Any suggestions for a nice lunch in Los Olivos? We will be having a late dinner at the Wine Cask so this should give us plenty of time after touring and tasting in LO. ***kim*** ((l))

hsv: You're very welcome! :) Now advance to the head of the class!! ***kim*** ((l))

"Now advance to the head of the class!!"

as if yours are the model for trip reports? don't flatter yourself...

Is the Los Olivos Cafe worth stopping at for a bite to eat? ***kim*** :)

Anita - Bubbles. Not codes. Definitely bubbles.

mikemo: we just picked up some excellent Pinots in Oregon a few days ago. I'm looking forward to tasting the SB wine country Syrahs! Cheers! ***kim*** ((l))

Kim, Sorry, we were gone for a night and I couldn't reply to your question about the cafe. I would have said yes! Hope you had a great time and will wait to read your report.

Thanks, moneygirl! Your suggestions were a big help in planning our trip. We adored SB and had the perfect trip. I'll post a full report later on in the week when we're settled in. (Oh, we loved the Los Olivos Cafe, also!) ***kim*** ((l))