As we continue the tour of our favorite Santa Barbara Pinot Noir growers, I thought I would take a minute to talk about the times we have ridden our bikes in the area. It is simply a beautiful place to ride and explore because the little towns are welcoming and so are most wineries.

We usually ride with our dog, Mac, in his trailer.

As we climbed one of the hills, to rest and taste one of our favorite wines, they told us dogs weren’t welcome even if we wanted to sit outside. I guess I was a bit surprised they wouldn’t let us stay a few minutes just to rest. Rusack Vineyards, I am sorry, we won’t be buying your wonderful wines any more. They were pretty rude.

On that particular trip, we rode into Los Olivos and had a wonderful lunch at Sides Restaurant on the porch with Mac where he didn’t seem to cause any problem at all. It was delicious as well. We had many wonderful wine rides with Mac in the trailer. On another of our rides, we rode to the Los Olivos Grocery and had lunch there.

Los Olivos is more of an emporium than a grocery. It is a restaurant, a first class wine store, contains wonderful local foods, and has anything you could ever want for a wonderful picnic.

Los Olivos contains a number of tasting rooms for wineries that don’t have them on site. Some of them include Stolpman (very good), Tercero, Longoria, Refugerio, to name a few. Of course, there is the Fess Parker Wine Country Inn and Spa. I have to admit, we have only had breakfast there and it is very nice but it is a bit old-fashioned for us. If you into the antiques and want lovely place to stay, it is in the middle of everything. They are full of great information.

Back to the wineries, one of our favorites is Foxen Wines. We have enjoyed their wines for many years but one of the things we enjoyed the most was the location. Their original site was in a barn called the Shack but now is renamed Foxen 7200.

It used to have a barn dog who loved to catch flying balls and it was so much fun to hang out there. Then Foxen went upscale and they opened a new, place up the road that is the main tasting room. If you want to taste all of their wines, go to that one. If you want to taste a few of them, go to the old place. The character can’t be beat. We still love the old place.

Another wonderful wine is Bel Glos Clark and Telephone Pinot Noir. It is owned by the Caymus family and is located at Clark and Telephone in the Santa Maria Valley. The Bel Glos Clark and Telephone is a delicious jammy, dark fruit Pinot Noir. It is a joy to drink.

They used to have a second label called Meomi Pinot Noir (we use it for our house wine). In the last couple of years, they sold it to another company but it is still a good buy and a nice Pinot Noir for a house wine. It is always good but it is only 25% Santa Barbara wines with the rest coming from Sonoma and Monterey counties. The original winemaker is still consulting for them.

Then, there is the places we enjoy more than anything else, the small, boutique wineries such as Gypsy Canyon that produces small amounts of a lovely pinot noir as well as an amazing fortified wine called Old Vine Angelica.

Amazingly enough, Deborah, the owner and winemaker, found some old vine grapes. She originally thought they were old vine Zinfandel but it turned out, they are the grapes that the Padres who built all of the California missions used for their own private wines. She started making it with the original recipe from the Santa Barbara Mission. It is called Old Vine Angelica.  Half the adventure, besides tasting the wine, is finding the winery and listening to the stories from the owners and winemakers. That is what enjoying a good wine is all about.

There are just so many wineries that I just think I am going to end here and go on to the next area. At this point, I am just going to jump into some of our favorite restaurants in the area.  We thought Root 246 was very good. It is relatively expensive and located in the Hotel Corque. The hotel is owned by the Chumash Indian Casino. It is a lovely experience; the service is very good as is the food. Having said that, we were celebrating my birthday and some woman was incredibly drunk and barely made it out to the exit. Her significant other was trying to catch her along the way. Nothing like a little entertainment along with dinner. Everyone just watched and let her go on her weaving way.

The Ballard Inn and Restaurant is also a lovely choice for dinner (and I am sure to stay as well). It is a small restaurant with only 12 tables. The food was delicious and the service is wonderful. They have a pretty wonderful wine list as well considering the size of the restaurant. We would definitely go back there when we get to the area again. It is very close to Solvang and Los Olivos but Ballard is its own little town. Be sure to look for it.

Another town that is worth visiting is Santa Ynez. We like the Brothers Restaurant at the Red Barn. The Brothers group used to own Mattei’s Tavern in Los Olivos and we always enjoyed going there. We don’t know what happened but they sold it or let the lease go. We recently saw they are going to reopen this summer with new management and more. It was a fun, delicious place and we hope it comes back better than ever.

Brothers Restaurant at the Red Barn has a good bar. The bar makes great crafted drinks!  We thought the wine list wasn’t as good as we might have liked but is still mighty fine. It is known for their steak but we loved the veal chop as well. The service is very good and everyone is very helpful. We would go back there too.

Next we are going on to San Luis Obispo and Paso Robles where we find more Pinot Noirs to love.