Freakishly tasty Danish pastries in Solvang, along with the natural beauty of the Santa Barbara coastline and a great meal at the Los Olivos Café salvaged a fairly disappointing wine tasting excursion to Southern California’s wine (scratch that) “Sideways” country. As a small business owner myself, I fully understand the need to take advantage of certain opportunities to better your business. I fear that the post-Sideways movie commercialization of the wineries that I visited are taking a bit of a short-sighted approach to their business, though. Unfortunately, my expectation of family run, laid back wineries was not fulfilled, and the reality of financially-driven marketing machines is firmly entrenched in Santa Barbara wine country.
To be fair, I only visited 4 wineries during my visit: Fess Parker, Curtis, Roblar, and Gainey. It may not be right to judge an entire region based on this initial experience, and I also don’t want to be over-dramatic about it (although that is my tendency). Los Olivos is a surprisingly beautiful little town, which I am sincerely hoping to visit again in the near future. There are also many excellent wines coming out of the region at often times quite reasonable prices for the quality level. One such wine that surprised us was a young Pinot Noir from Carr Winery that we had during lunch at Los Olivos Café. It was a great wine (and ~$30 retail if I remember correctly) and complemented my coq au vin perfectly (doesn’t Rooster Fricassee sound so sophisticated?).
The major problem that I had with the 4 wineries I visited was the tasting fee that each demanded. $10 per tasting per person. OUCH! Now don’t get me wrong, I understand the economics of a tasting room and the need to charge a tasting fee in some circumstances. And I am certainly willing to pay for a glass of wine, or the equivalent over a flight of tastes (I do this all too often). However, when each pour is controlled by a mechanism that only allows for a mouthful (maybe two) and there are only 4 or 5 tastes total in the flight, $10 is certainly overkill. On top of that, most, if not all of the wines being offered in the tasting are less than $30/bottle. So, let’s do some simple conservative math…5 tastings with 2 mouthfuls each = 10 mouthfuls. I would estimate that this equates to maybe ½ a glass…but probably less. By my superior math skills, I conclude tht $10 should get me at least 1-2 full glasses (1/3-1/2 of a bottle)!!! In addition, the tasting room is really a sales vehicle, and in my opinion the fee should be waived or discounted upon making a purchase since the cost of each bottle of wine includes appropriate margin to cover some level of sales & marketing costs. So, $40 poorer after a half day of wine tasting and not even a decent buzz to show for it.
Oh wait, I forgot to mention that the tasting fee pays for a souvenir wine glass (some were of quite high quality, actually) with each winery’s logo on the side. These glasses are great for clueless Midwestern housewives that want to show off to their friends when they return from their vacation so that they can inevitably drink White Zin out of them during their Tupperware parties. However, for those of us who don’t necessarily want to bring home wineries’ marketing trinkets, I’d say the included wine glass is part of the sham.
Off the milk crate…
The best of the 4 wineries visited was Curtis Winery. Their wines were all quite good and very reasonably priced. Roblar Winery had a beautiful tasting room (which we are of course helping to pay for through our tasting fee contribution). Fess Parker had a decent Pinot, but everything else was quite depressing…even the gentleman pouring wine for us. The last winery that we visited, Gainey, was so bad that I had a heck of a time even remembering its name.
I’m a sobered wine fan who is now yearning to give the Santa Barbara area a second chance. I’ll be more prepared next time and will do the necessary research to make sure that the experience will be better. Visiting wineries like Sanford, where I’m pretty much certain that I’ll enjoy the wine and the overall experience, will certainly help improve my outlook. Overall, though, it continues to be a sad commentary on the wine industry when most wineries these days have forgotten why people enjoy drinking wine and visiting the source of it. The fun for me is finding the not so well known nooks and crannies of the different regions…hopefully next time I’ll be able to let you know about a couple of great exceptions in Santa Barbara wine country.
To be fair, I only visited 4 wineries during my visit: Fess Parker, Curtis, Roblar, and Gainey. It may not be right to judge an entire region based on this initial experience, and I also don’t want to be over-dramatic about it (although that is my tendency). Los Olivos is a surprisingly beautiful little town, which I am sincerely hoping to visit again in the near future. There are also many excellent wines coming out of the region at often times quite reasonable prices for the quality level. One such wine that surprised us was a young Pinot Noir from Carr Winery that we had during lunch at Los Olivos Café. It was a great wine (and ~$30 retail if I remember correctly) and complemented my coq au vin perfectly (doesn’t Rooster Fricassee sound so sophisticated?).
The major problem that I had with the 4 wineries I visited was the tasting fee that each demanded. $10 per tasting per person. OUCH! Now don’t get me wrong, I understand the economics of a tasting room and the need to charge a tasting fee in some circumstances. And I am certainly willing to pay for a glass of wine, or the equivalent over a flight of tastes (I do this all too often). However, when each pour is controlled by a mechanism that only allows for a mouthful (maybe two) and there are only 4 or 5 tastes total in the flight, $10 is certainly overkill. On top of that, most, if not all of the wines being offered in the tasting are less than $30/bottle. So, let’s do some simple conservative math…5 tastings with 2 mouthfuls each = 10 mouthfuls. I would estimate that this equates to maybe ½ a glass…but probably less. By my superior math skills, I conclude tht $10 should get me at least 1-2 full glasses (1/3-1/2 of a bottle)!!! In addition, the tasting room is really a sales vehicle, and in my opinion the fee should be waived or discounted upon making a purchase since the cost of each bottle of wine includes appropriate margin to cover some level of sales & marketing costs. So, $40 poorer after a half day of wine tasting and not even a decent buzz to show for it.
Oh wait, I forgot to mention that the tasting fee pays for a souvenir wine glass (some were of quite high quality, actually) with each winery’s logo on the side. These glasses are great for clueless Midwestern housewives that want to show off to their friends when they return from their vacation so that they can inevitably drink White Zin out of them during their Tupperware parties. However, for those of us who don’t necessarily want to bring home wineries’ marketing trinkets, I’d say the included wine glass is part of the sham.
Off the milk crate…
The best of the 4 wineries visited was Curtis Winery. Their wines were all quite good and very reasonably priced. Roblar Winery had a beautiful tasting room (which we are of course helping to pay for through our tasting fee contribution). Fess Parker had a decent Pinot, but everything else was quite depressing…even the gentleman pouring wine for us. The last winery that we visited, Gainey, was so bad that I had a heck of a time even remembering its name.
I’m a sobered wine fan who is now yearning to give the Santa Barbara area a second chance. I’ll be more prepared next time and will do the necessary research to make sure that the experience will be better. Visiting wineries like Sanford, where I’m pretty much certain that I’ll enjoy the wine and the overall experience, will certainly help improve my outlook. Overall, though, it continues to be a sad commentary on the wine industry when most wineries these days have forgotten why people enjoy drinking wine and visiting the source of it. The fun for me is finding the not so well known nooks and crannies of the different regions…hopefully next time I’ll be able to let you know about a couple of great exceptions in Santa Barbara wine country.
2 comments:
I wasn't too excited about the increased commercialization of the wineries after the movie either. Ironic, since that was kind of the joke of Frass Cyn.
[BTW: I worked (crew)on Sideways and I agree,Sanford's a good pick.]
Thanks for your comment. I was planning to get to Sanford this time around, but I ended up too far away and time didn't permit me to get over there. Next time for sure! Hopefully you got some good perks from working at the wineries during the filming of Sideways...sounds like a great gig!
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