Wining in Los Olivos, California

Recently we were in Santa Barbara, California not quite enjoying the dreaded “June gloom” when a sommelier at the well-regarded Wine Cask restaurant suggested we drive over the mountains to wine country. My wife and I are generally not big on California wines, but that night we had been drinking a local organic wine by Stolpman, which was quite impressive. We mentioned that we were not familiar with the winery and he strongly suggested we check out the scene in the nearby town of Los Olivos.

Introduction to Los Olivos

The next morning, a dense fog hung over the mountains as we wound our way ever upward on busy Route 154. Soon cars were zipping past us in close proximity, a never-ending parade of headlights emerging in the mist. As we reached the other side of the mountains, the sun finally peeked through the clouds and we descended into the Santa Ynez Valley. Soon, we turned off the main road into a small town with exactly zero traffic lights. Our target? Alamo Pintado Avenue (avenue being a stretch) with Stolpman, Dragonette, Solminer and Tercero wine tasting rooms all within a few hundred feet.

The town was not at all what we expected. No massive tasting rooms like Napa, no limos full of bachelorettes like on Long Island’s North Fork. Instead, we found focused tastings of small production wines, some organic, some foot stomped by the winemaker and many extremely delicious. There were also a few restaurants, a decent coffee shop and a main intersection with a flagpole planted smack in the middle of it.

Now it should be mentioned at this juncture that the town of Los Olivos and neighboring areas are generally known for two things aside from wine. One is the terrific movie Sideways, which was shot a bit in the town itself and became notorious for nearly destroying the American market for Merlot. The other is the notorious Neverland Ranch outside of town. The less said about that, the better.

Dragonette

Purely because we parked next to it, we started out at Dragonette, a small winery that produces an almost comically limited amount of wine, mainly Sauvignon Blanc, Chardonnay, Pinot Noir and Syrah. We tasted with a gregarious fellow who was so invested in the company that he buys more bottles than he should from his employer, so many that we wondered aloud if he was actually making any money working for the company or just funneling it all into their wine.

Most Dragonette wine is sold to their mailing list or at the shop so it wouldn’t be found outside the area and hence the winery is not widely known. Many bottles carry a vineyard designation so even among the same grape varietal, you can find different characteristics depending on where the grapes are grown. The best example of this is their Pinot Noir which can come from four different sites or as a blend of the best barrels. The Radian exhibits the characteristics most Pinots would kill for, complexity and minerality at a lower alcohol level thanks to its remote site that the winery hails as the most extreme in the county.

Tercero Wines

In the next building winemaker Larry Schaffer holds court even when he’s not there. We dropped in early in the day and tasted through an array of wines, but our guide practically insisted that we come back when Larry was in. In the meantime, we tasted a range of Tercero Wines, including some older vintages, all foot stomped by the man himself. The focus here is on Rhone varietals like Roussanne, Viognier and Mourvèdre, from which he makes a fine rose. We enjoyed two wines on the opposite end of the spectrum, a rich, aromatic 2014 Viognier (yes 2014!) and a bright, fresh 2018 aberration made from 40% Cinsault, 40% Grenache and 20% Carignan – we were told this one is to be drunk slightly chilled.

Crossing the street brings you to a pair of organic producers, Stolpman Vineyards and Solminer. Stolpman is traditionally organic with grape varietals you’d expect but Solminer is something entirely different.

Solminer

Solminer’s tasting room is open and breezy but their wines are serious – challenging but still accessible if you are open to what they are about. The winery’s 5 acres of vineyards are managed according to biodynamic practices and grow mainly European grape varietals – no Merlot here! Gruner Veltliner is a delicious mix of citrus and salinity, while the Blaufrankisch almost has tropical notes. They also offer a variety of sparkling wines including a trendy Pet-Nat Rose. Opened in 2018, the tasting room is definitely worth a stop if you are looking for something different. If you’re lucky, one or both owners, Anna and David Delaski, will be in to guide your tasting.

Stolpman Vineyards

By turn, Stolpman Vineyards is certainly more established and a name you will see on wine lists across the country. Founder Thomas Stolpman discovered a place that he believed was “one of the greatest viticultural sites on earth” and he set about building a winery with a foundation in sustainable practices. The star of the tasting was a 2017 unfiltered Roussanne, a rich, textured wine with great structure and aging potential. The 2018 Rose made from Grenache is crisp with good acidity, the fruit notes mainly on the nose rather than on the palate. The quaint tasting room has some local products and cheeses, which you can enjoy on tables outside. And don’t forget to pick up a bottle of their olive oil, which has great body and will make for a terrific finishing oil on salads or fish.

Beyond the Tasting Rooms

Los Olivos has a variety of places to stay including the Fess Parker Wine Country Inn. We didn’t have time for a full meal but the takeout sandwiches from Panino were generously large. On the way out of town, stop by artisanal coffee shop Corner House Café to fuel up for the drive back to Santa Barbara.

Oh, one last thing. The town is unincorporated so there are technically no public bathrooms. Just part of the charm!