For the first day of Memorial Day weekend we went to do some wine tasting up in beautiful Santa Barbara County.  It's about 1 1/2 hours North of Los Angeles by car via the PCH or US 101.  The grapes are grown in what is know as the Santa Ynez Valley, which provides excellent conditions due to the mountains running East to West and carrying the Pacific moisture in.  Several quaint towns have popped up around the wineries to accomodate tourism.  This is also the area displayed in the film "Sideways."

 

Our first stop of the day was at Bridlewood Winery.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Next, Gainey Winery... not as good as Bridlewood in my opinion.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Lastly we went to Presidio Winery, in the wonderful town of Solvang.  Solvang was modeled after a Danish small town.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The End!

 

That looks awesome! How far inland are these towns from Santa Barbara?

Beautiful pics.

That looks awesome! How far inland are these towns from Santa Barbara?

 

They are about 15 to 20 miles from Santa Barbara, and about 10 to 15 miles from the ocean.  The drive to the wine area is nice because you can either take the 154 which winds through the mountains our the 101 which skirts along the coast.

I was in wine country in 2002; what a wonderful landscape! Solvang looks interesting.

Beautiful.

I've always wanted to hit up wine country!  I am truly envious.