Coastal wine country: Top tasting shops

Are you tired of paying $10 or more for a wine tasting at vineyards? I wonder how long it will take before tasting fees around Santa Barbara reach the stratospheric heights of Napa and Sonoma. In the meantime, you can avoid rising prices and sample a greater variety of vintages at local wine shops that double as tasting bars.

Deal: The next time you visit the Santa Ynez Valley wine country, a scenic drive northwest of Santa Barbara, stop by The Los Olivos Tasting Room & Wine Shop. Sidle up to the long bar and let the quirky staff introduce you to wines artfully produced by independent coastal winemakers, some of whom don’t have their own tasting rooms, like legendary Au Bon Climat. Today, a tasting each of the nine wines being poured costs $8.

Rolling northward on Hwy. 101, detour into downtown San Luis Obispo to Taste, a wine shop specializing in vintages produced nearby, mostly in the Edna Valley. Be awed by the high ceilings with boxes of bottles piled toward heaven, then let yourself be drawn to the chic metallic machines offering self-service dispensing of 72 different wines (1-oz. pours cost from $1.75 each). Buy a card, put some credit on it, borrow a tasting glass and go wild. The best nights to visit are Tuesday (all pours doubled to 2 oz.) and Wednesday (free tastings offered by a winery representative 6-8 p.m).

On the coast in Cayucos, Hoppe’s Bistro & Wine Shop offers a civilized approach to wine tasting. Their sunlight-filled wine bar also doubles as a tiny shop selling a distinctive, eclectic and hand-picked mix of wines gathered from up and down the California Coast, including nearby Paso Robles, as well as from Napa and Sonoma. Chat with the sommelier and she’ll point you toward labels and vintages you’ve never heard of before, but may fall in love with immediately. Wines by the glass are priced from $6, half/full bottles start at $12/14, and unusual wine flights (e.g., champagne, rosé) of three 2-oz. pours each cost $10.

When: The Los Olivos Tasting Room & Wine Shop is open 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. daily (last tasting at 5:30 p.m.). Taste of SLO is open 11 a.m. to 9 p.m. Monday to Saturday, 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. on Sunday. Hoppe’s Bistro & Wine Shop is open from 11 a.m. until 10 p.m. Wednesday through Sunday.

Why Go: You’ll spend less money on tasting fees and learn a lot more about coastal wines at these shops, which are often owned and staffed by passionate oenophiles, than by the hit-or-miss method of just driving around the wine country and stopping off randomly at wineries.

Why Not: You’ll miss the gorgeous scenery of the vineyards if you limit yourself to tastings only at these wine shops.

Know of any other great wine-tasting bars or shops on the coast? Share your secrets in the Comments section below.

Contact: The Los Olivos Tasting Room & Wine Shop, (805) 688-7406
Taste, (805) 269-8278
Hoppe’s Bistro & Wine Shop, (805) 995-1006

Related Los Angeles Times links:
Destination: California Wine Country
Destination: Santa Barbara & Central Coast
Uncork California’s wine country with a tasty getaway
Thursday night at the San Luis Obispo Farmers Market

– Sara Benson, L.A. Times Travel Deal Detective

[Photo credit: João Canziani / For The Times]

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This entry was posted on Sunday, August 12, 2007 at 1:02 pm by Sara Benson and is filed under Gourmet, Islands & Beaches, Napa Valley, San Luis Obispo, Santa Barbara, Weekend Getaways. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a comment, or trackback from your own site.