#2: Santa Ynez Wine County

Last weekend, my husband (Joe) and I headed to Santa Ynez wine country to celebrate my birthday. It is the third time we've visited and have come to find that October is the perfect month to go!

The Santa Ynez wine country is a part of California's central coast wine region. Known for it's syrah and pinot noir, and under a 2-hour drive from LA, it is definitely one of our favorite places to visit!

This being our 3rd visit, we've refined our routine by visiting some of our "must-sees" and sprinkling in other's recommendations. So, here it is, our recommended weekend getaway to Santa Ynez:

Day 1, Saturday: 
Grab a friend and pack an overnight bag with some casual clothes (bring a sweater for the evening), hit the road by 10:00am and set your GPS for Los Olivos, CA. With minimal traffic you should arrive before Noon.

Make your first stop Panino, a delicious sandwich shop in downtown Los Olivios with over 30 sandwich options. Order the "boxed lunch" to split, which comes a large sandwich of your choice, harvest salad, big cookie and bottled water. Trust me, it's plenty of food for two. But if you don't believe me, add a bag chips to your order. Take your boxed lunch on the road and make your way to Foxen Canyon Trail to your first winery.

The Fess Parker winery (opened by Fess Parker, a.k.a Daniel Boone), is a scenic place to enjoy your boxed lunch and drink some wine. I must warn that this is a "tourist spot", not known foremost for its wines, but we like Fess Parker purely for its beautiful outdoor area. In fact, we skip the tasting and grab a half-bottle of wine and sit outside on their grounds, which is surrounded by trees and vineyards on both sides. There are chairs and tables, but if you happen to have a blanket in the car you there is a spacious grass area where you can have a picnic lunch.

For your next stop, head up the Foxen Canyon Trail to Demetria Estate. You'll need to call ahead to schedule a tasting appointment (805-686-2345), and if you're lucky you can call same-day. It is situated in the midst of rolling hills which resemble French countryside more than central California. Tastings are held casually on the estate's patio overlooking the rolling hills filled with vineyards, and to make even more enjoyable, the wine comes to you tableside. We stayed for over an hour, and enjoyed the wines so much we became Wine Society members (wine shipped to you quarterly), and walked out with a bottle of their Cuvee Constantine, 92 points from Wine Enthusiast, for under $40.

Tasting rooms close at 5:00pm, with last pours occurring around 4:30. And if you spend some extra time at Demetria Estate (highly recommended), you'll probably only have time for one more winery. We would recommended heading back towards town and hitting up Curtis Winery on the way back. It is the family-run winery of the Firestone family (they sold their eponymous winery to Foxen a couple years ago), and specializes in smaller batches of Rhone style wines. Their outdoor grounds are not as enchanting as Fess Parker or Demetria Estate, but their wines are flavorful and well-priced, and they even have an open barrel room where you can taste wines.

For lodging, we love to stay in Solvang, a Danish town that has so much charm. Some of the tasting rooms in Solvang stay open until 6:00pm, so you may even have chance to taste more wine before dinner. Our hotel of choice is the Hadsten House which was completely redone a few years ago. Depending on the season, they may require a 2-night minimum, but if you call the week of your stay they tend to open up rooms for 1-night stays.


Our favorite place for dinner is Los Olivos Cafe, featured in the movie "Sideways" in 2004 and continuously rated highly by Wine Spectator and Zagat. We generally make reservations in advance on OpenTable, but if you don't mind a little wait you can walk-in. The cuisine is categorized as California-Mediterranean, but my husband and I just call it "delicious". Their wine selection is vast with many mid-range priced bottles that taste 3x their price. My husband and I always start with their Cafe Crostada, warmed goat chevre in marinara sauce topped with crispy shredded phyllo and baby spinach served with crostinis. For dinner, you can't go wrong, but the Chicken Parmigiana, Cafe Pot Roast, Orrechiette Veneto and Lamb Shank remain our top picks.


Day 2, Sunday: 
If you stay at the Hadsten House, there is an excellent complimentary breakfast served in their restaurant. It is buffet style, but there is quite a selection of hot breakfast foods, fruits, pastries and muffins. If you're in the mood for a Danish treat, head to Paula's Pancake House which is walkable from the Hadsten House. They have quite a following, so be prepared to wait, and come hungry because the portions are large and food is great. I recommend the Danish Pancakes served with hot apples and whip cream. Probably more dessert than breakfast, but what can I say? I'm a sweet tooth.

For day 2 of wine tasting, we always like to stop by wineries near the Santa Ynez wine trail since we need to get back on the road home in the afternoon. For your first stop (tasting rooms open at 11:00am), head over to Rusack Winery. We love their Syrahs (always come home with a couple bottles), and this is another place with unobstructed views. While they don't have table-side tasting service, we usually get our tastings and sit outside during each each round. This a place where you want to take your time and enjoy the wine and the views.

From Rusack, make your way to Los Olivios (Grand Street) and hit up some of the tasting rooms. We recommend Saarloos & Sons and Daniel Gehr. Saarloos & Sons is a family wine company, that was never intended to be made available to the public. They started with just making wine for friends and family, but the demand became so great they opened to the public this past February. My husband and I usually prefer wine tasting on vineyards instead of tasting rooms, but this one is so well-done and their story is so interesting we make an exception for this place. Each wine has a family story, which always makes it taste a little better! Daniel Gehr is another tasting room which we make an exception for because it has a nice outdoor setting to enjoy their wine. They specialize in smaller batches of hand-crafted wines and their winemaker tends to experiment with the wine-making process, which in the case of their 2005 Zinfandel Reserve worked out well. Their '05 Zinfandel Reserve is unbelieveablely flavorful and full-bodied (for a zin), we left with a case!

As your last stop before heading back to LA, stop over at Sunstone Winery, it's actually on the way home! This is another winery with a picturesque atmosphere, complete with beautiful outdoor views and a Tuscan-style tasting room. They're known for their Rhone varietals, and we really like the way they structure their tastings. You try a few different wines in various areas of their estate. Whites are enjoyed outside in the wine cave, Reds are tasted inside the building, and their Reserves are sipped in an exclusive barrel room. Recommend splurging the extra $5 for the Reserve tasting - well, worth it.

As of now, after 3 trips to the Santa Ynez wine country, this is our recommended itinerary. There are so many more wineries we want to visit that we'll need to get back soon - Rancho Sisquoc and Cambria being two wineries on our list for next time. They're really far up on the Foxen Canyon wine trail (almost to Santa Maria), so we'll have to plan ahead for that trip.

So enjoy your weekend escape, taste lots of wines, and make sure they're is plenty of space in your trunk - because you'll definitely be coming back with some wines. 

#1: My First Post

So for my first post it seems appropriate to give some context my blog name, Tutto Bene.

Tutto Bene is the name of the wine bar my now-husband took me on our first date 5 years ago. It is a located in Bloomington, Indiana just oustide Indiana University's campus. The lighting is dim, heavily accented with candles, decor features local artists and the seating is cozy - a great date spot (hint, hint). Needless to say, a wine flight and cheese plate later, the first-date jitters were gone and conversation flowed as he told me "tutto bene" meant the "the good life" in Italian.

Whether or not "tutto bene" truly translates to "the good life", I'm still not sure, but what I do know is that my husband and I have been enjoying "the good life" in California as newlyweds for the past 2 years. From cooking weeknight meals to entertaining friends, from big vacations to short gas-tank getaways, from hiking in the mountains to relaxing on the beach - we've been trying to get the most of our time out here.

So, from the small to the big, I'm going to start sharing some of the things that we've enjoyed while living out here.

Cheers until next time!