If you've had the pleasure of touring Santa Barbara's wine country, you likely visited some combination of Santa Maria Valley, Foxen Trail, Los Olivos, Sta Rita Hills, downtown "funk-zone," or Santa Ynez Valley. These fantastic wine trails are posted clearly on most wine maps. Not all of the great spots are included on the maps for mainstream wine travelers to visit, and not all spots are open to the public. Today's Santa Barbara wine business has grown over the years, including new discoveries and AVA's. One of the younger AVA's (2001) in California, and more ...

Have you ever been stuck in a "wine bubble"? Do you know people that are? What's a "wine bubble"? These are the people that say, I only drink wines from this region, only reds, or only whites, no rose, or no merlot, desert wine, I only drink XY & Z. Sure, we all have our favorites, I do too! But step out, live a little. 

I was one of these people. For me it was rose and chardonnay. I was really, really picky about chardonnay almost to the point of saying ABC.....anything but chardonnay. I didn't start off ...