My wife and I and my mom just got back from a week long getaway up the coast. For reference, Santa Barbara is approximately 100 miles north of Los Angeles and San Simeon is about another 150 miles above that. I haven’t been north for at least 6 or 7 years and was surprised by the changes. In the past when you drove up the 5 fwy., inland over the grapevine pass and into the San Juaquin Valley you entered a valley planted with 1000’s of acres of Hay and Corn. We only drove into the valley for maybe 50 miles and in that area at least, the majority crop is now Grape. These could well be for raisins not wine.
We cut over to the coast through the Paso Robles area where there are many established wineries and vineyards but were again surprised at the amount of land covered in vineyards now. We settled in San Simeon and used it as a home base for 3 days while visiting the towns of Morro Bay, Cambria, Harmony and the Hurst Castle. Our hotel was actually on the beach so evenings after dinner were spent drinking wine around huge fire pits on the beach and chatting with other guests from all over the country and world. The husband of a couple from London England told everyone pretty loudly that he wasn't going visit the Castle because the amount of wealth Hurst had was obscene. For some reason I felt the need to defend Hurst or maybe my State or even the County (did I mention I was drinking wine). I piped up and explained that thanks to Hurst’s obscene generosity the 250,000 acres of countryside surrounding the castle and even the beach he was standing on were all donated to the state so it could be enjoyed by everybody. I really hope he changed his mind, there is so much european history and art built into the amazing castle.
The final 3 days were spent, joined by my brother, in the little Danish “Village” of Solvang. From there we visited the towns of San Luis Obispo and Buellton and Lake Cachuma which is the reservoir for drinking water for Santa Barbara and is very close to empty. Again some great local wines including a “Hitching Post” Pinot Noir that we had with dinner at the restaurant where some of the wine movie “Sideways" was filmed. We even got seated at the table they used in the film.
All in all a beautiful, relaxing and eye opening trip. So many of the grapevines we saw are new or very young. There will be a lot of Pinot coming from this area in the years to come assuming we have water enough to support them. Note to Self: next visit - less California Missions and Gift Shops and more Wineries.
Mike
We cut over to the coast through the Paso Robles area where there are many established wineries and vineyards but were again surprised at the amount of land covered in vineyards now. We settled in San Simeon and used it as a home base for 3 days while visiting the towns of Morro Bay, Cambria, Harmony and the Hurst Castle. Our hotel was actually on the beach so evenings after dinner were spent drinking wine around huge fire pits on the beach and chatting with other guests from all over the country and world. The husband of a couple from London England told everyone pretty loudly that he wasn't going visit the Castle because the amount of wealth Hurst had was obscene. For some reason I felt the need to defend Hurst or maybe my State or even the County (did I mention I was drinking wine). I piped up and explained that thanks to Hurst’s obscene generosity the 250,000 acres of countryside surrounding the castle and even the beach he was standing on were all donated to the state so it could be enjoyed by everybody. I really hope he changed his mind, there is so much european history and art built into the amazing castle.
The final 3 days were spent, joined by my brother, in the little Danish “Village” of Solvang. From there we visited the towns of San Luis Obispo and Buellton and Lake Cachuma which is the reservoir for drinking water for Santa Barbara and is very close to empty. Again some great local wines including a “Hitching Post” Pinot Noir that we had with dinner at the restaurant where some of the wine movie “Sideways" was filmed. We even got seated at the table they used in the film.
All in all a beautiful, relaxing and eye opening trip. So many of the grapevines we saw are new or very young. There will be a lot of Pinot coming from this area in the years to come assuming we have water enough to support them. Note to Self: next visit - less California Missions and Gift Shops and more Wineries.
Mike
