Rosenthal’s tasting room in Malibu was a great start to our wine tasting.
I love a good road trip! Even when it’s a California road trip that involves driving the dreaded Los Angeles freeways. My wife and I landed at LAX around 10:30 and picked up our rental car at Midway Car Rental near the airport. Even though it took two shuttle bus rides to get to their facility, the process was quick and the car reasonably priced. Our first destination was Malibu, to explore part of the local wine trail.
Rosenthal tasting room in Malibu has a nice outdoor area.
At Rosenthal we munched our sandwich purchased at a shop on the PCH. Since we were too early to chat with the manager, we took 10 minutes to check out the beach.
The Beach by Rosenthal is accessed by an under-the-highway tunnel path.
The wines at Rosenthal impressed us, and after purchasing a bottle, we headed on towards Cielo Farms Winery. This hilltop refuge survived the awful fires that raged all around them last November but still lost ten percent of their crops.
The stone barn tasting room at Cielo has a rural feel to it.
Meeting the owners
Richard, the owner had invited John Gooden of Montage Vineyards to join us for tasting and stories. John and Richard filled us in on the fires and winemaking in the area. The wines were superb, and we would have bought more than one but the average price point of Cielo’s wines was a bit too much for us to buy several. We especially loved the Cabernet Sauvignon and would consider mortgaging our house to buy several cases!
Wine country platter and Cab Sauv from Cielo was so amazing.
From Cielo, we headed up the PCH to Santa Barbara for our first lodging, the Eagle Inn. Staying in this lovely inn at one of their casitas was a good choice. The casita had a private patio to enjoy the sea breezes and views.
Eagle Inn Santa Barbara casita patio with wine.
The first full day in Santa Barbara was spent getting to know the area better. We walked over to Stearn’s Wharf to note the shops, restaurants, and attractions for later exploring. A 90 minute trip on the Santa Barbara Trolley was a perfect way to get to know the lay of the land and hear stories of people and places. We also made note of the dozens of wine tasting rooms in the downtown Santa Barbara area from the trolley.
A stop at Happy Canyon tasting room resulted in a new wine club membership.
I’ve learned that you can’t always just point, shoot, and publish without getting into trouble. At the Santa Barbara Mission, this sign warned me not to publish my mission photos without permission. And no, I don’t have permission so I didn’t include the excellent photos I got of the mission:(
Mission sign. Don’t shoot!
After the trolley ride, we had lunch at the Natural Cafe for cheap and healthy eats. Pardon the crappy picture of the delicious veggie stir fry:(
The veggie stir fry at the Natural Cafe was yummy!
Fine dining
For a winner of a dinner, bouchon serves up some fo the best fine dining fare I’ve had in weeks. With over 21 years in business, they must be doing something right. It was so good, we ate there twice during the trip, something I rarely do. The forest mushroom ragout was out of this world!
The mushroom ragout at bouchon is not to be missed.
The third day of our California road trip was spent in the Santa Maria wine region. Breakfast at Bob’s Well Bread in Los Alamos, and takeaway lunch at the Garey Store was fabulous. Wine tasting at Foxen was a good place to eat the tri-tip sandwich, except for the yellowjackets that wanted some of our lunch.
Enjoying the Garey Store Tri-tip sandwich at Foxen.
Who knew?
Between the Garey Store and Foxen we saw not only gobs of strawberry fields but also oil rigs. It was odd to see oil fields near strawberry fields and vineyards!
This Santa Maria Valley oil rig was not what we expected to see on our California road trip.
From Foxen we stopped by Presqu’ile Winery to see what was new and enjoyed both their white and red wines. With two more bottles of wine for our shipping case on wheels, we headed back to SB for a one night stay at The Cheshire Cat Inn. This inn looked good on the internet but was even better once we entered the storybook Victorian-era home.
Cheshire Cat Inn as seen from the street.
On our last day we were so glad we chose to stop off at the Santa Barbara Museum of Natural History Sea Center. The staff at the Sea Center were augmented by voluteers who helped us understand the creatures betters. I asked Pyp, a young man volunteering near the entrance what his favorite sea creature was and he said “The nudibranch is my favorite.” I’d never heard of this colorful critter but Pyp told us we could see a nudibranch upstairs. It was worth seeing the mysterious creature of the deep.
Nudibranch at Sea Center are not for petting!
Pet a shark anyone?
We also stopped and chatted with two young women by the shark tank and got to pet the little sharks. The sharks have a leathery skin that’s fun to touch, and no, we didn’t get bitten.
Please pet the shark, we were told.
We even got to touch the sea anemones near the shark pool.
Touch a sea anemone? Why not?
As a parting stop on our California road trip, we stopped off in Westlake on the way to LAX for a final wine tasting. Greg, the owner poured wines and told stories of growing up in the area. His wines were fabulous, and we managed to talk him into a special birthday discount for a bottle of his 37 and a Syrah.
NABU Wines in Westlake was a tasty stop.
As usual, this trip left us with thoughts on how to pull off another California road trip to wine country. Maybe Paso Robles is next? Whichever place we choose, I hope the fires die down and peace and calm await us on the next adventure.
Disclainer: Although Visit Santa Barbara hosted part of my stay, my opinions are my own.
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