Cabanas and cabernets await the attendees of a yearly wine mecca with a rich four-decade history.
More than 60 local winemakers are slated to show off their pours during 2024’s Santa Barbara County Vintners Festival. The 40th annual fest’s afternoon grand tasting will be held at Vega Vineyard and Farm in Buellton on Saturday, Oct. 19.
Pinots, chardonnays, syrahs, and more will be among the event’s featured wine tasting options. There’ll also be food from several restaurants, chefs, and farmers available for guests to pair with their sips.
Prior to and following the grand tasting, a handful of wineries and tasting rooms across Santa Barbara County will host additional festivities tied to the regional celebration, including a spooky movie night in Santa Ynez to help usher in the Halloween season.
Here’s a rundown of the fest’s various happenings, just in case you’re not already sold on a free sunset screening of Hocus Pocus—on Oct. 19 at Sunstone Winery—with a s’mores cart on-site.
The main course
The headlining event of the Santa Barbara County Vintners Festival is the grand tasting on Oct. 19, which promises an afternoon of virtually limitless wine pours from participating wineries that hail from Santa Maria, Lompoc, Los Olivos, Santa Ynez, Buellton, Los Alamos, and other wine country hubs.
Alma Rosa Winery, Bien Nacido Estate, Cambria Winery, Fess Parker Winery and Vineyard, Rancho Sisquoc Winery, Stolpman Vineyards, and Zaca Mesa Winery and Vineyards make up a fraction of the lineup, while food purveyors include the Santa Maria Inn’s Century Room, Coast Range, Drover’s Doughnuts, Full of Life Flatbread, High on the Hog Catering, Hitching Post 2, The Salty Brigade Kitchen, and several others.
General admission to the grand tasting is $125, but large groups looking to splurge should consider splitting the cost of a private cabana to lounge at during the fest. The package costs $2,500, and includes the cabana, eight early entry tickets, two on-site parking spots (while general entrants are shuttled in from an off-site parking area), a charcuterie spread with two bottles of wine, and a pack of six assorted wines to take home.
Fizzy lifting drinks
VIP package hopefuls should register early, as the cabana option dwindles from “now seating” to fleeting with each passing day. But general admission holders at the grand tasting will have additional opportunities to luxuriously lounge around, including at the Rio Vista Chevrolet Bubble Lounge.
Visitors of this designated area can find couch seating and enjoy sips of exceptionally bubbly drinks from 16 participating wineries.
The vintners set to pour sparkling wines in conjunction with the Bubble Lounge are Barden Wines, Carhartt Family Wines, Dreamcote Wine Co., Folded Hills, Foxen Vineyard and Winery, Future Perfect Wines, The Hilt Estate, Lumen Wines, Ranchos de Ontiveros, Presqu’ile Winery, Riverbench Vineyard and Winery, Saarloos & Sons, Sanford Winery, Strange Family Vineyards, Sunstone Winery, and Vega Vineyard and Farm.
Sights and sounds
Classic rock, Americana, and R&B act Generic Clapton is set to provide live tunes at the grand tasting on Oct. 19, while additional festivities that surround the main event will also pair wines with entertainment throughout the weekend.
In conjunction with the fest, Montemar Wines in Lompoc will host an afternoon of wine offerings and live music, on Friday, Oct. 18, from 2 to 5 p.m. The following evening, about an hour after the grand tasting concludes, Sunstone Winery in Santa Ynez will host its aforementioned Hocus Pocus movie night.
The free Oct. 19 event kicks off at 5 p.m. and will feature wines available for sale by the bottle or glass, as well as popcorn and s’mores, and dinner options from Oak and Fire BBQ for purchase.
Extra helpings
Other local happenings tied to the Vintners Festival include: a unique flight arrangement program at Donnachadh Family Wines in Los Olivos, offered between Thursday, Oct. 17, and Monday, Oct. 21; Kaena Wines’ 25th anniversary celebration in Solvang with special sales on library wines, from Friday, Oct. 18, to Sunday, Oct. 20; and Future Perfect Wines’ elegant high tea ceremony at Diamond Sky Ranch on Sunday, Oct. 20, from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m.
Arts Editor Caleb Wiseblood is celebrating his ruby jubilee eight years early. Send birthday gifts to cwiseblood@santamariasun.com.
This article appears in Oct 10-20, 2024.