Wine Tasting in the Heart of the Central Coast:
Our First Annual Wine Tasting Trip

By: Sarah O'Brien - Senior Editor - FloatingCork.com

Prior to experiencing a trip designed solely for the purpose of sipping and sampling different wines, I always thought of visiting wineries as the most sophisticated, aristocratic thing to do, which is why I never thought I would plan a vacation doing just that. So far in life, my wine experiences have been minimal. It isn't that I don't enjoy just about everything about the luscious elixir, I just never thought of myself as someone who could form an opinion about wine - after all, isn't a sommelier a professional paid to tell me my opinion?   Who am I kidding, I have never been in the same restaurant as a sommelier. But I did get a chance to publicly share my opinion about wine, along with friends and family with a backdrop of the Santa Ynez Mountains deep in central coast wine country.

The trip was designed by my sister-in-law Jen. I was a little intimidated when we were first planning a four day weekend dedicated to tannin talk and mouthfuls of malolactic fermentation debates. My husband Jeff and I had been dabbling in wine drinking regularly only since we moved out to Santa Barbara which was a few years ago. The wine is so readily available in California and we had been to tastings, even visiting a couple wineries a few times. Usually the only way these trips occur is if we have out of town guests and we want to share our backyard with them, as we ourselves don't get back there much. All of the other times I too had been a visitor, listening and learning from the pourer, letting them tell me that I was tasting berries and oakiness and vanilla. There was one uncharacteristic time that I did step out and form an opinion that differed from what was written on the handout, which described the wine as "earthy" my palate begged to differ and I verbalized "cow pasture". The pourer stuck to earthy but I could see it in her eyes that she herself was not buying what she was selling.

This first annual wine trip that I was taking with my husband, brother, sister-in-law, her parents, cousin and boyfriend (a party) was different. Perhaps it was because we traveled up from Santa Barbara on the scenic 154, in two Jeeps - each mile closer to the appellation I felt the regularity of every day life slip away, replaced with a feeling that adventure awaits. We stayed for a long weekend off the beaten path in a rugged barn built to sleep forty; it was very much what I think the Wild Frontier would be, with one big room and a stack of mattresses. If someone didn't point out the bathroom to me with indoor plumbing I by assumption would have just headed to the lake to clean up before grub. Where we were staying was in a quiet wooded area, and was "enter only" by four-wheel drive; we zipped up and down creek beds back and forth the whole weekend, hoopin' and a'hollerin'. The place we stayed at was Zaca Lake Retreat www.zacalakeretreat.com and if you can tear yourself away from the primness of hotels with turned down sheets and frilly soaps for a weekend, you will be pleased with yourself, your sense of adventure and with Zaca Lake for giving it back to you.

When we weren't enjoying a refreshing dip in the lake, and a trip on a rope swing taking us down childhood memory lane, we were doing the serious business of wine tasting - and we weren't messing around. It was the four-wheel drive I think that did it, or perhaps the joyride splashing through creek beds, whatever it was we were geared up and I will speak for all eight of us here when I say down right giddy. When you and your peeps are in this state of occasion the perfect place to visit is Zaca Mesa winery. It, like us, sits in a barn. If you are new to wine tasting, a little worried about pretentiousness and completely intimidated by the thought of having to form an opinion about wine you will be so pleased to be a guest of Zaca Mesa. The barn alone will put you at ease, and if not that then the near life-size outdoor chess set oughta do the trick. Still apprehensive? The pourers are friendly, informative and quite possibly the best friend you have always been looking for. If you were on your first date with this winery you would definitely take her out again.

The nice thing about your first winery is that you feel like a pro as soon as it is done. We were all out swinging by the time we left Zaca Mesa. The exciting revelation for me on this trip is that I actually tasted what they were telling me I was tasting before I even tasted it (are you with me?). After our initiation, we were fearless and ready to conquer other larger estates - Fess Parker and Firestone followed. Fess Parker wines, as you will learn while visiting, are born on the Wild Frontier (I knew what I was feeling was real) made by Daniel Boone himself (see for yourself www.fessparker.com). Other than that distinction to differentiate between the two, they have many similarities. Both are two of the largest of the central coast vineyards and both have a lot to offer a versatile group of tasters.   oth offer an astounding bit of information on each pour, graciously give time to taste, explore and ask for more - even though they are seemingly busier and more crowded than the smaller Zaca Mesa. It was at these two wineries that I was able to wander around and really get to know the wine I was drinking (I promise not to fall back into the date analogy). But instead of shooting it down the hatch as I often times did in the past, this time I sipped, studied and shared with the rest of the group. It was fun to realize that most often we were all tasting the same hints of berry or vanilla or the oak I was hearing so much about. Firestone offers an informational and interesting (imbibing helps) tour of the where and how of wine-making magic which helps it all come together.

I recommend our visit to you, and although you won't have the same experience that we had I can assure you that it will be a blast - one small bit of advice that I have (now that I have a notch in my belt) is a recommendation to visit at maximum, three places a day. I say this because we stopped by a fourth and by the time all was said and done, my palate was too tired to really taste... and the roads are very winey...er...windy.