{"id":783,"date":"2017-10-30T22:11:36","date_gmt":"2017-10-30T22:11:36","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/powertasting.com\/?p=783"},"modified":"2017-11-01T19:57:38","modified_gmt":"2017-11-01T19:57:38","slug":"visiting-solvang","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/powertasting.com\/?p=783","title":{"rendered":"Visiting Solvang"},"content":{"rendered":"

If you\u2019re driving north from Los Angeles to go wine tasting in the Central Coast, you will probably pass through or near to the town of Solvang.\u00a0 If you\u2019d like to do something different and just a little strange, get off the freeway and visit.\u00a0 In the early part of the 20th<\/sup> century, a group of Danish families emigrated to Santa Barbara County\u2019s Santa Ynez Valley and set up farms.\u00a0 The Danes set up a town called Solvang that reminded them of Denmark, with architecture, churches and food stores evoking their homeland.<\/p>\n

Of course, when you have a place that is a bit exotic and quite scenic, tourists will follow. \u00a0So while the farming tradition of the area around Solvang is very much alive, the center of town is an attraction, one verging on cutesy.\u00a0\u00a0 The buildings are half-timbered and the windmills actually turn.\u00a0 There\u2019s a replica of Copenhagen\u2019s famous Little Mermaid, and a bust of Hans Christian Andersen and restaurants where you can get sm\u00f8rrebr\u00f8d, the famous open-faced sandwiches that are a staple of Danish fare.<\/p>\n

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Photo courtesy of Solvangusa.<\/em><\/p>\n

We have recently been in Denmark and can assure you that Solvang has no more to do with that country than Las Vegas does with France.\u00a0 Still, this doesn\u2019t take away the pleasure of pretending<\/em> you\u2019re in Denmark. \u00a0Solvang really is pretty and it really does have its roots in Danish-American history.<\/p>\n

Solvang may be an out of the way little town for many California visitors, but not for those who are there for wine tasting.\u00a0 It is located at the doorstep of the Santa Rita Hills, which is the source for some very fine Pinot Noir and Chardonnay.\u00a0 Many of the best wineries in the Santa Rita Hills have tasting rooms in the city of Santa Barbara, enough so that travelling to the vineyards for tasting purposes is unnecessary.\u00a0 But if you like looking at rows of vines while you taste, Solvang can be a good place from which to travel into the Santa Rita Hills.\u00a0 Moreover, it\u2019s a short drive to Los Olivos and you\u2019re already in the Santa Ynez Valley, so you\u2019re right in the middle of Wine Country when you\u2019re in Solvang.<\/p>\n

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Photo courtesy of Hendrik Breuer.<\/em><\/p>\n

You don\u2019t even have to leave Solvang to go wine tasting if you don\u2019t want to.\u00a0 There are at least a dozen tasting rooms in the town, of varying quality.\u00a0 (Au Bon Climat used to have a tasting room there but has since moved into Santa Barbara.) We would advise that the reason to taste wine in Solvang is more about the atmosphere than the wine itself.<\/p>\n

Wine Country is about wine, to be sure, but there are usually other things of interest, worth a visit.\u00a0 You wouldn\u2019t go wine tasting in Champagne without going to \u00a0Paris or in Tuscany without seeing Florence or Siena.\u00a0 So it\u2019s pleasant to take some time to visit a town like Solvang if you\u2019re wine-tasting in the southern end of California\u2019s Central Coast.\u00a0 Okay, it\u2019s not Paris or Florence, but Solvang and the Santa Ynez Valley can offer a pleasant way to spend a day of vacation or a weekend besides wine tasting.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

If you\u2019re driving north from Los Angeles to go wine tasting in the Central Coast, you will probably pass through or near to the town of Solvang.\u00a0 If you\u2019d like to do something different and just a little strange, get off the freeway and visit.\u00a0 In the early part of the 20th century, a group … Continue reading Visiting Solvang<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/powertasting.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/783"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/powertasting.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/powertasting.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/powertasting.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/powertasting.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=783"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"http:\/\/powertasting.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/783\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":798,"href":"http:\/\/powertasting.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/783\/revisions\/798"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/powertasting.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=783"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/powertasting.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=783"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/powertasting.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=783"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}