{"id":2697,"date":"2024-06-29T17:41:10","date_gmt":"2024-06-29T17:41:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/powertasting.com\/?p=2697"},"modified":"2024-06-29T17:41:10","modified_gmt":"2024-06-29T17:41:10","slug":"too-many-tasting-rooms","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/powertasting.com\/?p=2697","title":{"rendered":"Too Many Tasting Rooms?"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>As reported <a href=\"https:\/\/powertasting.com\/?p=2679\" data-type=\"post\" data-id=\"2679\">elsewhere<\/a> in this issue, there are 25 wine tasting rooms in Santa Barbara.\u00a0 If you live there or nearby, you can take it easy on a weekend afternoon, stop in one or two of them, have lunch, visit the sights and head home.\u00a0 But for those of us for whom a visit to Santa Barbara is either a vacation or the extension of some other trip, we don\u2019t have the luxury of trying lots of wineries over an extended period of time.\u00a0 Whatever wineries we\u2019re going to stop at, we\u2019re going to have to visit over just a few days.<\/p>\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-image\">\n<figure class=\"aligncenter size-large\"><a href=\"https:\/\/powertasting.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/06\/happy_canyon1.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1024\" height=\"473\" src=\"https:\/\/powertasting.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/06\/happy_canyon1-1024x473.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-2698\" srcset=\"https:\/\/powertasting.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/06\/happy_canyon1-1024x473.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/powertasting.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/06\/happy_canyon1-300x139.jpg 300w, https:\/\/powertasting.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/06\/happy_canyon1-768x355.jpg 768w, https:\/\/powertasting.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/06\/happy_canyon1.jpg 1430w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px\" \/><\/a><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n<p class=\"has-text-align-center\"><em>The bar of the tasting room at Happy Canyon Vineyard.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>So many wineries, so little time.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Here are a few tips for optimizing your time, in Santa Barbara or any other in-town tasting destination.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul>\n<li><strong>Start with a winery you know.<\/strong>&nbsp; At the very least, you\u2019ll be assured of finding at least one spot where the wines are familiar to you and, we assume, that you like.&nbsp; For example, we began our most recent excursion at Au Bon Climat, where we have been before and whose wines we often buy.&nbsp; And then the big question: We asked our server where else she would recommend in the area.&nbsp; Her tastes might not be the same as ours (they weren\u2019t) but at least we weren\u2019t picking places at random.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Leave some time for serendipity.<\/strong>&nbsp; Now for the contrary advice.&nbsp; If you are in a region where all or most of the wines are unknown to you, pick one and try it out.&nbsp; So, for instance, we were at that point in the day when we\u2019d ask ourselves, \u201cOne more or call it a day?\u201d&nbsp; Opting for the first alternative, we passed Longoria on State, which has more of a vibe of a night club than a tasting room.&nbsp; We enjoyed it greatly and will publish a review in a future issue.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Too many is too much.<\/strong>&nbsp; Just because there are ten tasting rooms within three blocks of each other doesn\u2019t mean you have to try them all.&nbsp; In fact, if you did try ten in a day you\u2019d be a menace to your own health and to those around you.&nbsp; For goodness sake, don\u2019t get behind the wheel of a car.&nbsp; Or jaywalk, for that matter.&nbsp; Even if you\u2019re walking from place to place, set a limit on how many tasting rooms you\u2019ll enter and the stick to your intentions.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Enjoy the ambience as well as the wine.<\/strong>&nbsp; Whether you\u2019re relaxing in a well-appointed room, such as at Happy Canyon Vineyard, soaking up the sun on a terrace or partying in the Funk Zone, you don\u2019t have to bolt as much wine as you can as fast as you\u2019re able.&nbsp; The whole premise of <em>Power Tasting<\/em> is that the experience of wine tasting can be as important as the wines themselves.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Take advantage of the rest of what the city or town has to offer.&nbsp; <\/strong>Yes, you\u2019re there for wine tasting, but have a nice lunch and see the sights.&nbsp; And don\u2019t soak up so much alcohol during the day that you haven\u2019t got the room for a good bottle of a local wine with your dinner, if you\u2019re staying over.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>As reported elsewhere in this issue, there are 25 wine tasting rooms in Santa Barbara.\u00a0 If you live there or nearby, you can take it easy on a weekend afternoon, stop in one or two of them, have lunch, visit the sights and head home.\u00a0 But for those of us for whom a visit to &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/powertasting.com\/?p=2697\" class=\"more-link\">Continue reading <span class=\"screen-reader-text\">Too Many Tasting Rooms?<\/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":[2],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/powertasting.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2697"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/powertasting.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/powertasting.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/powertasting.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/powertasting.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2697"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/powertasting.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2697\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2699,"href":"https:\/\/powertasting.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2697\/revisions\/2699"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/powertasting.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2697"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/powertasting.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2697"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/powertasting.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2697"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}