Another Funk Zone favorite, Margerum Tasting Room in the Hotel Californian is a bright and airy tasting room that serves plenty of great food and wine. Margerum actually offers five different tasting flights. From the pinot noir flight to the syrah flight, having a few different options allows guests to curate an experience that fits their palate best. However, if you're looking to go all out while visiting Margerum, book the private M5 blending seminar tasting. This interactive experience is both memorable and educational, and it runs for $150 per person. Continue »
My favourite is located at the Hotel Californian at the crook of Mason Street and Helena Avenue in Santa Barbara’s Funk Zone quarter, this boutique, family-run winery is dedicated to making handmade little production wines that have distinctive characteristics and character. Margerum opened its tasting room in the summer of 2019. Continue »
Margerum Winery Tasting Room, in Santa Barbara’s Funk Zone, may be your first stop. Explore award-winning wines from iconic winemaker Doug Margerum. Single varietals include Sauvignon Blanc, Roussanne, Riesling, and Viognier. Then try some blends, like M5 — a Rhône blend consisting of five different grapes — and Trois Blondes, a three-varietal blend. And let’s not forget their delicate Rosé, a perfect summertime sipper. Continue »
On June 24, the Santa Barbara Museum of Natural History held its annual S.B. Food & Wine Festival, an event beloved by winemakers, chefs, and patrons. The sold-out crowd of 1,100 enjoyed wine from about 80 wineries and food from about 20 purveyors, all of whom donated their offerings. The event raised $250,000 for the museum’s nature and science education programs. Continue »
Santa Barbara County's Margerum Wine Company and sister label, Barden, have unveiled a new tasting room in downtown Los Olivos, featuring a variety of curated wine and food tastings sure to delight foodies and oenophiles alike. Continue »
A mostly Grenache Provençal-style rosé that hails all the way from the California “Riviera” of Santa Barbara County, it beckons with light pearlescent pink color, abundant fruit, and a clean, crisp finish—the perfect wine for a warm afternoon par excellence. Continue »
92 - $68 Barden Pinot Noir Sta. Rita Hills 2019 This has a nice core of kirsch and black cherry pâte de fruit flavors that are still coiled up, while a bright mineral note provides spine and dried rose petal, black tea and savory hints flicker throughout. Best from 2023 through 2028. 182 cases made. James Molesworth Senior Editor and Special Projects Director, New York Continue »
Next up is Santa Barbara, which for all its glamorously skinny, tufty-headed palms — the supermodels of trees — has the slightly melancholy air of an out-of-season British seaside resort. The melancholy is dissipated by a wine-tasting at the Margerum Wine Company. I have always enjoyed wine tastings because my very limited knowledge and understanding of matters oenological means I am unable to distinguish between good wine and bad wine. To me it’s all good. There’s never that disappointing moment that proper wine people must get where they sniff a brimming glass and are completely crushed to discover notes of fresh apple instead of astringent summer meadows or whatever. A couple of upscale American gentlemen pour us glass after glass and purringly hymn the virtues of the Californian climate and the excellence of its vineyards. There’s a charcuterie board. There’s a “herbally enhanced digestif”. There’s ice cream which tastes of “herbally enhanced digestif”. I get carried away and start telling people I’m getting notes of blackcurrant from everything. It’s marvellous. Continue »
Join us for the annual Taste of Santa Barbara Wines at El Presidio de Santa Bárbara State Historic Park! Come explore, connect, and learn what makes Santa Barbara County’s wine scene unique. Continue »
"Terroir" is a term that's thrown around loosely at times, but you can't hear or read about Radian Vineyard and doubt that it applies to this site. Any uncertainty is tossed aside when you drink wines from the property. You can taste the Pacific in your glass and appreciate the struggle those grapes endured to get into the bottle. While this country does not formally classify our best vineyard sites as does France, Radian Vineyard would draw strong consideration for Grand Cru status if we did. Winemakers like Ken Brown, Bryan Babcock, Doug Margerum, John Dragonette, Brandon Sparks-Gillis, Matt Dees, Matt Brady, and others got into Radian Vineyard early on for a reason. The potential they saw in this site has been realized in their final products. Continue »