North America > United States > California > Santa Barbara > Articles > Santa Barbara: Sideways Country

When a quirky little film called Sideways garnered an Oscar and a cult following a few years ago for its portrayal of the joys of flirting amidst the California vines, it started a whole new branch of the entertainment industry.

Ever since the film came out, Los Angeles party people have been heading into nearby Santa Barbara County to socialise over weekend wine-tasting and a good meal in one of the iconic - but very real - restaurants featured in the film.

The Sideways tour, which has become such a fixture that its key locations are now spelled out on the official Santa Barbara website, makes an equally super diversion for Brits heading to LA and wanting a congenial outing to beautiful countryside within a couple of hours’ drive of the city. But better by far is to stay a night or three in Santa Barbara itself and take time to explore what this elegant old city and its surroundings have to offer.

Like all southern California this is a year-round destination, but October is a specially fine time to go for oenophiles, who will enjoy the annual vintners’ festival. Celebration of Harvest this year runs from October 10-13, suggesting a lovely post-Yom Kippur treat at a time when airfares are lower but the days remain warm and golden.

During the harvest festival, a “Vintners’ Visa” buys tastings at a dozen wineries over four days for less than £20 - a bargain when, as in Israel, many California wineries are now charging a nominal $10 (about £5) each for a selection of sample quaffs in order to keep numbers manageable, such is the popularity of tasting-room crawls . There are also special winemaker’s dinners and open house tours of wineries which don’t normally admit the public.

But the tasting rooms will still be open in November - and a lot less crowded -for those in search of winter sun when fares and hotel rates are at their lowest.

While handsome chateau-style wineries set in acres of rolling vines like Sanford and Firestone, both featured in the film, are designed to feast the eyes while treating the tastebuds, connoisseurs will want to make a side-trip to the so-called Ghetto.

The name comes from the unlikely home of some of southern California’s finest boutique wine-makers, who have decided to invest their all in vines and modern plant rather than fancy tasting-rooms, but still welcome visitors who care more about tasting great vintages than salubrious surroundings.

This is where Kathy Joseph, a former medical student who gave it all up to make sublime pinot noir and sauvignon blanc, hangs out with neighbouring vintners on an industrial estate behind the Home Depot store in Lompoc, an undistinguished coastal town previously known only for its air force base. Her tiny, modest tasting counter may not have made it into the film, but her prestigious wines did - Sideways characters Miles and Maya rave about Fiddlehead “sauv blanc” over dinner at the Los Olivos Cafe.

Los Olivos is the modern Mediterranean restaurant Santa Barbara’s wine country deserves, but it’s probably even more suited to lunch, when it’s delightful to eat on the verandah and look out on the charming little eponymous country village.

The Cafe may not be kosher, but proprietor Sam Marmorstein, a former stockbroker turned winemaker and restaurateur, gives great salmon with spinach and fennel, bruschetta, tapenade, rustic pizzas and super main-course salads; there’s even a children’s menu, and food is served all through the afternoon.

The restaurant most heavily featured in Sideways is quite different; the Hitching Post in Buellton is a real down home country dinner house, despite the sophistication of its wine list. Goodies here include roasted garlic, grilled artichokes served with smoked tomato mayonnaise and a different grilled fresh fish every day, though most diners are confirmed carnivores as well as wine aficionadoes.

It’s advisable to stay just down the road in Solvang if dining and supping exquisite vintages at this large, cheery restaurant, even if the town itself is a bit twee and mercilessly hawks its Danish heritage. The Wine Valley Inn offers charming boutique lodgings within easy reach of several wineries, and the shopping district is certainly worth a stop for authentic Danish pastry.

Solvang, which predictably also fields a Hans Christian Andersen Museum, is a fair hike from Santa Barbara, which is close enough to Los Olivos to be a suitable base for those who have sightseeing and shopping as well as dining and wine-tasting in mind.

Coming from the modernity of Los Angeles, 100 miles to the south, the age, as well as the elegance, of Santa Barbara, which pre-dates LA by more than 100 years, comes as a shock. Spanish missionaries settled here in 1780, and Spain ruled until 1822, by which time the many grand and gorgeous colonial-style buildings had formed a majestic skyline stretching from the Pacific ocean miles into the hills.

These were peppered with elegant Victorian houses when a small but strategic port brought shipping wealth after the Civil War, but only the old Spanish buildings survived the earthquake of 1925 and a new city ordnance decreed the entire downtown be rebuilt in colonial style.

The result is a pleasingly homogenised cityscape with wide boulevards and, thanks to the sea of red-tiled roofs, a real Mediterranean feel. No wonder more than 1000 films were shot here in the early days of Hollywood; the beautiful and romantic Mission Santa Barbara is where Gloria Swanson had her close-up in Sunset Boulevard.

While the Biltmore down on the coast remains the posh hotel(and for years insisted on a rather daft, for a seaside resort, insistence on jackets and ties for dinner), the stars of old stayed at Charlie Chaplin’s Montecito Inn, and it’s still possible to stay at the San Ysidro Ranch up the lane, where Laurence Olivier wed Vivien Leigh and John and Jackie Kennedy honeymooned a decade later.

This affluent coastal suburb is idyllic, and the Montecito shops - geographically distinct from those of Santa Barbara, which also has a lovely outdoor shoppiing mall - are a must.

For affordable but stylish digs down in the coastal part of town, a good choice is the Oceana, right across from the beach and near the harbour, where Chuck’s Waterfront Grill is a delightfully informal and unpretentious fish restaurant.

It has the pleasantly salty edge which slightly twee Santa Barbara town and Montecito lack - the only fault one can really find with such a beautiful and civilised town.

One final treat awaits wine-lovers - and those hanging out for some gourmet kosher food - a stop at Tierra Sur, the restaurant at the Herzog kosher winery at Oxnard, half-way between Santa Barbara and Los Angeles International Airport. Expect delicious modern food in an elegant setting, and a selection of the excellent kosher table wines California is now producing.

Articles

• More from Anthea Gerrie