Oh, I’m sorry. you didn’t have a perfect day yesterday? That’s so sad. Perhaps you should have been me yesterday, enjoying my perfect day. Yes, perhaps that would have increased your happiness quota. Alas! You are not me, and so the day of perfection remains mine and mine alone, but you can vicariously enjoy my perfect day simply by reading this! Lucky you.
The mister and I headed off for Santa Barbara relatively early yesterday morn for a day of WINE BY BIKE, courtesy of the Santa Barbara Adventure Company and its stellar guide Eric. Eric picked us up ever so promptly at the scheduled time and off we went!
Ever so knowledgeable about the indigenous flora, fauna and history of the area, our guide Eric pointed out mucho nifty goodies about the area as we made our way into the Santa Ynez Valley. I honestly don’t know how he managed to spy so many birdlets of specific varieties while driving that big van, yet spy them he did, often in enough time for us to also catch a glimpse of the turkey vultures, falcons, woodpeckers, etc.
Our adventure in wine commenced at Zaca Mesa. A totally yummy experience! Lovely wines and quite a few tastings. Loved their rousanne, which they described as a white wine for red wine drinkers.
After this, we received our biking safety talk, helmets and instructions to the next winery some four miles down the sunny road–which brings me to an essential point! Don’t just bring sunscreen along for the ride! Actually apply it! Silly girl that I am, I made sure to pack it, but did I bother to use it? Well, the answer to that would be a no, as today I am a crispy girl…
The ride was superb, curvy and gentle with a perfect breeze keeping us cool. Eric, ever the safety-conscious gentleman that he is, followed us in the van in case we needed anything.
Our next winery was Foxen, where we were given temporary tattoos! Always a boon. The wine here was nice, though not so nice as Zaca Mesa. However, we then biked down to the old Foxen tasting room, some 400 feet down the road, which they refer to as the shack, and the wines here were fabulous. We loved the casual funkiness of this tasting area and were super happy to enjoy our tasting here while chowing down (delicately, of course) on the perfect picnic Eric had laid out for us. Seriously, a really nice luncheon! We all had different meal requirements (me–vegan, my mister–gluten free, and the other gent on the journey–open to anything), and all of our plates were aesthetically arranged, tasty and nutritious.
Seeing as how we lingered excessively over lunch, combined with the fact that we started our tour an hour later than is typical, Eric ended up driving us to our last winery–Kenneth Volk Winery. Delicious. Truly.
and so, there you have it. A perfect day, with perfect weather, a perfect guide, perfect imbibery, perfect gastronomy, perfect biking, perfect company.
So what are you waiting for? go grab yourselves some perfect days right now! call the Santa Barbara Adventure Company and sign up for the wine by bike tour and ask for Eric!
Read Wendy’s full review on Yelp.
This blog post and review was originally published July 2011. Thanks Wendy!
