SB wine (and garlic!) tasting.

we headed up to santa barbara on memorial day weekend to do some wine tasting with my brother. james and i have done tastings at rooms within the city, but not actually out in wine country. we started at tres hermanas in santa maria, where we met up with my brother and his friends, bruce and lillian, and their two sons.

tres hermanas tasting room.

then we headed to los alamos to bedford winery, where owner and winemaker stephan was pouring. this was my favorite of the trip, as stephan was awesome, and a huge dodger fan as well! they had a nice outdoor area where we picnicked - he even let us pause our tasting so we could go outside, eat and enjoy the gorgeous weather.

stephan bedford.

our last stop was artiste in los olivos. the space is very cool, and they were very busy, but i wasn't particularly impressed. all they wines on their tasting were very new, and someone would just pour and disappear, without talking about their product. it could be that they were just too busy, but who knows.

inside artiste.

probably the most exciting for me was that we discovered a man selling many varieties of garlic in los olivos - he grows 102 different garlics! he even let me do a garlic tasting. it blew my mind. i already love garlic, but now i love it even more. i bought a few farm-grade bulbs of a particularly spicy variety from china that i will attempt to plant come fall. very exciting!

in the end, we got five bottles of wine. the 2008 cuvee sadie and 2005 refosco from tres hermanas and the 2009 reisling, 2007 syrah and 2000 cab franc from bedford. so very exciting!