Buttonwood Farm Winery and Vineyard
Did you know that a Buttonwood tree is a Sycamore? Yup, it's true. But, they use grapes to make their wine, not Buttonwoods.
Sunstone makes nice wines and the building is sort of interesting in a pseudo French countryside sort of way.
It's a nice setting and it looks like they have some sort of wine cave stuck into a hillside in the back.
Artiste Winery and Tasting Studio
Sort of an interesting place located in the little town of Santa Ynez.
The tasting room features an easel and art supplies. Anyone can step up and start artiste-ing, like the young lady in the photo on the left.
Saturday Night back at Lake Cachuma we had another birthday party, this time for ME!
There are the birthday boys on the left and me on the right.
Sunday morning, Lake Cachuma.
The boat dock and launching area and Martini Mesa on the right.
Foxen Vineyard was not part of Autumn on the Trail but we wanted to check out their new tasting room.
But first we had to go to their old tasting room, "the shack", the location of a memorable scene from the movie "Sideways" where Jack quickly pours himself a tall glass of wine and chugs it down while the server girl is in the back room. Greg and I are re-enacting the scene but we couldn't find an opportunity to snatch any wine.
Foxen's new tasting room was a disappointment. The "shack" may be a shack but at least it has some character. The new room is sterile and loud. They still have excellent wines, though.
Leaving Foxen, we drove back to the town of Los Olivos where we spent the rest of the day. There are several tasting room in Los Olivos, including a few that were part of the "Trail".
We visited Alexander and Wayne, Daniel Gehrs and Arthur Earl as well as Stolpman which wasn't part of the Trail.
We punctuated our wine-tasting with lunch and a little window shopping, then headed back to the Lake after a stop at El Rancho Market for dinner supplies.
It was a great weekend and it was an honor to spend it with Greg & Kelly! We were all happy campers!
