Wine tasting guide to Lompoc Wine Ghetto and surrounding areas
What is the Lompoc Wine Ghetto? It doesn’t bring up grand images of relaxing on a vineyard watching the sun go down behind luscious rolling hills. But stay with us here–this is a unique experience worth checking out.
The Lompoc Wine Ghetto is situated roughly 45 minutes north by car from downtown Santa Barbara and 30 minutes west of the Los Olivos wine region. What looks like a dumpy storage facility is actually a collection of some of the best wine and talented winemakers in California.
Unassuming.. but a true wine geek experience
Best wine regions of California
The Lompoc Wine Ghetto is surrounded by some of the best winegrowing AVA’s in California: Specifically the Santa Rita Hills AVA and Santa Maria AVA. Winemakers in this consortium bring in the fruit and process on site.
The tasting experience is held right inside what looks like storage containers. No frills to be found here — no vistas, grand entrances, gift shop. Just you and the winemaker and/or staff. But if you’re someone that cares most about the wine itsself, the experience is quite enjoyable and we recommend checking it out while traversing the California wine route.
Where to taste in Lompoc
Domaine De La Côte
Winemaker Rajat Parr’s reputation has ballooned into quasi-celebrity status amongst locals, due in part to his talented winemaking and also the popularity of the movies Somm and Sour Grapes.
The hype is well deserved, as wine from Domaine De La Côte and Sandhi labels are some of the best in the region, and a top contender for best California Pinot Noir. Fruit is sourced primarily from their vineyards in Santa Rita Hills and the team employs natural winemaking techniques including native and whole cluster ferments, no additives (aside from small amounts of SO2) and no temperature control.
Tasting room is currently closed due to COVID restrictions, but keep this one on your radar for when things open back up. Appointments necessary and Julia does a great job of guiding the tasting experience.
Tyler Winery
Domaine de la Côte may be all about Pinot, but Tyler takes the cake for Chardonnay. Located within a stone’s throw of each other, they share similar winemaking practices, with Tyler producing around 8,000 cases annually.
The 2017 La Rinconada Chardonnay brings beautiful bright citrus and minerality to the palette with just a dash of roundness from neutral, 3 year old oak puncheon barrels. This is one of our favorite California Chardonnays, up there with Liquid Farm from Los Olivos and Littorai, Kistler from Sonoma.
No frills, just wine at the Lompoc Wine Ghetto
The tasting is running during covid and held right outside the winery on a little bench. In the future, we are told that Tyler Winery will be hosting tastings at their vineyard site; we are excited to check that out!
Montemar Winery
From 8,000 cases at Tyler to only 1,400 cases: Montemar was started as a hobby in a garage and eventually grew to… a bigger garage in the Lompoc Wine Ghetto. We’re glad it did, since these are some fantastic Pinots.
Montemar makes wine from over 20 varietals, but the standouts were all stemming from the 7 different Pinot Noir creations from the Santa Rita Hills. Opposed to the native fermentations from their aforementioned neighbors, Montemar inoculates using commercial yeast and does not have any whole cluster inclusion.
The library list here is exceptional and you can purchase wines pre-dating 2010. Our favorite is the 2013 Buena Terra, though many older vintages still had plenty of life.
Brewer Clifton
This last recommendation is a little different than the first three. For starters, the tasting room is located outside of the Wine Ghetto (albeit just 5 minutes down the road). Secondly, this label has a larger facility, higher production and has been purchased by a larger conglomerate. Finally, the wines tend to be a bit bigger and have a higher ABV than the rest.
Even still, there is some delicious juice being created here. The tasting experience is centered around their Pinot Noir production and includes a walk through their facility. We appreciate the care given by fermenting in small 1/2 ton bins–similar to Windy Oaks (tasting room in Carmel). The quality at the higher end labels is top notch and we recommend tacking on a visit to compare and contrast Brewer Clifton from the rest.
Where to eat in Lompoc
Since the wineries are so close together and there are no restaurants in the ghetto, we recommend bringing a lunch in
- Bread Board Deli – Tri tip in Santa Maria is famous. While this is a far cry from Firestones in San Luis Obispo (near Paso Robles), BBD offers up some decent Tri tip sandiwches as well as other deli favorites.
- Industrial Eats – Conveniently located on the way from Santa Barbara near Buellton. Sandwiches, salads and pizzas — everything is fresh and you can’t go wrong with any selection.
- Hitching Post II – For dinner, this is a can’t miss. Delicious BBQ and custom-made wine from Bien Nacido vineyard. This is the restaurant featured in the wine-themed movie Sideways; If you’ve never seen this movie, we highly recommend stopping everything you’re doing and rent it on Amazon Prime Video now.
As of late 2020, Hitching Post II is open for dining via an outdoor tent area. Their main kitchen is now in an airstream! We enjoyed the new setting and hope it stays open as an option post COVID.
