Happy Canyon Vineyard — Attraction in Santa Barbara

We went to the vineyard for a tour and tasting and it was fantastic. The tour was hosted by Sean Pitts who runs the operation and is also son in law of the proprietor. He was a very knowledgable and gracious host. It is a beautiful setting and it was an extra treat for my wife to walk through the stables to see the polo ponies.

The selection of 6 wines was terrific, both whites and reds. We had just spent a couple of days in Napa earlier in the week and tasted many excellent wines up there. The Happy Canyon whites (sauvignon blanc) were superior to any whites we tasted in Napa and the reds were very comparable. Most were exceptionally good, both the Piocho and Barrack labels. The big difference is most of the wines were in the $30 bottle range vs $80-120 in Napa.

I went there expecting to only purchase a total of 6 bottles and likely no more than half of the wines tasted but I was so impressed we ended up buying a case and all but one or two of the wines tasted (these were very good too, I just liked the others better). We also joined the wine club so we will be getting another 6 bottles twice a year and I need to figure out when we can come back in the next year or two for a special event. This vineyard is a real gem owned and operated by a very nice family and I highly recommend to anyone visiting the SB area who is a...

Happy Canyon AVA produces some epic Bordeaux wines from the Santa Barbara region. This place missed the whole point. Everything is a blend and they don’t produce single varietal wines. Is this to hide the imperfections in the wines? Unsure. You’ve got incredible vintners in the area who I’d rather support. The tasting room in downtown Santa Barbara was a disappointment, the manager there seemed bored and has a condescending personality. This place keeps going downhill, we’ve been coming here for years and the turnover of employees speaks volumes on...

This will go down as probably the worst wine tasting experience we have ever had! The server, Theresa, made us feel like we were wasting her time. The pours were so ridiculously small, it was hard to taste anything at all. Just to clarify, this was in the tasting room, not the vineyard. Fortunately we went to another tasting right after that and had a...