An exciting day for the caravan today – a rare opportunity to do a wine tasting at the home of the owner of the winery! Definitely, not your ordinary tasting room!
Just outside the town of Los Olivos, we approached the gates and pressed the call button. The gates opened and we proceeded down the driveway:
As fun as this is, the main event was on the backyard patio:
The view was lovely:
This is Tantara. The owner, Carlos Coelho, bought Tantara from Bill Cates a few years ago. Carlos is an Argentine, married to a Hungarian, with a large winery in Hungary. He was not at home here today, but he does spend time here in the Santa Ynez valley from time to time…
Our tasting was lovely, with great wines accompanied by several very nice cheeses.
Each year Tantara selects the best barrel of wine from their best vineyards and calls the wine “Evelyn”. We’ve enjoyed several bottles of Evelyn over the past few years and it always has been spectacular. Given our Blessed Event this past March, we could not resist stocking up on several bottles of Evelyn, and when the 2018 vintage is released we will need to buy many more…
After our leisurely tasting here at Tantara we once again headed out, this time up to the top of the San Marcos Pass, to an ancient Stage Coach Stop and Tavern, on Cold Springs Road…
This was the stage coach stop between Santa Barbara and Los Olivos, where Mattei’s Tavern is also still operating. An enjoyable lunch was had in the rustic dining room:
After lunch we walked down the road a bit to see the underside of the Cold Springs Bridge. Today drivers on Hwy 154 pass over the bridge without even noticing that it was the longest steel arch bridge in the world when it was built…
After seeing the bridge, we had to walk up the hill again; we returned to the Airstreams for an afternoon rest…
We enjoyed a quiet dinner around the corner at Rudy’s Mexican Restaurant in Buellton, and turned in for the night; The caravan is over and we head for home tomorrow…
I believe an enjoyable time was had by all the folks on the Wine Tasting Caravan… One Caravanner said it best: “It wasn’t nearly as bad as I thought it would be!” That seems to sum it up…
Adventures in the Villa 
July 31, 2018 at 7:06 pm
Looks like a beautiful and eventful day!😎😎
Sent from my iPhone
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