Full transparency - I DIDN'T go on a wine tour with SB Taste BUT, that goes to show how much of a…read moregentleman the owner, Michael is. Booked one through the Yelp tool which was automatic but never got a confirmation or anything. I told my girlfriend about my plan for my birthday and she surprised me with a wine tour herself. Called to tell Michael that I had to cancel and rather than be bitter, he was giving me recommendations on where to go, which winery has the best type of wine, etc. etc. Just based off of giving great recommendations (which I'll be using) despite me cancelling my tour with him shows a lot of class. A lot of other reviewers can speak to the experience but Michaels character deserved a 5-star review alone.

The short: if you're looking for a highly personalized and exclusive-feeling wine tasting…read moreexperience... I highly recommend Michael and Santa Barbara Taste. The longer: My boyfriend and I were looking to do a private wine tasting for the two of us. I contacted Michael a month or so in advance, was able to pre-pay by credit card (yes - points!!), and found Michael to be so warm and helpful. We got picked up exactly on time in a Mercedes truck and drove 45 minutes to Santa Ynez. We started at Grassini family vineyards - where Jared led us through an incredible tasting experience, and gave us a tour of the property, including the wine cellar and wine production areas. Michael had set up an adorable picnic for us near the lake, but we weren't quite hungry yet, so without question - he picked up and we moved onto the next spot. It was pretty hard to top Grassini, but Roblar Vineyard was beautiful, had such nice staff and an outdoor area where Michael set up a second picnic for us - complete with paninis, chips & glass plates, silverware and cloth napkins. For our last stop, Michael gave us options: we opted to go into Los Olivos - a cute little town with tons of tasting rooms and bars. We had another tasting included and he gave us some free time to drunkenly wonder around town (aka walk across the street). We did Dragonette's tasting room, which was good (but at this point we were both pretty drunk) and then popped across the street, so we could try local beer. Michael dropped us home - and even gave us dinner and local brewery and tasting room suggestions! Thank you, Michael, for a really memorable experience! We appreciate your kindness, knowledge, and professionalism! :-)

Destination Vine recently arranged a family gathering in Paso Robles. From the accomodations (a…read moregreat craftsman bungalow in town), wineries ( larger wineries - Halter Ranch and Adelaida. smaller - Herman Story and Desperada) and transportation - attention to detail was excellent. Family members had a great time and great introduction to all Paso Robles has to offer. Would use them again in heartbeat.

We had a wonderful time overall and would absolutely book with Destination Vine again. The…read morelocations were fantastic, each stop was carefully chosen and the food pairings were spot on. Melanie clearly knows the Santa Ynez Valley well and has great connections in the wine community. Perhaps she was having an off day, but Melanie arrived a bit late and came across as a little distracted and not quite as engaged as we'd hoped. She didn't linger with our group longer than needed, but we felt rushed toward the end of each stop. The driving between locations was also not great and added to the feeling that we were being hurried through the experience. Despite those hiccups, the quality of the tour itself speaks for itself. We'd definitely give Destination Vine a second chance and look forward to experiencing it at a more relaxed pace.

Great tour! Dave is extremely knowledgable with the surrounding area and super friendly :) We…read morestopped at 2 vineyards, went to a wine tasting in Los Olivos and a cool tavern to top it all off. Couldn't have asked for a better guide!

This was a great trip. Paul was very knowledgeable about the area, the topography, and the grapes…read moreof the region. He had a lot of recommendations for food, tastings (outside of the tour), and activities. We visited 3 wineries and had a great time at each one. The staff at the wineries were friendly, welcoming, and - most importantly - poured great wines. We got to try everything on the tasting menu, and sometimes a bonus. Paul was a great driver. He brought a great lunch for us, and completely matched our energy and mood for the day. We would highly recommend this tour. It was a great day, we bought a lot of wine from the places we visited because they were so good, and learned a lot about the area. Thank you for the great birthday!

Paul is truly exceptional. He gives such attention to detail & customer service. Always making sure…read morewe were hydrated & happy you could tell he really cares about what he does & wants to support the local businesses. He blew my friends & an I away when we came out to celebrate a friends bachelorette. We had the best time. He knew all the good spots, was so knowledgeable & made an amazing lunch for us. The quality of the wine was so good we all had such a great time learning about it! Thank you again to Paul for making such a memorable trip for us!!

Tony was our driver and he was an amazing host during our tour of the wineries in Santa Ynez. He…read moreis extremely knowledgeable of the area and of the wineries that require reservations. We visited three really nice wineries based on his recommendation and enjoyed our time very much!! Tony had a large van for our party of seven with plenty of room for our purchases! Thanks Tony!! We would highly recommended you for any trip.

Dave is top notch! He went above and beyond for our family. The weather had been terrible. Many…read moreof his normal stops were not available. He did not cancel. Instead he came up with a tour for us. It was excellent and we had a lovely day, and learned a few things too. I can't wait to do another tour with him. Highly recommend!!

Went on two different tours. One with my husband, and one with a few of my girlfriends. They both…read morewere great experiences. The first one was for my anniversary and we were in the jeep with three other couples. We ended up having such a great time with them, we joined them for dinner afterwards. We now make a yearly trip to wine country with them, and have stayed in touch over the years. The second trip was a girls weekend. We had the time of our lives. We laughed so hard we cried. The tour guides are very nice, and we felt very connected to them, as we would hang out with them. They are very knowledgeable and knew all of the answers to the questions we had asked about the area and about wine production. The owners were very great when booking, and had great suggestions. WE will definitely be doing another trip soon!

We had a fantastic fun 4 hour tour eating our way through Santa Barbara today!…read more To start, it's not just a food tasting tour because one learns all about Santa Barbara history. Our guide, Manuel, was not only a great guide but a fun person to talk with, ask questions to and gave the 8 of us on this tour an insight into the city, it's good and much more. One of the great things about this company is they are open to understanding any food issues one has. In our group we had people who don't eat dairy, others who don't eat beef and another who can't have much sugar and when told ahead of time they ordered food that each of us could eat. We started with macarons (not macaroons), had Italian food, wine, Mexican food, empenadas, beer, ice cream and more as we toured State Street and other places in the area on what turned out to be a 4-hour tour. If we had a suggestion, it would be not to start with macarons, but to finish with them, as it seemed a bit weird starting with a cookie-type baked good, although they were delicious. One of the nice things about our tour is that there were just the 8 of us good friends, and Manuel fit right in. So if you're looking for bites of good food and learning about the city, the Santa Barbara Tasting Tour is a great way to do it, and kudos to Allison for setting this up for us!

We've never been to Santa Barbara or a food tour before. After looking around we decided to go with…read morethis tour. They do discourage kids, but to contact and let them know upon booking if you will be bringing kids. We have 3 kids (7,5, and 2 years). They did great! It was just enough walking and resting/stopping and eating for them. We met our tour guide Manuel (I think that's what his name was) along with the rest of the group at Arlington theater. He then gave use a quick history of Santa Barbara and the town. He also passed out a summary of the 6 different places that we'll be stopping at. First stop was Renaud's Patisserie and Bistro where we got a quick lesson about macaroons. We tried an assortment of them. We had Lemon, Raspberry, Vanilla, Salted Caramel, pistachio, and strawberry. It was a good start to the day. Second stop was Ca'Dario where we tried brow butter and sage spinach ravioli and a bolognese. This stop was our favorite. It was so good. Even the kids ate the sage! Third stop was II Fustino for Olive oil and balsamic vinegar tasting. Eh, wasn't our cup of tea. Fourth stop, Empty Bowl Gourmet Noodle Bar where we had potsticker (just one potsticker) and yellow chicken thai curry. The potsticker was soft and when you dip it in the spicy sauce it tastes even better. The chicken curry came with some type of noodles. It wasn't too spicy. The kids were able to eat it, but they preferred the potsticker instead. Fifth stop was at Chocolats du CaliBressan where we all had a Buddah shaped chocolate that filled with an ooey creamy caramel that oozed out when you bit into it. SO GOOD! We also got to choose one more chocolate of our choice from the counter. This was our other favorite spot! The last stop was at Cebada Winey where we got to taste some wine. The owner was actually there pouring and presenting the wines. Cebada wines are very light and not too sweet. We got to taste a 2013 Chardonnay, Pinot Noir and a Blueberry dessert wine. All were very light, but me and husband liked the Chardonnay best. We stayed and our kids got to taste the jams. They tried 3 jams. Blueberry, citrus and one more (I forgot). They liked the blueberry one, so we ended up getting a jar. This tour was very informative and a great way to try a bunch of spots Sanata Barbara has to offer. I would suggest having a lite snack before touring. Otherwise, you might still be hungry. We ate a little something before the tour started and we left feeling contented. We weren't full but weren't hungry. Water is offered at most of the stops and there are restrooms practically everywhere. The tour ran about 2.5 hrs. We did a bit of walking so I would suggest comfortable shoes just like their website states. I would suggest this tour especially if it's tour first time to SB. You get to see some cute shops and plazas along the way that you could stop at after the tour is over. You also learn about some of the buildings, statues and history of the town.

The Urban Wine Trail has really grown so much in the last couple of years it seems like it's time…read moreto give a NEW update on all the happenings. The first thing to know is that the Urban Wine Trail is an association made up of over 33+ wine tasting rooms and wineries located all over Greater Santa Barbara. NEW DETAILED DESCRIPTIONS of each of the areas and wine tasting scenes, along with links to wineries/tasting rooms can be found by visiting The Urban Wine Trail website at... https://urbanwinetrailsb.com/the-trail-map/ Each experience is unique, so if your time is limited dig a little more to uncover what looks and feels great to you. You'll have a great time Anywhere as Santa Barbara is truly an American Riviera Experience and we are thrilled you are here!

I took a day trip with a group of friends to the Urban Wine trail. We caught the Amtrak from Los…read moreAngeles and after a relaxing 2 hour ride, we were delivered to the train station directly across from the UWT. We spent about 5 hours in town and hit 5 tasting rooms and one restaurant. It was a great day. We tried, Kalyra, Oreana, Santa Barbara Winery and AVA. Really liked them all. The wines were amazing at Santa Barbara Winery though the staff was not very friendly or engaging. We found the staff at all 3 other locations a bit more friendly, informative and enjoyable. The UWT is a really cool way to taste some local wines without driving all the way to the Central Coast. I would have given in a 5 but most of the locations do not offer any type of food or snacks (except for crackers to cleanse your palet). There is a cool little deli about 2 blocks away that has a great selection of cheeses and meats, which most locations will allow u to bring in. Really fun day trip....