On Saturday January 18th 2020 a couple of our friends arranged us a trip the “Danish” city of Solvang in Santa Barbara county. Besides the unique city itself a reason to go there was the fact that one of the friends had a club card to Gainey Vineyard just a few miles away from Solvang city.
Solvang was established in 1911 by three Danish immigrants, two reverends and a professor who wanted to build a Danish town into America. The situation for the town was selected on mountains north of Santa Barbara since the broad valley surrounded by mountaintops was a perfect place to agriculture – and grapes for wine, which was not possible in Denmark. There are tens of vineyards in the valley, almost all offering also winetasting possibilities, and Gainey Vineyard is one of the best known.
So we had a couple of hours of winetasting in the garden of Gainey Vineyard in a beautiful weather – great red and white wines tasted with some selected cheeses and crackers our friend had brought with her.
Solvang is a small town, obviously very busy at weekends, especially when the weather is warm and beautiful. Streets were crowded and parking lots fully, but luckily we went there with a friend’s car having a handicap sign and we found a good space downtown. After a walk along the main street we had lunch in one local restaurant.
On our trip back towards Santa Barbara we dropped at a really small and very different town (many western towns look like it) of Los Olivos which sits in the middle of several vineyards. Unfortunately we were there close to 5 PM so all winetasting places were closing and we just could taste one wine. Maybe a trip there at a more appropriate time is in the future 😉
Solvang and it surroundings are a great weekend destination, especially if you like to taste great Californian wines. Even the trip from the oceanfront up highway 154 is worth a trip – really great views! Some idea of the area in photos below.
