PRIME VINTAGE CENTRAL COAST WINE COUNTRY IS A LAND OF DISCOVERY IN ALL FOUR SEASONS.

Byline: GREGORY J. WILCOX Staff Writer

The view is gorgeous -- and it's about to get better.

We're sitting on the sunny deck of the Spyglass Inn in Pismo Beach, perched above a rough, rocky beach and working though a bottle of Firestone Riesling, bowls of fish chowder and fresh clams awash in a garlic-laced wine sauce.

Here in the depths of winter on the Central Coast, a storm is heading in, and nature trumpets her intentions with the deep, concussive sound of waves pounding the shore.

The wind becomes a gale as my wife and I head back down a path that winds through thick shrubbery to our room.

More wine is waiting, a bottle of the ever-popular Two Buck Chuck that accompanied us on this trip. We like it, but already forces are in play that will result in us having no more of it. The storm lasts longer than our last bottle of Charles Shaw's budget wine.

This is a birthday/Valentine's Day lark that will stretch into a year among the vines of Central Coast wine country, a world-class growing region that sprawls between Santa Barbara and Santa Cruz counties. We sample it in all four seasons, savoring its top-notch wines, friendly people and stunning scenery.

A great trip starts with great tips, and my head is full of them, thanks to savvy colleagues. The winter visit becomes a reconnaissance mission.

On the only sunny day we swing through the Edna Valley in southern San Luis Obispo County, stopping at Tolosa Winery and Edna Valley Vineyard. We eat that night at Jocko's Steakhouse in Nipomo, splitting a petite filet and sharing a bottle of Edna Valley Pinot Noir ($20) -- and taking one with us.

On the way home, we plan a cheesy ``Sideways'' trip in northern Santa Barbara County to check out locations used in the 2004 Oscar-winning movie, which we have not yet seen.

A few weeks later we check in to the Days Inn Buellton, which was the base camp of Jack and Miles in the movie (called the Windmill in the story).

We hit most of the wineries, starting with Sanford on Santa Rosa Road and ending at Foxen on Foxen Canyon Road.

The latter is packed with hip young people on a sunny Sunday afternoon. We stand outside at a tasting bar and chuckle as our pourer, sipping at a half-full glass, talks smack about Fess Parker Winery (Frass Canyon in the movie), a few miles down the road.

The vines are bare this time of year, and you can see how precisely spaced they are.

Everywhere we look is a beautiful view.

Spring

A pattern has formed. We've become club hoppers, with activities centered on the Santa Ynez Valley, the southern extremity of Central Coast wine country and home to dozens of wineries and vineyards.

Wineries have wine clubs. Membership is free, and you usually get four shipments of two to three bottles a year at a member discount. I notice that the shipping charge cancels out the discount. Seems to make more sense just to drive here and pick up all the wine at once.

Club members also get discounts and special deals at the winery, and this makes what would be unaffordable wine more affordable.

The clubs, and the parties, tend to take on the personality of the winery owners. Some are low-key and mellow, others more formal, still others loud and festive.

We head to the spring release barbecue at Fess Parker -- free for club members.

The event is staged on a great expanse of lawn at the winery, which nestles in Foxen Canyon. An encampment of white tents offers shelter, and tables and chairs are neatly arranged in rows.

Tastings of the release wines are held in smaller, tented areas. There is a big crowd by noon, and the air is filled with music and the scents of grilling tri-tip, sausage and chicken.

A line forms. Parker is sitting in a director's chair at the front, signing autographs, mostly on wine bottles.

Two months later, we're back. On the earlier trip we met Martin Brown, general manager of Kalyra Winery, and he suggested signing up for their Dream Cup Golf tournament, which benefits the Dream Foundation.

My cart partner is Luke Lindquist, assistant winemaker at Brander Vineyard and a second-generation local vintner. His father, Robert, founded Qupe.

Father and son also shared a career-defining moment. ``My dad and I sat down one time to watch movies and play chess,'' Luke says. ``My dad opened a bottle of syrah and I fell in love and decided I wanted to be in the business. I haven't looked back since.''

The wine? A 1994 Qupe Bien Nacido Hillside Estate Syrah that his father made.

Luke didn't take the usual route of honing his skills at the University of California-Davis. Robert Lindquist told him he could enroll there and learn to make wine like everyone else, or he could go out into the world and make wine the way he wanted to.

So Luke honed his skill in Europe and New Zealand, and also worked in Sonoma County's Russian River Valley and in Mendocino County.

Of the Santa Ynez Valley, Luke Lindquist said, ``People here like to share and learn and help each other out,'' he said.

That night at the barbecue, the Kalyra wines are the stars, and the vines throughout the valley are green and heavy with fruit.

Summer

Winemaking is an art. And we've found a place were wine literally becomes art.

It's the Fourth of July, and we've ventured off the ``Sideways'' trail for a week of summer vacation. Cruising through Santa Ynez, our attention is captured by the Artiste Impressionist Winery & Tasting Studio.

Owner Bion Rice, another second-generation winemaker, designed the tasting room after the Hotel Baudy in Giverny, France, and set it up as a working artist's studio.

Manager Christina LoCascio paints using wine, employing a process that separates the water and alcohol from the wine's pigment.

It's in keeping with Rice's philosophy. He studied art history in college and planned on being an elementary school teacher. But his father had started Sunstone Vineyards and Winery in 1994 (it's the setting for the 1995 movie ``A Walk in the Clouds''), and Bion followed him into the business in 2002. Rice started Artiste two years later.

``When I was in college, I was really inspired by the impressionist masters,'' he said. ``When I started working in the wine business, I found that wine and art are equally subjective.''

Fall

Autumn is harvest time, and in September we attend the grape stomp at Kalyra.

It's not what we expect. A band is playing behind the tasting room, which is crowded with club members, many of whom are wearing togas. Some are wearing very elaborate, very revealing togas.

After an hour or so, tubs of grapes are moved into place on a cement slab.

A line forms and, since stomping is done barefoot, shoes, high heels, sandals and cowboy boots are shed. Feet are hosed down when stompers emerge from the tub. My wife, Chris, says stomping grapes is like stepping on watery Jell-o.

Harvest time is also party time, and there are several. In mid-October there is a valley-wide Vintners' Festival, along with special events at most wineries. (There is also a Vintners' Festival in the spring; it is set for April 21.)

Fess Parker holds a harvest barbecue in Rodney's Vineyard (named for Parker's late son-in-law) on a mesa above the winery. The 118-acre vineyard is planted in syrah, viognier, chardonnay, grenache and petite syrah grapes.

Tim Snyder, vice president of marketing and sales, table hops and chats with guests sipping chardonnay and syrah and eating a buffet lunch. We're encouraged to go into the vineyard and taste the fruit off the vine.

Two weeks later, we're back for an open house at the French chateau-inspired Brander Vineyard.

Luke Lindquist is out back grilling tri-tip and sausage. Several tasting stations are set up around the winery, including one inside serving barrel samples.

The sauvignon blanc is cloudy and will need clarification. But it is quite good just as it is. This varietal is owner Fred Brander's specialty, and he bottles six kinds.

It's Brander's 35th year in the business and 30th using his own grapes. He produces about 16,000 cases a year, most of which is either sold at the winery or in restaurants (including some in Japan and Europe).

Is Brander surprised at the length of his run?

``Yeah,'' he says. ``When you start off, you never know what the potential is. I think the expertise was pretty minimal back then.''

Two days later, we head home with more than eight cases of wine, the end to a very grape year.

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IF YOU GO

The Santa Barbara County Vintners' Association maintains a comprehensive -- though sometimes balky -- Web site at www.sbcountywines.com. It has links to the many wineries in the region, and also offers information about tasting room hours and special events. A map and brochure can be mailed to you in advance of a visit; order it on the Web site or call [phone].

For the Edna Valley wine region in San Luis Obispo County, visit the vintners' Web site at www.slowine.com or call [phone].

CAPTION(S):

7 photos, box

Photo:

(1 -- color) In autumn, vineyards glow in the morning sun along Santa Rosa Road in the acclaimed wine country of northern Santa Barbara County. It's an inviting destination throughout the year.

(2 -- 3 -- color) Grapes cling to a vine just before the fall harvest in the Santa Ynez Valley. Chardonnay, opposite, is one of the varietals that does well in the region, and here graces a glass at Sanford Winery.

(4 -- 7) Even visitors who have no interest in wine can appreciate the scenic beauty of the wine country of northern Santa Barbara County, top left. A girl runs along the precise rows of vines in Rodney's Vineyard at Fess Parker Winery, above. The Artiste Impressionist Winery & Tasting Studio in Santa Ynez has some unique offerings: Its walls are hung with paintings, done in wine, by manager Christine LoCascio, near left. Tanks and barrels line the walls of Lafond winery, above left.

Gregory J. Wilcox/Daily News

Dean Musgrove/Staff Photographer

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IF YOU GO (see text)