TASTE WILL TELL SAMPLING THE VINTAGES OF THE SANTA YNEZ VALLEY.

Byline: Eric Noland Travel Editor

LOS OLIVOS - If you're in the mood for wine-tasting on a visit to the Santa Ynez Valley,

you might want to pace yourself and appoint a designated driver: There are more than 30 tasting rooms within a radius of about 14 miles.

Most of the wineries charge a tasting fee, but I've always found that preferable. That way, if you've paid $5 up front and you're not impressed with any of the selections, you don't feel compelled by guilt to drop $22 on a bottle of wine you didn't find to be particularly special.

One recommended route is to head north through the valley on Alamo Pintado Road to Los Olivos before wandering farther north on Foxen Canyon Road. Along the way, you might be intrigued by these wineries:

Gainey. Some of the best picnic grounds in the area - a patio surrounded by the vineyard and mature oak trees, with grapes trained onto an arbor and some impressive views of the valley. The 1997 Limited Selection Cabernet Franc was deliciously dry, too.

Buttonwood. If you feel as if you've wandered into someone's tiny farm, well, you have. The grounds aren't meticulously manicured, but instead feature rosemary, scented geraniums and electric-blue salvia growing wild. The vegetable gardens and orchard are out back. While many wineries purchase grapes from throughout the region, Buttonwood's wines are produced almost entirely from the farm's own grapes.

Foley. Step into a tasting room housed in an early-1900s farmhouse and look out across the valley through the rippled glass of the antique windows. (The winery is headquartered in the old dairy barn.) Foley acquired some chardonnay grapes from the fabled Bien Nacido Vineyard to the north and produced a superb wine. This is the place where you can play a game of horseshoes out front.

Fess Parker. There's nothing quaint about this mammoth facility just north of Los Olivos in Foxen Canyon. The wines are produced by Eli Parker (son of the actor who founded the winery), and they have gotten some good notices. It's worth a stop just to wander the rambling grounds and check out the merchandise in the gift store. Coonskin bottle topper, anyone?

Zaca Mesa. The winery's 1998 Zaca Vineyards Syrah is impressive, perhaps because it was made from syrah grapes planted in 1971 - the vines are some of the oldest in the area. Be sure to seek out the short trail behind the winery. It meanders along a hillside through a forest of oaks, some of which are draped with Spanish moss. It terminates at a knob that offers a commanding view of the vineyards and rolling hills of Foxen Canyon. There are benches along the way for rest or contemplation.

Another winery that is far off the main route - but well worth the trouble - is Sanford, which lies west of U.S. 101 on twisting, turning Santa Rosa Road. Its tasting room, constructed of weathered wood with a corrugated-tin roof, is at the end of a dirt road. Area flowers, such as the scarlet bugler, are incorporated into the labels. And the wine inside the bottles, notably the 1998 Chardonnay-Estate, was found to be very good.

Several small wineries in the area have chosen not to endure the fuss of maintaining a tasting room on the premises and instead present their products at a string of tasting rooms in Los Olivos.

One of the establishments, the Los Olivos Tasting Room & Wine Shop, offers several labels for tasting, including one of the region's star players, Au Bon Climat. Unfortunately, however, the proprietor was found to be gruff and condescending on a visit last summer. We chalked it up to a bad day - until we encountered the exact same demeanor on a return trip in November.

Fortunately, though, his manner was a sore-thumb exception to other experiences throughout the area. A much better time, for example, was had just down the road at the Wine & Spirits Emporium, where proprietor Bob Senn pours a wide array of labels, including some really obscure ones: Jaffurs, Lane Tanner, Vandale. The latter winery, we learned, is a husband-wife effort, in which Bruce and Beth Vandale started experimenting with their three acres of sangiovese grapes and now produce a couple hundred cases annually for commercial sale.

``It was home winemaking that went awry,'' Senn said with a hearty laugh.

That probably defines the endearing simplicity of the Santa Ynez Valley wine country: Even after all that growth and acclaim, there's still room for Mom and Pop.

Photos by Dean Musgrove/Staff Photographer

CAPTION(S):

3 photos

Photo:

(1) A wide variety of wines may be tasted at the wineries of California's Central Coast. In Santa Barbara County alone, there are 53 wineries in the vintners' association.

(2) The tasting room at the Buttonwood Farm Winery offers visitors wine samples and an array of gifts.

(3) You'll find simplicity and charm at Foley Estates Vineyard in the Santa Ynez Valley.

Dean Musgrove/Staff Photographer