Was in Los Olivos(just north of Santa Barbara) last week heading down from Cambria to Thousand Oaks, CA. Nice little town with about a dozen tasting rooms along both sides of one street and then about a dozen more wineries along Foxen road. The standouts for me were Tensley Syrahs (they were really not supposed to be there on a weekday but Mrs. Tensley was there doing some work and opened two bottles for us) really dense Syrahs with great body, wonderful Cherry and Coffee nose and long lingering finish, both of their Syrahs were first class. Across the room was Cairn but Tensley was also their wine maker with a different owner. Here they did mostly blends in a Rhone style. Nice Grenache, Syrah Mourvedre blend and a white Rhone style also wonderful. Ending up buying a mixed case form the tow wineries in a mixed shipment.
The other memorable winery was Arthur Earle. They were doing individual Rhone varietals and Italian varietals including, of all things, Nebbiolo. Standouts were their Mourvedere, the Nebbiolo that is trying very hard to be a young Barolo and a Barbera/Nebbiolo blend. Though not a fan of Barbera (as our esteemed DaleW) the blend seemed to remove the grapiness of Barbera and added a violet nose to the mix and the wine came out quite well on the finish.