Hours:
Monday–Sunday 11am–5pm
Open daily except a few holidays.

Sanford Winery welcomes you to our new tasting room adjacent to our beautiful stone and adobe winery and estate vineyards at Rancho La Rinconada. The new tasting room, in the heart of Santa Barbara County's Santa Rita Hills, provides visitors with a complete winery experience, all in one location, including tours of the winery and vineyards, a tasting room and wine retail sales. Our spacious front and back covered terraces can accommodate groups and special events, offering 360-degree views of the winery and vineyards. Please contact our special events team for further details on scheduling group events.

The tasting room is a two-story structure built, in large part, from recycled materials, including salvaged lumber from a barn in Washington State. These timbers were also used to build Sanford's acclaimed Rancho La Rinconada winery. Its façade consists of native California stone at its base and more than 15,000 handmade adobe bricks on exterior walls, the same bricks used for the La Rinconada winery, which Wine & Spirits magazine cited as one of the top examples of winery architectural design in the U.S. in 2006.

Groups of 10 or more require a reservation booked in advance and subject to availability. $10 covers the tasting of all Sanford wines we are pouring and you get to keep your souvenir wine glass.

In Santa Barbara wine country, it all started with Sanford.

In 1971 Sanford Winery and Vineyards discovered an overlooked, grape-growing treasure in the Santa Rita Hills. Recognizing a magical combination of climate and soil conditions much like those in France's famed Burgundy province, Sanford planted the area's first Pinot Noir, along with Chardonnay, on its landmark Sanford & Benedict vineyard.

Pinot Noir and Chardonnay have thrived in the Santa Rita Hills ever since, and so has Sanford Winery. The pioneering winery's Pinot Noir ranks among the best and most distinctive in the world. And Sanford's leadership helped put Santa Barbara and the Santa Rita Hills on the map of the world's great wine regions. Certified as an American Viticultural Area (AVA) in 2001, today the area is renowned for its Chardonnay as well as Pinot Noir.

The Santa Rita Hills AVA is 100 square miles of heaven for Pinot Noir and Chardonnay, and Sanford's estate vineyards - Rancho La Rinconada and Sanford & Benedict - lie within it. Sanford relies exclusively on these vineyards for its luscious, signature Pinots.

The area owes its magic to an unusual east-west mountain valley that runs from the vineyards to the Pacific Ocean. This passage allows a meteorological ebb-and-flow between the mountains and the sea that is ideal for cool-climate varietals.

Sanford Winery is located between Buellton and Lompoc, approximately 10 miles west of Highway 101 on Santa Rosa Road. It is a one-hour drive north of Santa Barbara, 150 miles north of Los Angeles and 300 miles south of San Francisco.

• Driving from Santa Barbara - From Northbound U.S. 101: Take the Santa Rosa Road exit (#139) just south of the main exit to Buellton and Solvang. At the stop sign, turn left over the freeway to another stop sign, and left again onto westbound Santa Rosa Road. Proceed west approximately 10 miles to 5010 Santa Rosa Road. The entrance is on the left. Look for the Sanford Winery Tasting Room sign and proceed up the drive to the tasting room parking lot.
• Driving from San Francisco - From Southbound U.S. 101: Take the Santa Rosa Road exit (#139) just south of the main exit to Buellton/Solvang. Exit is immediately south over the Santa Ynez River Bridge. At the stop sign, turn right and then a quick left onto westbound Santa Rosa Road. Proceed west approximately 10 miles to 5010 Santa Rosa Road. The entrance is on the left. Look for the Sanford Winery Tasting Room sign and proceed up the drive to the tasting room parking lot.
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