The Blackjack Ranch tasting room is located on the west side of Alamo Pintado Road, between Los Olivos and Ballard, just north of Solvang, California. Their tasting room is California Rustic, having been constructed from materials salvaged from the buildings which previously existed on Blackjack Ranch. The bar in the tasting room was built from one of the bowling alley lanes salvaged from the old Solvang Bowling Alley.
Blackjack Ranch's tasting room features a temperature controlled wine cellar which displays "Hall of Fame" wines from California and France dating back over six decades of winemaking. On display are the classics from Inglenook in the 1940's, wines from Beaulieu, Heitz Martha's from the '60's and '70's, the current cult rarities from California, world chardonnays and syrahs which have achieved 100 point ratings from Robert Parker in The Wine Advocate.
Blackjack Ranch is the product of 30 years of imagination and preparation. At the age of 14, proprietor Roger Wisted began studying the wines and wine making of France and California. Two years later, he was fermenting small batches of wine in the produce section of his parent's grocery store. By 17, he was collecting the wines of Bordeaux and Burgundy. Passion for all aspects of wine enabled him to envision the character of the wines he eventually intended to produce.
In 1990, Wisted invented and introduced a casino card game called "California Blackjack" in Los Angeles. The standard game of "21" was outlawed in California in 1873, but Wisted's game was different in that two aces was a "Natural" and technically that made the game "22", not "21". House banked games are illegal in California so players compete against each other, instead of the casino itself. California Blackjack has been licensed to card clubs and casinos throughout California since 1990 and has generated hundreds of casino jobs, over $4 million annually for municipalities where the game is played, and tens of millions in revenue for the casinos. The success of the Blackjack game enabled Wisted to pursue his lifelong dream of planting a vineyard and building a winery as a sole proprietorship, hence, Blackjack Ranch.
Wisted's goal is to produce wines at Blackjack Ranch that will be both pleasurable and memorable. The Ranch is planted with Syrah, Merlot, Cabernet Franc, and Chardonnay. Rootstocks were selected primarily for low yields. The topography ranges from level to treacherously steep rolling hillsides with blocks such as Billy Goat Hill, Suicide Hill, and Hamburger's Hill (named after a Black Angus with which that hill is shared). Blackjack Ranch began production in 1997 with the 1997 Harmonie and the 1997 Chardonnay Reserve. Both of the first two releases were awarded 90 point scores from Robert Parker in The Wine Advocate.
