Adam B.
Yelp
We had only two days in the Santa Ynez region and a local recommended that we do the top level tasting at Dragonette, which you can only book through their website and costs $25 vs. the $15 at their tasting room. For the personal tasting, you are brought to their production facility which is basically a cement warehouse on Industrial Way in Buellton. We mistakenly thought it would be located at a picturesque vineyard where grapes were grown ... imagine our surprise when our uber dropped us off at a metal corrugated building located next to an auto garage and drop shipping warehouse!
It was no matter because once inside we were treated to the best personalized tasting experience we had during our trip. The young woman who lead our party of 3 through a tasting was fantastic ... she knew not only everything about the brand's wines but also gage us some fabulous suggestions on the next stops we should make, including a picturesque vineyard where grapes were grown named Koehler. All of her advice was spot on across the board.
I am no expert in wine but have visited wineries in Napa, Sonoma, Long Island and Lodi, so I can get the basics down. Speaking of the basics, you get to taste a more upper-level wine by doing this personal tasting than you would at the $15 tasting room, I believe, including their outstanding Syrah which is grown using grapes from the Santa Ynez Valley outpost of Screaming Eagle! It was the best Syrah I have ever tasted and I kick myself for not buying a bottle for $65. It was the best wine we tried in Santa Ynez valley. Even better than their MJM, which is their flagship $80 version, which was also given to us at the tasting room.
Unfortunately, we did not get to taste their Black Label Pinot Noir, which is produced in very limited numbers. Maybe next time as I will certainly bring others back to this experience the next time we are in the area.
You cannot go wrong doing the personal tasting for only $10 more than the tasting room with many others ... unless you are going to Los Olivos to get a bunch of tastings in at once. Buellteon is not too far from Los Olivos but it's a bit out of the way and the wines you'll try in the tasting room will probably be pretty good to great as Dragonette seems to know what they are doing.
The only thing I'd have a small gripe about is that they send you confirmation emails for the tour which are generated by robot. However, they welcome any questions about the tasting or wines on the form. I asked a few questions via email which went unanswered. Small issue because the young woman at the tasting was so knowledgable and had a fantastic personality. I would recommend to anyone unfamiliar with the Santa Ynez wine region to book Dragonette's production facility tasting in Buellton first and then use that as a basis for other tastings as your 'wine steward' there will be a great guide to other wineries in the area.
Also a suggestion I'd have for anyone visiting the area is ... don't hesitate to buy wines you like on the spot. We had limited luggage space so we thought we would do tastings at the wineries, select the best 3 bottles and then each bring those back with us. We ran out of time and did not get a chance to go back and buy our favorite bottles and many of the wineries sell them at their tasting room but not through retail channels. I missed the chance to buy a bottle at Dragonette which I enjoyed due to timing. Luckily I did get another vintage from Dragonette at the Los Olivos wine store, which was open later than the tasting rooms.
Though I didn't get to visit Fiddlehead or Flying Goat which have pretty impressive reviews, Dragonette had the best wine of the 9 wineries we visited/tasted at. The experience was a highlight of our trip.