Sta. Rita Hills Wine Trail

East of town, between Lompoc and Buellton, two roads run parallel through the Sta. Rita Hills — Highway 246 on the north side and Santa Rosa Road on the south. Between them sits one of the most respected cold-climate growing regions in the United States. The wind and fog that make Lompoc grey are the exact reason the fruit here is what it is. Pinot Noir and Chardonnay from these hills go into bottles that sell nationally, and several of those estates have tasting rooms you can drive to in under twenty minutes from downtown. This is the counterpart to the Wine Ghetto: the Ghetto is warehouses in town where you park once and walk, and the Trail is the drive out through the vineyards themselves.