Los Olivos is a small town in the movie “Sideways” on the central coast of California with a population just over 1,000, but with possibly the greatest amount of wine-tasting rooms per capita in the world, most of which are quite good. A single four-way stop breaks up traffic. At two ends of the town sit two different wine-tasting rooms.
The first one is a small operation that produces several hundred cases per year. You walk in and the wine-tasting room manager, spot-on likeness for the cool guy from those Mac vs. PC commercials, explains the history of the vineyard (established by two brothers and their friend), the soil of the different varieties of wine, and other peculiarities of the winery, including the fact that he is one of only four employees. Before you leave, after you’ve finished tasting the regular wines, he shows off an unreleased sauvignon blanc that makes every other white wine you have ever tasted seem pedestrian. Up the street sits another winery. On the outside, it looks the same as the first. You walk in and the tasting room manager, dressed in a pressed black shirt, seems more interested in your departure than selling you on the wine. You ask about the winery and you get a story about how the winery remains a “boutique” yet is owned by one of the biggest wine makers in California.
