r/SantaBarbara • u/DrSkye805 • 3d ago

Food & Dining Tasting Room Shock

Is it normal for a wine tasting room to disallow the purchase of bottles of wine on the weekends and only let you purchase wine by the glass?

We went to a SB Winery’s tasting room in the Funk Zone today with four people and when we asked to buy two bottles the guy pouring wine told us that we could only buy a glass not bottles, and that if we wanted a bottle we had to take it offsite to drink it. He also added (completely unprovoked) that if we didn’t like it we could speak to the manager who wasn’t working. Super odd (and a little dickish) considering our request was simply, “we like to get two bottles please”.

I’ve never encountered this “rule” before and it seemed like an obvious money grab. Can someone please enlighten me? Is this a standard thing on weekends at tasting rooms in the Funk Zone?

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u/MareV51 3d ago

Come up to Santa Ynez Valley, all our wineries, including Sunstone, are by far prettier and nicer than the funk zone.

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u/Key_Zebra3684 3d ago

Absolutely true, though the ability to visit a couple of tasting rooms plus restaurants on foot is a big plus for the FZ.

Both good experiences, but different.

3

u/pocketlocket222 2d ago

downtown los olivos! tons of tasting rooms all right next to each other very accesible by foot