There’s a great little tasting room right in downtown Santa Margarita called Ancient Peaks. It’s located right on the quaint (another word for small, rustic, old) little main drag…if you drive too fast, or blink, you’ll miss the main street of this small town; but that’s the great thing about it!
Ancient Peaks Pours the Good Stuff!
They have a good selection on the tasting menu, including a Sauvignon Blanc, Rose, Merlot, Zinfandel, Petit Verdot (100%!), and a great Red Blend called Oyster Ridge, as well as a very cool tasting room. The staff in there was great, and more than willing to deal with us (we tend to be a little tornadic). Some of the interesting facts:
1) They use about 10% of their own grapes to make their wines and sell off the rest of them (total 966 acres planted).
2) They have roughly 5 or 6 different types of soil on their vineyard property (samples of each type in the tasting room) and;
3) There are three owners with rich family history in the area, which is always amazing to learn more about.
An interesting side note is the fact that they also now have a zip-lining tour you can do, as you’ll hear us chat about in the video…gotta check that out!!
After the tasting room we walked down the street to The Porch, a great little café/deli type of place and had an amazing salad and sandwich….making us hungry just thinking about it now!!
By the way, Ancient Peaks has been “SIP Certified” which means that they’ve figured out how to be “Sustainable In Practice” and passed all kinds of really cool and environmentally friendly tests to show that they care about the environment!
Check it out…you can almost hear the horses running by!!!
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Beverly says
Yes, just do it! Next video is Zip Lining through the vineyard, go Annie…..
Randy Fuller says
Nice video! I love Ancient Peaks – they are my go-to winery. Which reminds me, I need to go-to the winery again soon!
Hoot (or Matt) says
LOL…the zip lining woould be a blast, and we will forsure video it if we do it. Well, I’ll video Annie doing that anyways!! You need to give it a shot too Bev!!
Hoot (or Matt) says
Randy…they have very nice wines, and the history is pretty amazing as well. Such a great little spot hiding in Santa Margarita!! Which of their wines do you normally enjoy??
Mo Prunk says
LoVeD Ancient Peaks! This was the tasting that convinced me I could learn to enjoy Chardonay 😀
But the zip-lining??? WHOA!! Sounds like a great plan for late spring when the vines are green! YA!
Let’s DO IT! Glad you guys mentioned this 😀
We also had a great tour of the “Ranch” while we were in town.
Hoot (or Matt) says
Hey Mo…zip lining would be a Hoot (get it, Hoot…lol). I’m impressed with their wines and their history…good stuff indeed!!
Ancient Peaks says
Love the video! Thanks for visiting… so great to see all the wonderful comments. And YES, the Zip-Line really is a “hoot”!
Hoot 'n Annie says
Hey Ancient Peaks! LOVE the tasting, the wines, and the whole Zip-Line concept! Keep up the great work and we look forward to seeing you soon!
Gary says
I was zip-lining in Costa Rica and someone reported a plane crash, and another person reported a flying elephant. Put me on a zip-line in Santa Margarita and we will have a bunch of “Big Foot” sightings.
But inspite of Filipponi they do make great wine at Ancient Peaks.
Hoot (or Matt) says
You got me laughing on that one Gary!! Since Annie is so tall too, and often mistaken for a bigfoot…you guys could start a herd of bigfoot through Santa Margarita!! Ancient Peaks has a great little tasting room and we enjoyed the wines quite a bit!!
Hope you are doing well Gary…and as long as you aren’t traveling I am sure we’ll see you soon!!
Doug says
Gary, I know you would make the cable sing when you went down!!
Beverly says
Sounds like a plan Matt, I’ll zip line with Annie.
Beverly says
Sounds like a plan Matt, I’ll zip like with Annie and the rest of the “Big Foot/Feet”. lol
Hoot (or Matt) says
Doug, that’s hilarious!!
Hoot (or Matt) says
That’s perfect Bev!! Sounds like a fun day…with wine tasting afterwards!!
Gary says
Zip lining with Annie, now that sounds interesting. Big Feet and big hands too. Doug remember I’m from PSU. I’ll make em sing.
Hoot (or Matt) says
Oh boy…I think we’re going down a road we may not be able to come back from!! Haha