“People fall in love with a wine from the experience of how they taste it,” explains Katie Grassini, the lively CEO of Grassini Family Vineyards who’s excitedly telling me over lunch about the new tasting room that they’ve opened in downtown Santa Barbara’s historic El Paseo.
The Grassini Family Vineyards are located in Happy Canyon, which is northwest of Santa Barbara in the eastern end of the Santa Ynez Valley. The region’s warm days and cool, marine-influenced nights makes it a perfect location for growing cabernet sauvignon and sauvignon blanc, varieties originally from Bordeaux, France that have had trouble in other Santa Barbara regions over the years.
In 2009, Happy Canyon of Santa Barbara was officially recognized by the federal government as an American Viticultural Area, or AVA, and wineries started putting the appellation on their labels. “People are now hip to Happy Canyon existing,” says Katie, but she’s aware of how important the whole region is. “I urge people that, in order to sell wine, you have to sell Santa Barbara as well.”