Santa Barbara County wine

Santa Barbara County wine is an appellation that designates wine made from grapes grown mostly in Santa Barbara County, California, which is located approximately 50 miles (80 km) north of Los Angeles County. County names in the United States automatically qualify as legal appellations of origin for wine produced from grapes grown in that county and do not require registration with the Alcohol and Tobacco Tax and Trade Bureau (TTB) of the Treasury Department. TTB was created in January 2003, when the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms, or ATF, was extensively reorganized under the provisions of the Homeland Security Act of 2002.

Viticulture in Santa Barbara County is traceable to missionary plantings in the Milpas Valley late in the 18th century when Spanish Jesuit missionaries planted Vitis vinifera vines native to the Mediterranean region in their established missions to produce wine for religious services. In the 1770s, Spanish missionaries continued the practice under the direction of Father Junipero Serra who brought grapevine cuttings from Mexico to be planted near Sycamore Creek. Since commercial viticulture rebounded in the 1960s, Santa Barbara County has been on the fast track to viticultural stardom. Its grapes now command among the highest prices anywhere in the state. In 1965, soil and climatic studies indicated that the Santa Ynez and Santa Maria valleys offered suitable conditions for growing high-quality wine grapes. Thus launched a revival of the area's two-centuries-old wine industry which, in 1995, made Santa Barbara County an internationally prominent wine region. The county is famous primarily for the quality of its Chardonnay and Pinot Noir, and is gaining a reputation for growing Rhone varietals such as Syrah and Viognier.

Santa Barbara County vintners face the multiple challenges of selecting grape varieties appropriate to their unique conditions, protecting their crops from disease and insects, developing local wineries, and promoting their products in the highly competitive national and international markets. They contribute significantly to California’s status as a primer international wine producer.