Old Creek Ranch Winery, Ventura

I went yesterday with 3 friends. Loved the place! Beautiful ranch, lovely people. Great wines! Great guy in the tasting room!

Great little winery to visit - very personable, picturesque and really wonderful wines. Be sure to keep an eye out for the skateboarding dog!

Awesome

I live in Ventura and often find myself wine tasting up on the Central Coast because my parents live up there. So when I began searching for something closer to home I stumbled upon Old Creek. Let me first say that I was looking for an estate style winery (I'm not a big fan of downtown wine shops) where I take my girlfriend for a nice afternoon. We made our first trip to Old Creek in April 2010 and I was already impressed the drive in. Once you get off the 33 and cross the creek there were flowers everywhere leading all the way up to the winery. Granted it is spring time but it was a beautiful sunny day and the flowers were in bloom everywhere you look. As we parked the car and walked up to the rustic farm house style tasting room I was already sold on the place without even trying the wine. There are two medium sized decks with multiple tables and chairs. There is also a nice grass area with several more tables and plenty of room to lay out your own picnic blanket. Our first visit was on a weekday and there were only two other people in the tasting room. Julia was our server and she was very nice greeting us with a smile as soon as we walked in the door. The bar is large enough to have 12 people tasting comfortably but could handle many more if necessary (pretty standard from what I have ever seen). The tasting room has a very quaint gift/merchandise area full of many different styles to suit a wide variety of tastes. Now what you all have been waiting for… THE WINE! I was pleasantly surprised to look at their tasting list and to see that there were 9 different wines included in the tasting (usually I’ve seen more like 4-6 wines). Now I won’t get into great detail about the wine because in my opinion wine is very open for interpretation. But if you’re still reading this then you probably want to know what I did think about the wine. Let me quickly describe my palet and the types of wines I enjoy so you have an idea of where I’m coming from. I have been to almost every winery in the Santa Maria Valley (Foxen, Fess Parker, Cambria, Kenneth Volk, etc), several in the Paso Robles area, and many in Calaveras County (Gold Country). As far as Chardonnay goes, I tend to gravitate more towards oak barreled vs. stainless steel. I like the buttery/creaming Chardonnay but if it’s a hot day I do prefer a crisp more fruit forward Chardonnay. Old Creek’s Chardonnay was more of a stainless steel type Chardonnay. I was a big fan of the Viognier and from what I gathered many other people are too (they were starting to get low on inventory of it). As far as Reds go… I like your more full bodied, spicy peppery, etc. So at Old Creek there were a couple wines I thought could use a little improvement but there were also some that were really good. The Granache and White Hawk Syrah were probably my two favorites. All in all Old Creek was exactly what I was looking for…. Good wine in a beautiful setting and close to home. So I joined their wine club and I look forward to many more great memories at the Old Creek Ranch! Highly recommended.