This award-winning certified organic winery was one of the Central Coast's first. They have a tasting room right on the main drag in Ojai, where they'll pour flights of their most popular wines (or a la carte tastes, if you want to mix and match) and tell you about the year, the grapes and the process. You can buy bottles to go or stay and drink at the bar. The tasting room also sells souvenir glasses and other wine paraphernalia such as aerators, fancy corkscrews, coasters and the like. If you go, be sure to try the merlot (we swear, it's good) and the big-bodied Arts & Crafts Red.
The cozy, pastoral town of Ojai is a beautiful bet for those looking to get away from LA or explore California, with a unique mix of old-school, hippie healers and artists and the new-school folks that are working to make that scene hip again. For both groups, there's an abundance of things to do in Ojai and the surrounding area. There's also plenty of cool restaurants and hotels.
If you like your rural bike rides and overnight camping with a side of wine tasting and fine dining, this is the spot for you. And oh, the dining! Ojai exists in a small, Mediterranean micro-climate, which means everything grows here, from olives and grapes to an abundance of citrus. Local businesses (there are no non-local businesses, really, save for an out-of-place Jersey Mike's and a few banks) take advantage of this bounty, so meals in Ojai are super fresh and always reflect the season. The wine, too, is locally made and—as a bonus—brought right to you, with tasting rooms dotting the downtown strip and saving you the drive out to a vineyard. If you're more outdoor-inclined, Ojai makes a great stop before or after a trip to Los Padres National Forest, just north of town.