Wednesday, August 25, 2010

My weekend in Ojai

Last weekend, a couple of us girls packed into two cars and made our way north to Ojai to celebrate my friend Elizabeth's Bachelorette Party. Ojai is located in Ventura County, just north of Oxnard. I know, I know.. all these places sound foreign to you. There's lots to do in Ojai such as hiking the Los Padres National Forest, biking around town or checking out their Sunday Farmers Market... but who are we kidding? We're only there for the wine.

We stayed at the Ojai Valley Inn & Spa. It's pretty swank with a golf course, tennis courts, spa facilities and over 300 rooms. In fact, its pretty self sufficient with its in-house restaurants and bars, that many visitors spend their entire in the resort and never venture off the premises.

You have to take golf carts to get around the grounds.

Before we checked into our plush, a/c cranked up rooms, we made a couple wine tasting stops. Ojai only has a few wineries but at least the drive is much closer than the wineries in Santa Barbara and Napa. It's perfect for a quick weekend getaway.

Old Creek Ranch Winery has been around for almost three decades. It's a family run winery and it looks really mom-and-pop.

After falling prey to a bacteria that feeds on grapevines, the winery not longer grows its own grapes and instead sources them.

There were lots of dogs on the premises.

Old Creek offers a 7 tasting for $10, $15 if you want to keep the glass.

We were given a quick tour of the barrel room.

After our wine tasting, we picked up a bottle of their Rose for our lunch in the picnic area.

We brought sandwich items, salads and fruits. A healthy lunch on a beautiful day outdoors.

This was a delicious zucchini ricotta cheesecake from 101 Cookbooks which my friend made into a tart with the use of a pastry crust. I really liked the citrus from the lemon zest.

Homemade apple cake was a nice end to our meal.

There are only a hand full of wine tasting rooms and even fewer wineries in the area. Our next and final stop was the Casa Barranca Tasting Room in town.


The winery produces organic wines. I also liked the Rose here, it's such a perfect light summer drink.

Stay tuned for our "wild" dinner and bar night out...

3 comments:

Diana said...

I've been obsessed with Rose this summer - can't get enough of it! Will have to check out Ojai some time... but first, Napa in October!!! :) :) :)

bagnatic said...

this place sounds cute and sounds like a great way to have a girl's only weekend.

Banana Wonder said...

Mmmmm I wanna drink wine and eat a zucchini ricotta quiche now. Congrats to your gal pal!