Winery News

“Ryan Carr was part of the original team that moved into the Funk Zone in 2005 to start Cellar 205, a cooperative space that opened the mostly forgotten waterfront neighborhood up to its ongoing tasting room boom. But a couple of years later, Carr needed more space, so he searched across Santa Barbara for a new location. He found an old Quonset hut on Salsipuedes Street, next door to the recently established Telegraph Brewing Co. The tall and wide building had originally been constructed at the Santa Barbara Airport many miles away for military barracks during World War II, but was moved downtown in the 1950s. Trying to give the impression of a large cave, Carr turned the large warehouse …

Carr Winery has been featured as a don’t-miss urban winery in a new article in the San Francisco Chronicle. Read the full piece here. “There is a long history of urban wine in Santa Barbara County. In 1964, Santa Barbara Winery began making wine in a nondescript warehouse near the city’s oceanfront. But instead of the posh resorts or kitschy restaurants that you might expect to line the longtime tourist hub’s seaside blocks, the neighborhood was mostly home to seafood processing plants, scuba diving equipment manufacturers and other semi-industrial, far-from-flashy operations. […]   Altogether, there are more than 30 tasting rooms on the Urban Wine Trail today. Learning about wine in downtown Santa Barbara may not always be as romantic …

SANTA BARBARA, CA—Carr Vineyards & Winery will celebrate its 20th anniversary this fall, commemorating the milestone with an anniversary party in the winery’s downtown Santa Barbara tasting room on September 14th from 6:00 to 9:00 p.m. The anniversary marks 20 years since owner and winemaker Ryan Carr’s first vintage of Cabernet Sauvignon in 1999—a homemade, 10-case-production wine from the Santa Ynez Valley which lay the groundwork for Carr’s professional winemaking career.  By 2005, Carr Vineyards & Winery had grown into a 1,000-case project operating out of the shared-space winemaking facility, Cellar 205. Around the same time, Carr introduced its first white wine—a Sta. Rita Hills Pinot Gris—and Carr Pinot Noirs began earning early recognition, too, scoring 94 points in Wine …

Carr Winery has been featured on NBC L.A.! California Live went on a wine crawl through Santa Barbara’s Funk Zone, learning why Santa Barbara has been nicknamed “the American Riviera.”

Vacation Idea Magazine has featured the Carr Warehouse in Santa Ynez on their list of “22 Best Things to Do in Santa Ynez, California.” Read all about it here! “With two California-based locations, Carr Winery’s Santa Ynez Tasting Room and Warehouse features a 3,800-square-foot climate-controlled facility that stores the many delicious wines produced by Carr. The open-floor layout lets you see where the wines are waxed, bottle-aged, and crated for shipment all from the comfort of the u-shaped bar and booths that are available there. You’re invited to visit with friends and family and enjoy wine on tap, wine by the glass, and private wine tastings which you can schedule in advance. Popular wines include the Carr Sauvignon Blanc, Carr …

Santa Barbara County has been named the “most dynamic wine scene in California” by Matt Kettman in the San Francisco Chronicle‘s wine-focused platform, The Press. Notes Matt Kettman in the recent article, “There is no more dynamic of a wine-tasting scene in the world than what can be experienced in Santa Barbara County right now. Thanks to the Transverse Range, the mountains and valleys on this southwestern corner of California run east to west, rather than north to south — it’s the only place on the West Coast of the Americas where this geographic anomaly occurs.” “Viticulturally, the significance is that the Santa Ynez and Santa Maria valleys open directly onto the frigid Pacific Ocean, and then snake inland, where the …

…”To me, “Haley Corridor” rings with enough existing identity and meaning that it might stick, as Haley Street is the dominant cultural hub in those parts, which also include stretches of Salsipuedes and Quarantina streets. But naming the area is the last thing on organizer Ryan Carr’s mind, as he’s just trying to stir up attention for the now-bustling area…” – Matt Kettmann, SB Independent

The Wine Collector’s Room is in the news.  Thanks Food and Home Magazine for including our new space for wine collectors! “A Space for Collectors….A classy place to store your best grape. As you pull open the large rusted steel door of the Wine collector’s Room you are met with a rush of cold air from the dimly lit space. Once inside, the dark wood catches your eye and draws you in. Ryan Carr has created a new space in downtown Santa Barbara for individuals to age, store, and enjoy their wine collections. The space, located within Carr Winery, features just over 40 individual lockers in a climate-controlled building. The lockers range in size to fit your needs. Members can …

Our 2016 Carr Sangiovese was this week’s wine feature in the Santa Barbara Independent. “It’s easy to think that not enough Santa Barbara wineries make Italian varietals when you enjoy this Carr sangio. Or, perhaps just enough make them, as sangiovese makes up less than one percent of all red-wine grapes grown in California. You’re not going to find many straw-covered bottles of chianti here. This Carr is a perfect rainy-night wine (we’re getting those again!), rustic and tannic but with plenty of berries and cherry fruit too. So while it might bite back, it’s just a lover’s nibble. The rustic qualities help it stand up to heartier winter meals, too — braise some beef or lamb, make something stewy, and …

We are honored to be selected as runner-up in the Santa Barbara News-Press Readers’ Choice Awards under two categories: Winery & Wine Tasting Room. Thank you!