Sanford Winery

This is the higher end kind of winery, not sure what the deal is but most of the people here bought boxes of bottles since their next membership shipping isn’t going to happen for a few more weeks, and overheard some who came from the east coast. It seemed odd to see that in the middle of nowhere, in a field miles from the closest city. Looks like their membership program brings in people that look specifically for their wines, some from a sister winery in Napa I understand. Very nice and well organized, the people working here were very polite and helpful, we didn’t wait too long to get our next pour, as it happens at most wineries. They will come outside and bring the wine for you or will serve you right away a the counter. The views are great around here, nothing but fields of vineyards and quiet around! Take your time and relax at a table outside!

This was my second visit to Sanford. the first was probably 5 years ago, and I was reminded why. The tasting for 5 wines (sips) was $ 30. When we asked to try another sip of one, we were told that they do not ‘revisit’. We were also treated very poorly, by the manager. She was rude, and very dismissive. I also called her when we got back to discuss my issues, and tell her of our poor customer service, and she argued with me about it. when she wasn’t even at the bar the whole time to see it. Regardless, I will not EVER return to this winery, nor will I ever recommend it.
We visited 8 other wineries over the weekend, and not one had a problem with giving revisits, and none were as expensive. We were here to find wine to pour at our two daughter’s weddings this summer, and wanted to be sure of what we liked. too bad they wouldn’t give us an extra pour here and there, as they lost out on a lot of money!
Horrible customer service, even when I tried to make it right. Shame on Sanford.

Absolutely stunning scenery. The folks I was with said that it was the most gorgeous winery they had been to and they’ve lived in the area for 30+ years. This winery is tucked away in the Santa Rita hills. It’s quite large in my opinion and well established, as it opened its doors in 1971.
We only tried one wine as they were on the expensive side ~$ 40+ a bottle. Glasses of wine were ~$ 20+ each. The pinot noir we tried was very good.
You can walk around the grounds and they have a nice horseshoe setup if you want to play a game. It would be great if they had an outdoor wine bar. They do have quite a bit of outdoor seating.

A great tasting experience overall. Ben was working the tasting room by himself at the end of what seemed like a slow weekday. Despite coming in at the end of the day, he was very accommodating and showcased the Sanford wines and the region very well. He knew the local area and it’s wine history very well and could speak intelligently of Sanford’s winemaking practices. Another group came is right at closing and he still offered to stay open and pour for them, an excellent display of customer service. The winery is simply beautiful and at the end of the day with the sunsetting over the vineyard it made for a great end of the day tasting. Had it not been for the outstanding service I may have knocked the review down one merely for the fact that the cost of the tasting and the wines are above what most average wine drinkers would be comfortable with. Other than that I would certainly recommend a visit to Sanford.

Ben and Chelsea are the best, they both deserve raises. In all seriousness, I love the breadth of knowledge here. Ben identified our taste and made some changes to our wine tasting to make sure we enjoyed *everything*. Not to mention the excellent company.

A great winery, with very nice Chardonnay and pinot noir. Great place for an afternoon drive and visit. I like to sit on their back porch, sip some wines, view the vineyards and mountains.
A great place for your wedding, a party or family event. The staff can assist with catering too!
While they don’t have food, it is a short drive into Solvang for lunch or dinner. Make sure you take a few botlles home with you!!!

Very nice tasting room with nice landscaping situated among the many vineyards in the Santa Rita Hills. Tasting fee was $ 15 or $ 20. We chose the $ 20 option that included the 2013 Domino Del Falcon Pinot Noir for $ 85. It was excellent, but way over our price limit. The $ 68 2013 Sanford and Benedict Vineyard Pinot Noir was also very good. I ended up buying the $ 44 2012 Santa Rita Hills Pinot Noir, which was also very good. The tasting fee was waived with the purchase of three bottles. Good Service.

This place was really beautiful. We visited Sanford during off-​season so we just walked in, no problem. The wine was amazing and we got really good service. Even though the wines are quite expensive by the bottle, the tasting was decently priced. We really enjoyed the place and will be coming back!

Over a year ago, I made a visit here and loved the wine. Pretty decent wine but slightly over priced. I still became a member and had automatic shipments. My first shipment was right but my second was wrong… No big deal, it easly got taken care of. My third was correct but fourth was screwed up. The only reason I stopped my membership was because the fourth shipment was supposed to be for thanksgiving. I was charged almost $ 200 for 4 bottles on the first week of November. Thanksgiving came and went with no sign of my wine that I paid for. I called a few times with no answer to why I had not received my wine. Finally Donna said that she thinks one bottle was not available. Okay so I never received a phone call, an email. I could have at least used the three bottles with my family for thanksgiving. So after trying to figure out if I was going to get a refund or late shipment in the first week of December. Still no response… I had to do the deed of contacting a manager and canceling my membership and requesting a refund by mid December. I really love the wine and kinda wished they would have offered free shipping for the mess up so I could have at least had my wine for Christmas. Customer service was horrible and no trying to fix their mistake. That’s to bad. Usually company try hard to keep customers happy especially when they are the ones that are disorganized. So beware… Wine is good but make sure you have the time to keep after them for your product.

Unfortunately i wasn’t able to get the name of the lady who was so rude to my husband and I but I will tell about our experience.
We showed today around 3:45 to grab a last tasting before the end of our day. Our cab driver was nice enough to hand us two free tasting tickets before entering. When walking up… A Caucasian lady with long dirty blonde hair and looked in her late 20’s helped us. We handed her our free wine tasting tickets. She asked where we got them and we mentioned our cab drivers name. She then said we could only do 1 tasting to split and not two because she felt we were to intoxicated. … Really? This was our third stop in and its wine country and we weren’t even driving. I wasn’t drunk at all. Not even close. I was so pissed off by her attitude that I called her out and told her we were leaving because of how rude she was. I hope to find out who this girl is and formally complain about her. Her actions were completely uncalled for. I was looking forward to trying this place out due to the high reviews on their pinot but after our customer service experience I will never return here again. Whoever you are I hope you read this review and should be ashamed of yourself for your harassment you caused on us.

First off — I have been a Sanford Pinot fan for many years — and I have never been disappointed by their wines — «Flor De Campo» is one of my absolute favorites (even though they don’t sell it by the bottle :(-
Anyways first off the grounds here are AMAZING! — we had a group of us, and we just sat outside and drank wine — it was so RELAXING — its hidden in a little valley surrounded by a mountain that allows just a hint of a breeze in and keeps it very quite — make sure to leave enough time to relax and enjoy the facility
2 glasses into my Pinot flight tasting — I became a member of –I just really love their Pinots! -
Both girls that were serving were very nice and knowledgeable —
make some time to visit Sanford — you wont regret it

Sanford has a nice wine room and caters to a high end clientele… and they match their prices accordingly. The wine, in my opinion, is not really good until you get to the $ 60 to $ 80 bottles… which are probably worth about half that price. But if you are able to get your hands on one of their free tasting coupons, it’s worth a stop to check out the spot and get your free taste. Just don’t expect to be bringing any wine home.
What WAS outstanding was the vodka sauce that we bought and had for dinner the other night. but that was also very overpriced at $ 12.
It looks like they have some fun events, though.

Enjoyed a tasting visit. Did the pinot noir $ 20 tasting flight. Wines, all of them, are supple, fruit forward, low in acid, smooth as silk.
I visited 12 wineries during my 3 day stay in the Santa Rita wine region. Sanford had my favorite wines. Delicious.

Attended their annual wine blending and
lobster event today. This is held every year for wine club members. This was the first time I attended. All attendees blend their own pinot noir and design their own label and they cork and seal it for you to-​go. They did as a good a job hosting the event as they do crafting their wines. Oh yea the lobster was amazing too.

Now as a club member and 2 lobster wine blending events under my belt I have to say this winery makes the best Pinot noir and their whites are tasty as well. Love taking a picnic lunch with us here as the tables outside face the vines and is the best place to start a wine tasting tour. Definitely a place I want to get married at (just don’t tell my partner haha!)
Maria is amazing and she was there back in 2012 when my parents met my partner for the first time. Sadly she isn’t there when we go so we left her a note saying that we still remember the great hospitality and support she provided for such an important moment.

What a disappointment. Prior to our visit, I had twice emailed and telephoned and left two voice messages for Mary, the special events coordinator, in regards to hosting our wedding on the Sanford property in 2015. My fiancé and I live in Chicago and I was trying to schedule some time to meet with Sanford to see what the property had to offer. We are former wine club members and really enjoy Sanford wines. I did not receive a reply to any of my emails or voice mail messages.
On February 25, since we were in the area visiting other locations, we stopped into the tasting room to taste wine and to see if we could speak with Mary in person. The kind woman who did our tasting stepped into the office numerous times to see if Mary would come out and speak with us. When Mary finally did come to the tasting counter, she said there were many beautiful places to host a wedding on the property but would not show us any of them because «I have a lot of things due.» When asked if we could look around ourselves she said no and that we would need to be escorted. We then asked if someone was available to do so, and she said «No, I don’t think so. Everyone around here is pretty busy.» To say we were flabbergasted would be an understatement.
Mary did offer to email me pictures of actual weddings that had taken place on the property. I gave her my email which she wrote down with our potential wedding date. One week later, I have yet to receive an email. Mary also said there were going to be a lot of changes being made to the property and its policies so «I’m not even really sure what will be going on then…» I’m disappointed with her disinterest in our business.
We will be signing a contract with another winery to host our wedding. And we will be giving our 60+ guests recommendations of wineries to visit and to avoid. Sanford will be one of the latter.

I love sanford winery, and maria is the bees knees.
I visited here last week and it was just awesome. great pinots, the staff here are fantastic, and sitting out on the back patio sipping an amazing sanford pinot is just magic. moments like the ones i spent hanging out at sanford make life worth living.

Jaw-​dropping in a multitude of ways. This is the $ 12 million dollar estate with country farm beauty found off the hidden roads of Lompoc, this could be your private little place few know about. The splendid shock is that the wine is just as divine for the Lompoc valley proves to be a wonderful place to cultivate Pinot Noir grapes.
Best: Vista Al Rio Pinot Noir, $ 80 bottle. Worth ten times that just to have best Pinot Noir ever. At least try it, it’s rich and bold, has budding breadth, and while most in the world are too peppery this one is subtle with delicate notes — an awesome and sophisticated bottle. $ 10+ tasting per person. #realestate

I have been to Sanford many times and I have always been amazed by the quality of the wine. The winery is beautiful and the staff is always so friendly and knowledgeable. Sanford is my favorite winery.

We arrived on this winery after visiting Shoestring and Brander, which seemed to be more laid back. This one was obviously more well established as it had a very commercial feel to its tasting room and grounds. It was also extremely windy when we arrived around 2:00 and we were also feeling very tipsy as we had not yet eaten lunch but were on somewhat of a sugar high from our visit to Enjoy Cupcakes. The tasting room was bustling with visitors, but we were able to get some glasses to start our flights. I didn’t particularly enjoy any of the wines, and really just wanted to eat. We tried to set up a picnic outside, but our supplies kept blowing away. I will hand it to the Sanford staff; they must be familiar with our tour guide Dee, because she was able to persuade them to let us use their private dining room to eat lunch.
Even after the food, I think I was wine’d out at that point and didn’t finish tasting the reds. A lot of them seemed quite heavy. I think because they are more popular, I didn’t really get the impression that the staff had the time to chat about the various offerings. They did seem pretty nice though, as one of them went to get a friend a band-​aid. I would consider returning in the future, but it does seem a bit out of the way. I remember the drive being fairly long. Also, don’t sit on the truck out front! They will get mad at you!