Kalyra Winery

Nice little place to start your Sideways filming locations tour in Santa Ynez area. Very quiet and beautiful surroundings, I can sip wine for hours on their porch! Friendly staff and some really good wines, ask for their «liquid cherries» dessert wine.

I love Kalyra, and became a wine member! Special perk is that they charge you a penny for a bottle of wine on your birthday, what a deal. Everyone is always so friendly and informative and their outdoor section is a great place to relax. If you are a fan of desert wines this is the place for you-​they have a desert flight which is kind of hard to find.

Great place!!!
A friend Caroline GoldBeck fellow « Unilocaler» introduced me to this place and it is just amazing!
Thank you KALYRA the desert wine is really phenomenal and something ELSE! Just to DIE FOR!!!
just great for sipping and also going to try this with cooking!
Wonderful service! Thank you! Thank you!
**** FIVE STARS ****

It was okay. Pours were very tiny and they tried to upsell my friends and me on a cheese platter. Not my first choice for wine or costumer service

Average wine. Great views. Customer service was less than spectacular. They advertise being dog friendly but they were the only winery that hassled us for service dog papers.

Do yourself a favor and come here for a wine tasting when you’re in the Santa Ynez Valley! This place has the loveliest vibe with super friendly staff who are genuine and very down-​to-​earth. Their wines are solid and it’s the type of place you would feel comfortable spending the day at. I usually want to try new wineries/​vineyards when I am in the area. However, I always find myself stopping here after being disappointed at the experiences at the other local wineries. You won’t regret coming here and will find it to be a spot you will always gravitate back to.

Great place to stop off! Such friendly and knowledgable people to assist you. The selections of win are fantastic and the atmosphere is very laid back and relaxed. Be sure to tryout the desert wines. Adrienne is amazing! So nice and helpful

My family and I thoroughly enjoyed this winery. We played corn hole and the porch was perfect for relaxing and enjoying the wine. We tried both a red and white wine and they tasted great, especially because I am not much of a wino. I recommend this place to stop for people trying the different areas and wine bar hopping.

Their sweet wines are decently good! Wasn’t a fan of the others but I am not a dry wine person so makes sense. Nice that they have two kinds of tastings. Around $ 14.
Also impressed by one of their workers, Christa. Handled herself well when there were a ton of people present.
Best part… DOG FRIENDLY OUTSIDE

I love Kalyra-​specifically the original tasting room here. The one in Santa Barbara is ok. The wines are fabulous: if you like dessert wines they have a great selection. The atmosphere is great-​inside and outside tasting areas. I recommend joining the club so you can get your discounts and free tastings. I’m still discovering Wines and the area but this is a favorite. The girls there were very kind and informative. They have movie nights and lots of events. The view can’t be beat as it is on the actual vineyard. This is a must see especially for Sideways fans ;)

We made sure to come here because we’re big dessert wine fans, and I’m glad we did — they do indeed have a full 6-​pour dessert wine flight, don’t see that too often. Their dessert wines are more on the experimental side — they’re brandy based, not true pure dessert wines, and some were better than others (their port was kinda meh), but a couple of them were very good — especially their ‘angelique’. I absolutely recommend you come here just to try that one, if you’re a dessert wine sort of person.

This winery has been one of our favorites for years. We first joined the wine club, they call it Wine Theives, in 2002. We have moved in and out of the area, but have maintained that membership. We receive dessert only wine shipments and love the desserts. Other wine here is good, but their desserts definitely stand out. Wine club events are varied. There are vineyard movie nights, live music events, wine pairing and tasting events, BBQs, and the Great Grape Stomp… think Lucille Ball! Family friendly and staff is always happy and ready to help. Grab lunch at El Rancho Marketplace and dine on the winery’s porch. Nice views and a great place to relax and enjoy.

My family and I had a good time at this winery. We decided to choose this one because of their dessert wine flight. Slow day with only a few other people, pretty views, and lots of friendly dogs !
The girl pouring our wine was super nice, answered all our questions, and explained to us their wine membership which we ended up getting.
I know there are a lot of fancier and nicer wineries around but this one is great for just grabbing a glass of wine with some lunch and sitting out on the patio enjoying the view.
Despite the bad reviews we gave this place a chance and it turned out to be extremely pleasant. You really have to see it for yourself !

There is little special about Kalyra except that they have a dessert wine tasting flight. You can sit on a porch with decent views and go inside to the bar when you are ready for your next pour. Our server was friendly but not particularly knowledgeable.
The dessert wines were actually above average, with two of them being quite good, especially the Orange Muscat. Dessert wine afficionados will appreciate Kalyra’s ability to make dessert wines in widely varying styles.
That’s about it. Three stars.

Some of the worst wine I have ever had and worst service compared to other very busy wineries.
I came here with my parents, my mom who is choosey and my dad who is not. I like wine and have a general understanding of good wine but I will drink nearly anything.
We all had their non dessert wine tasting selection: Everyone had to dump the second tasting it was so terrible. It tasted like vinegar, we thought it had been corked and asked the pourer to taste it to be sure. He poured a tiny taste, barely sipped, made a face and said, «No it’s fine, everyone just has different taste. It’s actually very popular», …and then poured the rest out. Everyone does have different taste, but I KNOW what vinegar tastes like, and this wine tasted like rice wine vinegar. Gross.
The rest of the tastings were equally unimpressive although not as offensive.
Service was terrible to top it off, and as someone who’s worked in the service industry, I’m generally very understanding. But there were only a handful of people there on a Saturday at 1pm and we had to practically beg someone to pour for us when we first got there and every tasting after. The male pourer was particularly neglectful to the point of being rude.

I am a big dessert wine fan. After having so many Pinots and Chards, I was looking for something a little different and I found it at Kalyra. The tasting room is super cute and has some very unique gifts. I went with the reserve dessert and port tasting for $ 12. The Semillon and the Gewürztraminer Sticky Wicket were my favorite.

ZERO STARS!
Hard to watch a winery (where you had fun, enjoyed, and joined the club) spiral down so poorly.
End of day, and said WTH lets go here. MISTAKE.
The wines started off not so good, and got worse. 2 – 3 I had to dump! The last one (a Port) I had to get out wine in my trunk to get the taste out. The tasting room staff seemed pretty clueless to boot.
Yes, it was in Sideways (a lot of spots in SYV were). But that was 10 years ago. A lifetime in the wine business.
Needless to say, wont be back.

Great place to visit if you’re a fan of the movie «Sideways». This is the place from the movie where they pick up that bartender and buy the 2 cases of wine. It’s not as impressive as the other large wineries in the area, but the wine was awesome. I got some excellent reserve Sauvingon Blanc here. It’s a cute little place, nice view of the hills from the front porch. They have some articles and photos up from the movie, which is kinda cool. The wine is really good, and is worth the trip!

Came here for the 3^rd time now over the past 7 years. I remember when it was a fun place where they give you a glass after the tasting. It’s a lot more crowded now and it seems like their dessert wines are the most popular. I ended up buying the black muscat again as a gift but for other non dessert type wines, I now have other favorites.

Back in 2003 Kalyra was a sleepy little winery in a sleepy little wine industry in the Santa Ynez valley. Nobody realized that there would be an Atomic Blast in the valley that would change things for years to come! The blast is of course the Movie «Sideways» based on the book by Rex Pickett and that would make Kalyra ground zero!
Nine years ago wine tastings were free more often that not. Crowds were light and when you did taste, etiquette would dictate that you would walk out with a bottle or two of wine. You see back in the old days the purpose of tasting was to try it before you bought it! Crazy concept, huh? Kalyra was a little tasting room on one end of their current building and made a modest amount of wine. Mike Brown was the winemaker as he is now but back then he also made the wines for Buttonwood. Mike has always had an affection for dessert wines and that could still be considered his forte!
Along came the producers of Sideways and decided to focus their movie heavily on Kalyra, it is where the Sandra Oh character worked. The movie designed and remodeled their building for them. You could say that when you taste at Kalyra you are in the middle of a movie set. Ask the people who work there to tell you the story. If you can talk to the owners, Mike and Cathy Brown, they tell it the best!
Nobody had any idea how much the movie would impact the Santa Ynez wine industry. After the movie Merlot sales plunged and bottle prices fell, on the flip side Pinot Noir sales skyrocketed and prices went up. I met Rex Pickett once and he says the movie gave merlot a bad rap – I agree. Where there were a few people in a tasting room, now a Saturday afternoon will often have hoards of wine tasters! Bachelorette parties come in droves! Tasting rooms now charge for their tastings.
My wife and I have had a long standing relationship with Kalyra! We have always loved the place. When you are a member you are a «wine thief» a play on words that stems from a device used to draw wine out of the barrel for checking its progress. I always tell people that being a Kalyra member is the biggest no-​brainer a person can make! Free tastings for you and your friends! Awesome parties! Special events! Wine discounts!
This past weekend we enjoyed the movie How the Grinch Stole Christmas! Free for members, with bowls of chili and clam chowder… cookies too! They had some awesome mulled wine for sale by the cup. What a great way to spend a Saturday evening!