Plan B Wine Cellars

Nice hosters, exellent wine, cozy place, Me and my husband just. Found it two weeks agoand we just love it !

Mighty fine wine! My only issue which why I rated only 2 stars is the hospitality. Owned by a local couple, the Mr, very welcoming and friendly. Mrs, not so much every time. Unfortunately the last Blues night we attended, Mrs basically hassled us about using the picnic table for a Party of 4, even though they were all free. Apparently she only wants parties of 6 – 8. Two friends coming from Santa Barbara caught in traffic and Mrs kept questioning us where are friends were. This left a bad taste in our mouth and tainted our view of a gem of a winery close to home. Sadly we won’t be attending nor recommending to our local friends. BUT I must say the wine is OUTSTANDING in my opinion. Just not a inviting environment. Get the wine to go and take in some local tunes else where.

An interesting winery (due to its location) that we visited after tasting wine at two other wineries, so our palates were dead when we got to Plan B. However, our host (Morley) was very friendly and took care of us while explaining why the winery shares space with a stone-​cutting business and other industrial businesses, and where the name Plan B came from. The wines were… well, it would not be fair to rate them since in all honesty, our palates were «drunk» on wine tastings from two other establishments. We’ll be back in Oxnard soon and we’ll be visiting Plan B again, with refreshed palates that will provide a fair rating of their wines.

Love this place! Relaxing atmosphere, great wine selection, fun events with music and food at least a couple of times each month, plus the tastings they do on weekends. Everyone is so friendly and you feel welcome as soon as you arrive. I will keep going back.

Holy crap please go here! All the wines were very good, the venue has a large dining area, a beautiful view and incredibly friendly owners. We are so happy we stumbled on this gem!

Took a random day trip to Ventura and had no idea they had a wine corridor. Plan B was our favorite of the day. Fantastic reds, lovely location. Ask about the origin of the name and you’ll get a great story about the winery and you may find out you’re actually talking to the co-​owner/​winemaker, as we were. Wonderful place! We’ll be back!

Plan B is one of our favorite wineries on the Ventura Wine Trail. We generally don’t visit a winery more than once in order to taste at all the wineries in any given region, but seeing how we visited every winery in Santa Barbara, Ojai, Ventura Wine Trail and most of Santa Ynez Valley, Plan B is one of our «MUST REVISIT» wineries when we travel up this way… We have visited the wine tasting room 3 times so far and have yet to be disappointed with the wines or customer service. We always walk away with several bottles of wine… MAKE SURE YOU MAKE PLAN B AS ONE OF YOUR STOPS for GREAT WINE!!! and GREAT PEOPLE.

WOW! What a gem of a place — the people running it are diamonds too!
We had a great time — great atmosphere — great wines — what more can you ask for?
my favourite wine was the Mourvedre! Can’t wait to come back for more!

Jan and Marlow are excellent host and owners of this superb winery. A dream come through for them, enjoy their dream! Wines are excellent and special 2^nd Sunday of the month events, are creative and fun!

The Traveling Winers on California Wine Trail
Ready, Set, Go! We were so excited to FINALLY get to the Santa Barbara Wine Country to taste to our hearts content! We started off our journey by arriving on Friday afternoon and heading straight over to our first tasting at Plan B Wine Cellars in Ventura, California. To be completely honest, all were a bit taken back in that upon arrival we found ourselves in the parking lot of an industrial building/​complex. The parking lot was full of cars and masonry stone from another company. At the end of the building was Plan B Wine Cellars. Curious beginning, Tom Joe and Miki having had this experience of industrial tasting rooms before, but a new, rather shocking experience for Brian and Elizabeth.
Then we met the owners! Janis and Marlow Barger. Some of the most down to earth and nice folks you would ever meet. They have a story that is really interesting and somewhat lengthy so we won’t bore you with it twice, so click on our blogs below to read all the details. What we will say here is that they have only been open for 1 year, since October 2012, source their grapes from outside vineyards, make their wine on site and taste in the same location, and have done a VERY nice job of making a warehouse space «feel» vineyard romantic.
They currently produce about 1,200 cases per year and have a fun addition to bottle purchases in that they have two kegs of specially blended wines that you can buy by the glass or the growler. Kinda cool! Elizabeth and Brian bought one specifically for the growler itself.
To sum up our trail start, although it was a bit tenuous up front with an unexpected ambiance, it quickly morphed right in front of our eyes into a wonderful experience, one which we would highly recommend!
The Traveling Winers at The Vineyard Trail

Plan B Wine Cellars is located in a not so obvious place to taste wine, but once you meet with Janis and Marlow and share some wine it all begins to make sense. The venue just works. They have done a great job with the décor and the wine sings Central Coast. My personal favorite is the Mourvedre!
Plan B Wine Cellars is part of the latest wine destination in Ventura County and they are doing it right. Don’t be shocked when you hear a train in the distance and the entire bar stands up. Just stand up with them and get ready to Toast the Train!

Having been a fan of wine for many years it was a nice surprise to find this hidden gem.
My partner and I have been to several wineries in the Napa and Sonoma County areas and Central coast, even belonging to several wine clubs. Driving in the neighborhood one day we stumbled on Plan B wine cellars. If you ever been wine tasting you know that it is very rare that you like every wine served. Well that’s what happen from the first pour to the last it was all amazing. Wine makers Marlow and Janis have out done them selves from their awsome wine to their welcoming tasting room this was an enjoyable afternoon. The feel of the warmth and kindness from both wine makers and regulars (they call the B-​listers) was why we love this neighborhood. So don’t walk but run and check this gem of a find in Ventura. No wine club, no pushy sales people, no stuffiness just good wine and good people with a beautiful view. Oh and the winery does a Second Sunday Supper, what fun. There is a gourmet food truck, dessert truck and a live band!!! Such a great afternoon 4−7pm you don’t want it to end!
So go and «TOAST THE TRAIN» as they say at PLAN B!

This place was GREAT! The couple that owns it was working and they were so kind and very friendly, even the people visiting were talkative and friendly which is always a plus! Their wines were excellent! They even have a couple on tap! =) Would definetly go back next time I am in the area. Thanks for the great experience!

Great spot! Love the atmosphere and the view is gorgeous. And of course, the wine is excellent! Came here for a stop on the tasting trail and really loved the set up here and the owner, didn’t catch his name, was so friendly! Love all the barrels right inside where we drink. Can’t wait to come back and check out a few sunsets!

Plan B Wine Cellars! When Plan A fails, try try again…
Delightful wines, owners, and an adorable tasting room! Stop in and meet them and get the whole story. You will be charmed by the owners and love the wines. We always have a great time while visiting.

Not one of my favorites in terms of some of the tasting I’ve done.

Plan B is a working winery located in an industrial section of Ventura, just off Main St. The interior décor is rustic and quite charming, the oak slab wine bar made by the owner is really something to see. The wine maker/​/​owners, Janis and Marlow are friendly, welcoming, and really know their wines. Other wine-​tasting guests are friendly and seem unpretentious.
Oh, and the wines are great. My favorite is the Valley View Syrah, but for a lighter and very tasty drink, try the Mouvedra.
Their new Zin is fantastic, served it with turkey at Thanksgiving!
You can’t go wrong here.

(Tasted 10÷26÷13 SA @ 1:00pm): When Plan A fails… you better have a Plan B!
Thanks to an outstanding Living Social offer (
), a coworker, her husband, her sister, and I were able to try several wineries in the Ventura County area — among them, Plan B Wine Cellar.
The Living Social deal was a voucher for a «One Harvest Wine Passport» offered by the Ventura County Wineries Association and valid at eight wineries ($ 80.00 value for $ 40.00). Plan B Wine Cellar was our second stop on our tasting tour, and I had to say they were the most festive with Halloween decorations everywhere. Here was how the tasting went (only reds), and please by no means am I an oenophile — just a simple fool who enjoyed wine
:
2010 Mourvedre — Happy Canyon Santa Barbara: (ranked #5) I’ve never had this varietal before but it was simply too earthy for me.
2010 Grenache — Happy Canyon Santa Barbara: (ranked #4) I’ve never been a fan of this varietal and still not after this tasting. The nose was nice but the tannins seemed to overpower my palate.
2010 GMS — red table wine: (ranked #2) A blend of grenache, mourvedre, and syrah, this was a nice surprise of subtleness and left me relaxed.
2011 Zinfandel — Paso Robles: (ranked #1) I enjoyed the bold fruitiness and long finish. It left a nice lasting impression that I had to buy a bottle ($ 38.00).

2010 Story line Shiraz — Santa Ynez Valley: (ranked #3) This was a decent wine although I’m not a fan of Shiraz, either. Although, I found this to be a nice «rocking chair on the porch» type of wine.
Service — We arrived and promptly produced our 2013 Harvest Passport to one of the proprietors, Janice, who then set us up for our tasting. She was very attentive, friendly, informative, and talkative. There was one other couple so she assisted everyone perfectly. She even took us out back and introduced us to her husband who was pressing grapes.
The folks here really had a passion for what they were doing.
Parking — There was sufficient free parking on their private lot. «Nuff said.
Atmosphere, décor, ambience — The business was located in an industrial area — in a warehouse to be exact — and I believed they also had a granite business based on the granite slabs we saw when we pulled up and parked. The tasting room was very spacious with a standing area and several picnic tables and benches.
As I mentioned, there was an outdoor area where pressing occurred but also more picnic tables and benches, and a BBQ grill if people wanted to bring their own food. How cool was that?! Barrels were stacked inside, and other than the Halloween decorations there was nothing else except bottles and glasses.
There was ample electric and natural lighting. I didn’t notice any TVs but I think I heard some background music (or maybe that came from outside).
Attire — It was totally casual so I would normally be in a t-​shirt, boardshorts, and flip-​flops.
Overall, Plan B Wine Cellar was a fun experience and instantly became a family atmosphere when one of the workers came in with her two dogs dressed in costume. Since they produced in considerably small lots, I felt their price range ($ 28.00-$ 38.00) was higher than the average (around $ 20.00-$ 30.00). I still can’t get used to the whole urban winery located in industrial areas as the whole romanticism of a vineyard view was reserved for those more conducive areas such as Napa, Santa Barbara, Sonoma, and Temecula — just to name a few in California. But as long as they produced a good product I guess it didn’t matter, right? It’s not like Ventura County lacks farmland, so I’m just saying… I found very good value based on the prices, service, and experience noted above (total experience was around $ 45.00 based on 50%-off tasting of $ 10.00; no tip required). I was out of luck again for whites and got the usual five tastings. However, I wished there were complimentary crackers (the other couple had pretzels but may needed to be purchased) to aid with the tasting. However, I came away with one bottle. Although they accepted credit cards, not mine of choice… AMEX!

Stopped in here to see if any of our local winery /​wine tasting options could stand up to Wine tasting in more established areas. We were very pleasantly surprised with Plan B. solid wines, especially a 2010 Valley View Syrah that was superb! Great company there with other wine tasters we ran into. Highly recommend a visit!

Great atmosphere for my first time here. For $ 15 one glass of wine, live band, great food. It was an event, but id like to come on an ordinary day. Check it out, it’s new!