Behind Home Depot in Lompoc there’s the perfect dynamic of work and leisure: forklifts are working and wine bottles are being uncorked.
For nearly 20 years, the industrial area has been home to urban wine tasting rooms.
"Our vineyard is located on 246 in the Santa Rita Hills. It is a certified, sustainable, organic, and biodynamic vineyard," said Cobie Scott of Ampelos Cellars.
The wine is renowned and the tasting rooms are unique. They are in the Lompoc Wine Ghetto because the rent is cheap, the microclimate is cool, and it’s a quick walk from one room to the next.
"Although the buildings look very similar, every tasting room really has its own charm," said Scott. Ampelos Cellars uses recycled wood for its bar.
Nearby Flying Goat Cellars celebrates artwork in its tasting room.
"We’ve become really the leader in the whole urban wine-tasting experience. We were the first on the Central Coast," said Kate Griffith of Flying Goat Cellars about the Wine Ghetto.
While not quite a politically correct name, Griffith said it was described as "the ghetto" as a way to describe to people over the phone what the atmosphere is like here.
