One of Santa Barbara County’s most enduring wineries is poised to open its first formal tasting room on Highway 246 in Buellton, right next to the restaurant of the same name, the Hitching
Post II.

Frank Ostini, owner/chef of the venerable restaurant, has just acquired the lease for 420 E. Highway 246, which is adjacent to the eatery. He anticipates opening the doors in July.

When I reached him Tuesday morning, Ostini sounded beyond excited for a chance to finally be able to showcase Hitching Post Wines from a site of his own.

The tasting room “will give us a chance to say that we ‘really’ are a winery, and that we are as serious as anyone about the wine we make,” he said.

Ostini also said that he also hopes to develop a take-out/delivery concept to provide a limited lunch menu at the new Hitching Post tasting room and picnic grounds.

“Hamburgers — I’m pretty sure we’re going to have to serve hamburgers,” he said with a laugh. (The Hitching Post’s Monday “Burgers Night” has morphed into a weekly dining extravaganza).

“For every steak house, we need 10 burger joints,” he said.

Ostini anticipates creating a fast-casual business at the new site, one that will feature traditional favorites from the Hitching Post: burgers, fries and pulled pork sandwiches. The popular restaurant “has always been driven by its casual atmosphere,” he said.

The new space was formerly occupied by the Loring Wine Company, which relocated last month to 201 Industrial Way, Suite B.

“Buellton has been our home base for Hitching Post Wines since 1986, and we are thrilled to now have a location that can focus on wine tasting and retail sales in the center of Santa
Barbara Wine Country,” said Ostini, who makes the wines with longtime colleague Gray Hartley.

Hartley, a former Alaskan salmon fisherman, and Ostini, owner of the restaurant, came together over a love of wine and winemaking.

Over the years, their “backyard hobby” has grown into a business that produces 17,000 cases of wine annually.

The two first made wine in 1979, and together launched the Hitching Post brand in 1984.

Over the years since, they two have made their wines at Au Bon Climat/Qupe and Central Coast Wine Services, both in Santa Maria, and since 2008, at Terravant Wine Company in Buellton.

“We were the first client to bring in barrels to Terravant; we arrived there in 2008, when Terravant first opened, with our 2007 vintage in barrels,” Ostini said.

The partners focus on pinot noir from many of the county’s top-notch vineyards, among them single-vineyard bottlings from Julia’s, Sanford & Benedict and Bien Nacido vineyards, as well as other pinot noirs sourced from throughout the Sta. Rita Hills and Santa Maria Valley AVAs.

“In this new location we are excited to feature many of our rare single-vineyard bottlings and special older vintages of Hitching Post Wines,” Hartley noted.

Other Hitching Posts red wines include blends, a merlot and a syrah, and the “Pinks” rosé wine.

Ostini and Hartley have a unique connection to the prominence of Santa Barbara County’s wine industry via their participation in the filming of the movie Sideways.

The 2004 film thrust our region into the public eye, particularly in terms of pinot noir.

— Laurie Jervis blogs about wine at www.centralcoastwinepress.com, tweets at @lauriejervis and can be reached via winecountrywriter@gmail.com. The opinions expressed are her own.