Looking at Gary's and John's photos brings back fond memories.
When I came to UC Santa Barbara in February 1969 I spent the first five months in a "non-traditional dorm"
called Francisco Torres just outside the campus.
Across the hallway lived another German speaking fellow who was a professional pilot at Wien Airline in Alaska and attended a program at the nearby airport to gain his license to fly larger jets. Since I had a license to fly glider planes we talked a lot about flying and decided one weekend to get some flying time in a glider at the Santa Inez Valley airport. We were checked out in a Schweizer 2-seater - can't remember whether it was a 2-22 or 2-33 - and then came back once to fly solo - I wasn't too overwhelmed with the Schweizer SG1-26 plane.
However, the area's charm had its pull and my wife and I frequently drove up in our 1970 VW Cabrio, mostly to Solvang for real Danish pastries or to Buellton to watch HAP-PEA and PAE-WEE splitting peas.
There were no open wineries up there yet, although a few ranchers had started growing grapes and sold the fruit or the pressed juice to wineries up north. One of them, Rancho Sisquoc (
https://www.ranchosisquoc.com/pages/about-us) became our favorite spot when they opened up in the late 1970s and we were living in Orange County and here in Solana Beach. For my taste they made the only acceptable Riesling and Silvaner in California.
Indeed the region has changed a lot since then and the movie "Sideways" shows quite vividly what it looked like in 2004. But IMO the major changes in landscape and in character were wrought by Jess Jackson (of Kendall-Jackson Chardonnay fame) and the fraudulent Charles Banks, the later owner of Mattei's Tavern (
https://syvnews.com/lifestyles/wine/qupe-wines-and-mattei-s-tavern-owner-sentenced-to-four/article_be9f0780-b73f-5255-b865-8aa0103e161d.html).
