J. Wilkes Wines has closed its Santa Barbara tasting room, according to the establishment’s Yelp page.
The J. Wilkes Wines tasting room was located in the heart of the Funk Zone at 35 State Street, according to the winery’s website. The dedicated page for the tasting room has since been disabled.
Located one block from the beach and Stearns Wharf, the tasting room specialized in wines exclusively sourced from sub-AVAs of the Central Coast, according to its Yelp page.
The tasting room offered California’s traditional wine varietals, rare selections, signature offerings, and non-alcoholic wines.
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The business has not issued any announcement regarding the closure of the tasting room on its social media channels or Yelp listing. It remains unclear when the tasting room closed its doors.
The Funk Zone tasting room served as the brand’s public-facing location, inviting customers to sample its range of wines. Customers can continue to purchase the wines through the brand’s online store.
The former wine tasting room has been listed for lease at $10,000 per month by real estate and investment management company Colliers. The listing includes images of the space, highlighting its bar setup and seating areas suitable for a wine or hospitality-focused tenant.
Located within Hotel Californian, the 1,000-square-foot fully equipped, turnkey wine tasting room sits close to major attractions and offers a steady flow of hotel guests, according to the listing.
The former wine tasting room held a 4.4 rating based on 155 Yelp reviews, with customers citing the variety of wines and the quality of service.
The J. Wilkes label was launched by Jefferson Wilkes in 2001 after he spent nearly 20 years selling wine grapes for the Miller family, according to the J. Wilkes website.
Wilkes was a winegrower and grape salesman at Bien Nacido and Solomon Hills Vineyards in the Santa Maria Valley, as well as in the Paso Robles Highlands, according to a post by store manager Mickey R. on Yelp.
Following Wilkes’ death in 2010, the Miller family purchased the brand to honor the legacy of their friend.
J. Wilkes sources its grapes from four regions – Santa Maria Valley, Paso Robles Highlands, Santa Rita Hills, and Ballard Canyon—according to the website. The brand’s portfolio includes small-lot wines rated above 90 points, including Cabernet Sauvignon, Pinot Noir, and Chardonnay.
The brand’s wines showcase the Central Coast and the diversity of the meso-climates, according to its Yelp page.
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This is not the last wine tasting room that will close. The California wine industry is in deep trouble and wineries have begun to go out of business. Wine consumption is headed downward, as is alcohol in general, as the long term adverse health effects of alcohol become better understood. Cheap foreign wines are also hurting domestic producers as they are blended into domestic wines. Vineyards are being uprooted as growers try to replace their wine grapes with other crops. Uprooting a vineyard is quite expensive and a deterrent to ripping them out. It is a difficult time to be in the wine business.
One by one….