15 Nov Santa Barbara: Wine and Art in the Funk Zone

Just east of State Street and sandwiched between the Pacific Ocean and Highway 101, near the AmTrak station in Santa Barbara, the Funk Zone has popped up. Home to artisan shops, wine tasting rooms, microbreweries and eateries, this is Santa Barbara’s hottest destination. The newest addition to the area is the McTavish Family’s Santa Barbara Art Foundry. And, while there, stop for a wine tasting at the Fox Wine Company tasting room inside the Foundry. The Foundry offers free tours to see how bronze sculptures are created. Featuring the artist Tim Cotterill, otherwise known as The FROGman, visitors can watch the entire process firsthand while artisans work on the “lost wax” method and create his original frog sculptures.   Upon completing the tour and while browsing the sculptures in the gallery, enjoy a wine tasting of Fox Wine Company wines, the newest project from award-winning winemaker Blair Fox and his wife Sarah. They have opened up their first tasting room inside the new Santa Barbara Art Foundry, becoming the 18th winery on The Urban Wine Trail, a group of wineries who have set up tasting rooms in downtown Santa Barbara. Blair Fox and Sarah have owned Blair Fox Cellars since 2005. A boutique winery that produces 1000-1200 cases of small lot Rhone varietal wines, they have a tasting room in Los Olivos. But, the wines that they are pouring at their tasting bar at the Foundry are under a new label, Fox Wine Company, where they offer Burgundian varietals, as well as Rhone varietals. Producing only 1000 cases, the Fox Wine Company wines are only available for purchase in the downtown tasting room. Hours: Foundry Open daily for tours 11am-6pm www.sbartfoundry.com Fox Wine Co. Tasting Room: Thursdays through Mondays 11am-6pm