Kenneth Volk Vineyards

My favorite winery. Great variety of styles so there’s something for everyone. I especially like the Pinots, and the Fred blend is a bargain.

EXCELLENT WINE! A little pricey, however, you have to be prepared to pay a little more for excellence. Great staff. Did I mention their awesome wine?
If you can get you hands on a bottle of the 2011 petite syrah you should do so. My other favorites are the Malvasia Bianca and the Jaybird unoaked (sp?) Chardonnay.
I liked KV so much I became a member.

Kenneth Volk! Another new stop for us.
We had purchased the Summer Sippin’ Passport ($ 20 for 20 tastings) and were in the club tasting room at Zaca (the only place out this way that I’m a member at) when and another couple mentioned heading out to pick up from their other club.
Other club you say? Hmmmm, this piqued my interest. If I’m a member here, and they’re members here and they’re members somewhere else out here, we must have similar taste in wine… I quickly asked where they were headed and wanted to know more. They told us Kenneth Volk and mentioned all of the unique varieties. Only on this occasion, where we had already been down that way tasting and it was getting later in the day but with the opportunity to try so many new places on this passport, we gave it a go!
We arrived at Kenneth Volk and right away my boyfriend spotted a familiar face from Rancho Sisquoc. That was lovely! I right away spotted the vegan cinnamon rolls :)
We tasted several different wines and honestly, I enjoyed what we had and will return in the near future to taste again at a couple select places that were brand new to us this go around, but with a fresh palate.
I’m happy we made it here and had a pleasant experience so we can get them into the rotation next time.

Travel from Solvang to Southeast Santa Maria from Solvang on the Foxen Canyon Road
WORTH THE BEAUTIFUL RIDE
I read the Unilocal reviews hammering this place and wonder why, when the wine is tasty and the price points are amazing. The negative reviews made us even more inclined to visit.
Ambience — small, quaint, tasting room on a Tuesday in May was just right. It’s in a beautiful country setting.
Service — 2 Servers: accommodating and VERY generous with extra pours, and revisits.
Wine — 2009 Paso Merlot at $ 28 is a steal — bought a bunch. Full fruit forward nose, plum, currant, lush palate, peppery finish. Is that green pepper in there? Yep, that’s it.
Hey haters — its wine. And they have some pretty good selections.
Worth the drive from Solvang. Or Buellton. Or Los Alamos. Or Santa Maria.

Far and away the best wine we’ve tasted in the region! Definitely worth the $ 10 tasting. We chose to do the cheese pairing for $ 5 more and are so happy we did! Delicious! The staff was friendly and informative, reasonably priced bottles, and your tasting fee is waved if you buy 2+ bottles. Which we did! It was too good not to! It’s a little out of the way but Kenneth Volk is worth the trip! Just beware that the tasting room is small. We went on a weekday so we had no problem but I imagine it could get crowded during the weekend.

I have had great respect for Mr. Volk since I had his Trousseau when he was making wines for Wild Horse up in Paso Robles. (He calls it Cabernet Pfeffer now, but if I’ve got it right, it’s the same grape, from up in San Benito County, a lovely vineyard that doesn’t make its own wines.)
I’m not knocked out by his tasting room, and frankly it affects the way I feel about his wines. I’m far more critical of the wine after seeing how full of themselves the tasting room staff are.
First of all, the tasting room is way off the beaten track. You have to drive many a mile to get here.
And God forbid you should show up after they’ve decided to stop taking customers. No matter what their officially posted hours are, if they decide to close early, you’re just sunk. .. after spending a long time to get there. Now you get to drive back to civilization with nothing to show.
The wine is expensive. That’s fair, for a good wine.
But when I have been there, there are always so many people and so few staffers that it’s really uncomfortable for everyone. I’m used to tasting rooms where you drift in, mill around, enjoy a sip here, a sip there, maybe check out the merchandise, and relax. At this place, there’s a clump of people around each server, and it takes a lot to elbow up to the front. The servers do know the wine. I respect that.
And the wine is decent. Is it worth the drive? Meh. You can get good wine at the grocery store, for less. (You can get brilliant wine, that outshines this, at a wine store, still possibly for less.) And you can save yourself the drive.
If I were headed out into those particular boondocks for something else, I’d be happy to swing by again. Without question, the landscape is gorgeous.
But I have been disappointed by the tasting room enough that I’m not likely to go out of my way to get there (and maybe find it closed, or maybe find it overcrowded and frustrating).

If you do not like these wines then go back to drinking Thunderbird. This is the one of the best Vineyards in the area. Volk picks the best place to grow his grapes and unfortunately for you it is off the beaten path. I however enjoyed the drive and the wines were magnificent.

I enjoyed tasting your Chardonnay at the Simply Wine Festival last week. My latest Taste N Trip blog post is at
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My husband and I were recommended this place and with our tiny dog in tow impressed immediately! Amazing service and wines to die for… Heck even all the people there tasting at the same time as us were awesome (we all must have good taste!) My little doggie made friends with a cat outside and frolicked on the grass while mom and dad tasted wine– great people, great experience!

Great winery to try a lot of different grapes you’ve never heard of before like cabernet pfeffer, negrette, mouuverdre, tannat. servers are great at explaining the wines and letting you try all the different types. agree with sherri j that there is a gentleman there that prob. should not be pouring as he has absolutely no interest in explaining the wines but the two lady servers there were absolutely wonderful.

I am a person that knew nothing at all about wines and this place gave me an awesome education. I learned about different types and textures of grapes, I learned about grape hybrids, types of acidity in different varieties and cloning. I received an awesome education and found a type of wine I like and would feel comfortable ordering because I don’t typically like the taste or smell of alcohol, but I’ve always wanted to learn. They offer 6 tastings for $ 10 and you receive a complimentary engraved wine glass with your experience. They had a good mix of whites/​reds to try and everyone was very nice. They have a small gift shop with a variety of items including balsamic vinegar and olive oil gift sets as well as purses that can conceal whole bottles of wine, lol, t-​shirts, and some type of salted almond brittle that my friend swears by! The grounds were very beautiful and picnic like. It was a lovely experience, great scenery made for good photo ops too. It was a really good experience for my very first winery.

Great tasting. The place might not be much to look at, but the staff is extremely knowledgeable and helpful and the wines were quite good (for me, the reds in particular). They use grow and use very interesting varietals I’d never been exposed to before, including Negrette, Cabernet Pfeffer, and Mouuvedre. Thomas did a great job walking us through the wines. He also let us try a Syrah that wasn’t on the tasting menu. Loved it.
In retrospect, wish I’d bought more wine there! Will definitely go there again next time we’re in the area.

We used to love this winery but several years ago we found the staff lacking in tact and professionalism so we cancelled our membership. I even wrote the owner a letter informing him as to what we had over heard but he never even acknowledged it.
Two weeks ago we decided to check it out again. None of the wines jumped out at us. What we did notice was the unfriendly male in the back room pouring wine with a stone face! We actually mentioned to the girls out front that they were far more friendly and that they should be in the back pouring!
Wine tasting should be fun! It’s not here.

Really nice staff welcomed us and had a lot of choice as to which wines were tasted. the only odd thing was the tasting took place in the barrel room which was a big caverous concrete room, very chilly, which had some random tiki décor around the white wine area. Staff was terrific and would return — just would have been more comfy on a warmer day outside or in the lobby area.

Last year some friends who were members introduced us to Kenneth Volk winery. I was amazed at all the wines we tasted — I’d say about 15 (and that wasn’t all of them), definitely had to share. Non members get about 6 tastes, but get to choose from about 20. We liked the wines so much we signed up on our next visit.
The whites are good, but Kenneth Volk makes some outstanding reds. They have excellent Pinot’s, Zins, and blends. Gary was pouring wines for us the last trip — he is very knowledgeable about the wines and the entire region. They also have a tasting room in Paso Robles, where a lot of their grapes come from.

What is there not to like about this winery, absolutely nothing… and they have a winery cat that makes it even better.
Great friendly service and fantastic wine.

This was the second stop on our 3 for the price of 2 winery tastings. It’s literally a 5 minute drive from Cambria Vinyards tasting room. The building that the KV tasting room is in is quite large, but the actual tasting room is fairly small. The tasting room itself has a very rustic or cabin feel to it. There was quite a few people here tasting which made for a crowded tasting room. The guy doing our pours was very friendly and knowledgeable.
We were presented with a fairly long list of wines and we were told we could pick six to taste. We picked primarily reds, and two stood out. The Temparnillo and their Petite Sirrah (which is actually from the Paso Robles region). We got a couple of bonus pours and we revisited both the Temparnillo and the Petite Sirah. We decided to pick up two bottles of the Petite Sirah. In hind sight I wish I had taken a bottle of the Temparnillo too.
We will be revisiting this winery!

4.75
Their wine selection and quality of wine– 5. They have a huge selection with several varietals not typical for wineries in Los Olivos. 95% of the wines we tasted were spot on. We already had several bottles from other wineries, but would’ve spent it here instead if we had known how amazing it would be. We still purchased a bottle of their pinot noir-​bien nacido, a bottle of rose grenache, and a negrette.
The man helping us was very knowledgeable and had great recommendations. They deserve a 5 rating but I took .25 off for a small tasting room. This place is amazing and I want everyone to comfortably enjoy their tasting.

My friends and I stopped by Kenneth Volk on our winetasting trip and loved it! By far, our group’s favorite vineyard during the wine tour.
The tasting room needs a facelift however, but I can overlook that because their wines are so amazing! I wanted to buy everything! But, being a young professional budget, I only allowed myself two bottles!
Can’t want to come back!

I love Kenneth Volk! Sooo much so that I’m actually considering joining their wine club… oh but to be a 24 year old on a budget… Screw it, I’m doing it!
Thee best winery I’ve ever been too. Sure the tasting room is a little small, but they have great sommeliers and most importantly they have an amazing selection of wines! They have 2 tasting rooms. Whites and reds. I lingered a little longer at the white wine tasting room, being a white wine fan and all, but I must say they has some pretty incredible reds as well.
My favorite whites were the Sierra Madre chardonnay and their viognier. Oh soo good! They also had a very good zinfandel. Very friendly and informative sommeliers. I think that’s what made me enjoy this winery that much more.