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Consilience
Categories: Food Beer, Wine & Spirits Arts & Entertainment Wineries Food Wineries Beer, Wine & Spirits, Wineries [Edit]
2923 Grand AveLos Olivos, CA 93441
(805) 691-1020
- Hours:
Mon-Sun 11 am - 5 pm
- Accepts Credit Cards:
- Yes
- Price Range:
-
$$
- Parking:
- Street
- Good for Kids:
- No
- Wheelchair Accessible:
- Yes
27 reviews for Consilience
Review Highlights
"...the Grenache Rose and Grenache Blanc in particular, very..."
(in 3 reviews)
"The petite sirah is also one of my favorites."
(in 3 reviews)
"Mambo WHITE and Mambo RED."
(in 3 reviews)
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27 reviews in English
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Review from Adam E.
9/6/2011 1 Check-in Here
Something for everyone here. Tons of wines, space, and comedy.
If you are a... um... "Tasting Room Budgeter" wine taster then you too will enjoy this spots because you get tons of wines to taste from for 10 bucks.
The staff is knowledgeable and I am sure if you give Angela a dollar she will bust out her unicycle and pour for you.
You can fit a nice size group in here which is not really possible in most tasting rooms in this area.
I am sure that there are those people that have zero sense of humor and ore offended easily, that may be putt off a little... but wine should be fun and thats what they make it here.
They have various varietals which is nice when you are tasting in a area that focuses mostly on Rhone Varietals for the most part, which I love, but none the less variety is goodListed in: Best wine tastings in Santa…
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Review from Chris h.
Covina, CA
11/5/2011
The wines here are rich, deep, and soulful. i just opened a cuvee mambo 2006 and I cannot believe how good it is! I had the privilege of meeting Mambo several years ago and the wine named in his honor lives up to his sweet spirit. The petite sirah is also one of my favorites.
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Review from George M.
Los Angeles, CA
4/22/2011
Air Conditioned Tasting Room and one of the best. Best to arrive in the afternoon after lunch because the wines are savory and thick bright colored reds.
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Review from Wendy T.
Pasadena, CA
10/9/2007
Only after 3 visits to Santa Ynez, did I stumble onto the Consilience tasting room. So sad - because they are my favorite winery for this area. Not located in a winery, they run as a tasting room in the small town of Los Olivos. We had 12 tastings for around 10 bucks.
The wines are good - some of the best I've had from Santa Ynez.. Lots of Shiraz's and Pinots. My personal favorite is a library wine - a Shiraz from 2001. Awesome! Additionally, the staff was very friendly, knowledgeable, and willing to give the inside take on the area wineries. The wines seem to average around $30/bottle. -
Review from Edmund L.
Orange County, CA
7/4/2008
Consilience is one of the many little tasting rooms operated out of Los Olivos. Good wines, appropriately priced. We enjoyed the Grenache Rose and Grenache Blanc in particular, very unique, refreshing. The GR had a very interesting nose, see if you can figure it out when you go.
Reds were good as well.
I agree with Karen C, the server is very spunky and friendly. And even though she's young, she knows enough about what's being served.
Definitely will stop by again. -
Review from Nikki M.
4/8/2007
You get to try a lot of wines here with your tasting which is nice, but I wasn't impressed with any of the wines... It wasn't bad pour it all back wine, but it wasn't worth buying. I enjoyed Andrew Murray a lot more.
Our group also found the staff a bit snotty, which was rather off-putting. -
Review from Maureen W.
South Pasadena, CA
4/18/2008
My girlfriend and her husband are members here so we taste for free. That, of course, does not affect my review. Neither does the 3 glasses of their Pinot Noir I've had tonight. Um, ok. Maybe it does a little.
I love this little tasting room. My only complaint is that the bar is TOO SMALL.
The wines are excellent. Some venture on phenomenal. Their PInot is perfection. That subtle mix of spice and berry and light oak. It's everything a Pinot should be. But, if you are after a bit more of an affordable vino...go for their Syrah or Granache. Both were good.
I disagree about the pourers being inexperienced. I have found, after at least 4 visits, that they do know their wines. They are all quite nice. The same lady seems to serve us every time and she is a doll.
Check them out...then go have lunch at the Los Olivos Cafe. -
Review from Breezy M.
Foster City, CA
6/22/2009
I am confused, are these reviews for the same wine we tasted. I feel bad reviewing after so many lovers of this place has, but I genuinely can say this is the worst place we tasted at from 6 others.
All reds had a bitter bite, and acidic finish and I could hardly get through our 5 that we tasted.
but I grit my teeth and got through it, hard times , hard times indeed...
might of been a tad spoiled on this vacation- it got to my head -
Review from Courtney S.
Los Angeles, CA
5/15/2007
I love this winery! The wines are of consistent high quality and good flavor. They do run a bit on the pricier side... but my husband will vouch for the BEST pinot noir he's ever had (2004 Ashley's Vineyard Pinot) and he's even more upset that he missed the Bien Nacido Pinot last year. I like their syrahs.
The tasting room can get croweded in the afternoon. Sorry to hear another group found the staff snotty, they've always been nice and helpful to us!
From our visit in April 2006:
Recommended to us by a friend who said it was great--we agree! Very classy looking tasting room, fun quotes around the place, and good wines.
Tasting was $7 for 5 on the County Wine list, $7 for 4 on the Designated Vineyard list, or $12 for both lists. The 2004 Grenache Blanc was a good white, as was the 2004 Roussanne, which we bought. The 2003 SB County Syrah was perhaps a bit light, the 2003 Hampton Vineyard Syrah was good, and the 2003 Great Oaks Vineyard Syrah was like a melody in your mouth changing tastes as it moved through. I was not leaving town without a bottle of that! Their 2004 Pinot Noir is an award winner, and as good as we had expected. We bought that, too. The 2003 Star Lane Vineyard Syrah was pretty good, but the 2003 Rodney Shull Syrah had opposite tastes to us--for me it started spicy and finished smooth, Josh had the reverse. Odd, eh? The 2003 Petite La Presa Sirah was definitely ok, but the 2003 Zinfandel was SO SWEET. It was almost like a dessert wine!
We liked this winery so much we decided to join the wine club! 2 bottles three times a year at $70 a shipment.Listed in: Santa Barbara County & Santa…
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Review from Thia G.
Walnut Creek, CA
10/21/2008
This is a really awesome tasting room. Great service, VERY friendly and willing to educate about wines. The environment is really comfortable and rustic-feeling - makes you feel at home.
The wines here are also really good, better than some of the other tasting rooms in the area. Good wine + good service = great tasting room.
Check out other tasting rooms in this small town of Los Olivos - overall I liked all of them better than anything I encountered in Solvang (just a few miles away). -
Review from Carol A.
Brentwood, CA
11/29/2010
I was visiting the tasting room with a club member. He spoke so highly of the wines and most of all the staff. Boy, were we surprised when we were treated so poorly. The pourer asked us 4 (yep 4 times) if we were members, and looked at us sheepishly when we said yes. She could not find us in the system, and thought we were trying to get free tastings or something. Finally, she spelled his name correctly, and lo and behold his name came up on the system. Then she changed her entire attitude, and started smiling. She did not offer much information on the wines she was pouring and they were just okay. Really didn't matter what the wine tasted like, when we couldn't get over the rudeness of the pourer. We just left.
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Review from Sally L.
Tampa, FL
3/26/2009 2 photos
By the time mom & I hit up Consilience after lunch at the Los Olivos Cafe (accompanied, of course, by a glass of wine), which was after visiting 3 other tasting rooms already (4? I admit I lost track...), I was pretty far gone.
I enjoyed the tasting & was absolutely fascinated by the mini-decanters they had attached to the bottles (though a little disappointed that it meant the pours couldn't be very generous... in hindsight this is probably a Good Thing). I tried to snap a picture of one, but the dimness of the room coupled with my alcohol-laden unsteady hands resulted in a rather blurry picture. Sad.
The camera (Canon Rebel XSi) did spark a conversation with the bubbly inebriated group next to us, though, so that's cool.
Next time I'm in the Los Olivos area I'd like to give Consilience a try a little bit earlier in my tasting tour -- but mom's been before & she said it's very good, so I'll go ahead & trust my worn-out tastebuds' call of "delish" on this one.
Cost was about the same as everywhere else. -
Review from fran d.
Long Beach, CA
6/7/2010
how did a place the looks so sharp and well put together go so wrong? well, for one their pourings are not on par with the rest of the tasting rooms. hardly could appreciate the taste of any of their choices and second their staff was not on top of things despite the fact that there wasn't much of a crowd when we were there.
i wish i could say more about their pinot, syrahs and granache but the experience was rather forgettable. i might give them another chance in the future but we'll see. -
Review from bryan f.
Los Angeles, CA
4/25/2008
After the first visit to Consilience a couple years ago I was hooked. I became a Wine Club member immediately and I look forward to my shipments every 4 months or so. After a recent road trip to Los Olivos, I figured I need to write a review. Their syrahs are some of the best Ive ever had in my 2 years of collecting. The 2004 and 2005 Petite Syrah and the Brave Oak / Hampton Syrahs are especially good. Big flavor and big alcohol content! Some are around 16+%! Im holding onto a few bottles for the future, but may cave soon and open em up...
The folks that run the tasting room are friendly and know everything about their products. Say hello to Peggy next time youre there. Shes a fantastic young lady!. Next door is their sister tasting room Tre Anelli. Try it as well!
You can buy Consilience at K&L Wine in LA or, if in Ventura, try Paradise Pantry.
Cheers! -
Review from David C.
Santa Barbara, CA
3/18/2011
The people and wines at Consilience are great! The people couldn't be nicer from the winemaker down to the tasting room people. The wines are full-bodied, but very well done. Some of my favorites are the Syrah, Petite Sirah, and Zinfandel. If you haven't tried Consilience yet, I highly recommend them. Please tell them that David sent you.
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Review from EJ T.
Canyon Country, CA
9/9/2010
WOW! This is one of my most fave winery/wine tasting places to go. The last time I was here was in 2007 (with my husband for our anniversary) and it's been long overdue!!!! Their pinots, syrahs and ports are awesome and worth it!!!
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Review from Simon C.
West Los Angeles, CA
4/7/2008
how can you NOT love a winery that prides itself on only offering tasty wines with AT LEAST 15% alcohol?
still not sold?
wait, there's more!
they also have a really cool black labrador named "mambo" in their tasting room that is super mellow and mingles with the customers.
STILL not sold?!?
ok, if you go now, the winery will also throw in attractive servers as a free gift!!!!
our birthday boy super squirrel was totally drooling over the gal that was serving the tastings, although i'm sure the fact that we'd just tasted like 20+ wines and shared a bottle at lunch might have had something to do with it...
super quaint tasting room, high octane tasty wines, cute servers, great company, and sunshine!
what else could you ask for?!?
...a nap. -
Review from Alured P.
San Francisco, CA
6/5/2010
A nice tasting room for starting off the day. Staff was friendly and the wine was pretty good.
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Review from Rob M.
San Mateo, CA
1/17/2006
Great winery in Los Olivos with an interesting selection of wines. They make a delicious Grenache Blanc (rather rare to my experience), a large number of Syrahs and other Rhone varietals, and a Petite Sirah as well. Well worth the time to stop in. http://www.consilience.../
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Review from Sofia H.
9/13/2007
Consilience offers one of the best Pinot Noir's in the valley, as well a great Zinfandel port which pairs fantastically with Scharffenberger chocolate.
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Review from Karen C.
San Francisco, CA
6/1/2008
4 stars for the nice wines and our friendly, spunky wine server. 5 stars for their delicioius pinot noir that tasted like a cherry bomb! Fun place to taste wines. Would definitely come back here again.
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Review from Paul W.
San Francisco, CA
6/1/2008
This is what a wine tasting room in town should be. I could hang out here all night long. Yummy wines, especially the Pinot, warm comfortable environment, friendly knowledgable staff. I look forward to going back here. I only wish the wines costs less, but good wine in Santa Barbara, while very good, is not cheap.
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Review from BrasilPo P.
Oakland, CA
7/22/2007
Mambo WHITE and Mambo RED.
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Review from Kit E.
Mountain View, CA
12/27/2008
Maybe it was because we were wined-out, or maybe it was because we were so blown away by Tre Anelli that everything else paled in comparison. The same winemaker makes the wines for both Consilience and Tre Anelli, but the wines could not taste more different! The reds were alright, and I liked some of the whites, but Hub. E didn't care for them.
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Review from Jackie B.
Aliso Viejo, CA
4/5/2008
Consilience is a sister winery to Tre Anelli, which is why we came here. It had a large tasting room for this area, and a different feel from Tre Anelli. The wines were pretty good, but not the best. The pourers were a little inexperienced and young, as were most of the crowd.
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Review from Thomas J.
San Francisco, CA
12/1/2008
I wouldn't give 4 stars for the wine, but as tasting room experiences go in this area, this is a very good one. The pourers are friendly, attentive and knowledgeable. And get this, they like to talk about the wine! I'm not demanding that all tasting room employees must be sommeliers, but their level of interest should at least match that of the guests. Consilience wines are very drinkable - if a bit overpriced when you compare to other regions - and they are also quite representative of what you can get out of the different grapes in this area if you try. I didn't walk out with a case from this place, but if I see one of their wines on a restaurant menu one day I might be inclined to take it for a swirl.
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Review from nicole b.
San Diego, CA
8/9/2009
Great wine - we bought the Pinot and Syrah - next year we'll probably stop here again.
