King Estate Winery

Beautiful facility and tasting room.. Fabulous view of countryside.  Interesting graveyard also on property with grav es from the 1800's. We ate in the restaurant, servers were excellent, food above average. The reason I am not rating it higher is because we were seated near tasting bar which is noisy. I noticed a separate dining room with a fireplace off to the side.  it was empty.  I asked if we could be seated there and were told no because it was booked for a private party. We were actually with a wine club member but were stilled turned down.  The entire 2 hours we were there, only one table of 4 was seated in this beautiful little room, I saw no big private party and all the other tables remained empty.  Only as we were leaving, parties of 2's and 4's were being seated there. In fact, as we were paying our bill, another couple requested that they be seated in the private dining room. We told them we had been turned down and don't expect to be seated there, but lo and behold, they were moved right into the "special room".  Too bad Erin the manager couldn' t have made a better decision that would have improved our experience!

Oct 2013 - We went on a very rainy day. It is a pretty long drive and you pass several other wineries so we expected it to be quiet there.  Nope.  Pretty busy.  The wines were good - not exceptional although I did enjoy the Signature Pinot Noir.  Wished we could have enjoyed the view but rainy and cloudy so no sitting outside.  Menu looked good but pricey.  The most spectacular attribute is the winery building itself.  High on a hill and magnificent.  Go to taste and enjoy the architecture.

Of course, the reason to go to the King Estate is for their wide selection of some really good wines, but King also offers a restaurant with some wonderful food. I think the food is pricey, but I also think the higher prices were justified by the outstanding quality of the food. The pastrami sandwich I enjoyed was the best I have ever had, a distinction previously held by a tiny little sandwich shop in Santa Barbara, CA whose pastrami had a more delicate flavor than I usually find and that really enhanced the meal. However, the pastrami at Kings was notable for its freshness, tenderness and for the light hint of smokey flavor (unique among any pastramis I've ever had) that supplemented the already wonderful pastrami flavor. Moreover, the portion size was great, probably another justification for the price. I followed the meal with coffee which was fresh, strong but not too strong, and delicious. And, of course, the view from the dining room out over the vineyards made the entire experience memorable. I rarely give a 5 rating because I really want them to go to only the most top notch of places and this one certainly earned it.