Seeing the Wisdom

The Editorial board at the Record gets behind the Santa Rita Hills Wine Center project in today's editorial:

Why is this important to the Central Coast in general? Because the center's blueprint offers a unique project that could add significantly to the Central Coast's mushrooming reputation as a place to visit for discerning wine lovers.

The deal for the land is not yet complete, but when it is, possibly as early as next month, local vineyard owner Rosario Perry plans to attract 10 to 15 separate wineries, put them up in a compound of buildings ranging in size up to 25,000 square feet, add a restaurant, bed and breakfast, and tasting room and call it the Santa Rita Hills Wine Center. Perry hopes to have the whole thing up and running by grape-crush time next October.

It's a good location for such a venture. The Lompoc Valley offers a different view of central Santa Barbara County. It's location so near the ocean ensures an almost continual, cool breeze, even when parts of the valley further east are sweltering in summer months. During parts of the year, the Lompoc Valley is ablaze with fields of colorful flowers.

The wine center is a proposal that should be embraced by the Central Coast's other wine operations.

Translating it into one simple and easy-to-understand phrase, I'd characterize my discussion this morning--and the paper's agreement--thus:

"It's the reputation, stupid!"