01/11/2025
IMPORTANT NEWS!
Arrowsmith's In Solvang Is Closing Tonight Friday Jan 10th and relocating to our new wine tasting room in Buellton soon...
For over four years we have poured wine and shared precious time with thousands of you, and forged lifelong friendships. Our Cultural Sundays brought lots of speakers to the bar to talk about their work and research. Our High Teas brought a taste of traditional British baking to the Santa Ynez Valley, and it was a delight to see how everyone embraced the events by dressing in wonderful outfits and hats, as though it was a Buckingham Palace garden party.
Through the astounding generosity of our customers and wine club members we raised thousands of dollars for four local animal rescue charities. We supported two international organizations: IFAW in the Ukrainian warzone, and Animals Asia rescuing bears from bile farms in China. Many cats and dogs from the Santa Ynez Valley Humane Society found homes during our adoption events. We applaud your kindness and compassion.
Our journey has taken us in new directions, and over the last year some new opportunities have beckoned. Anna has long felt a calling to return to education, and now teaches on the culinary program at Allan Hancock College in Santa Maria. In 2025 her role and responsibilities there will expand significantly. The winery has also grown; Arrowsmith wines are being served in some of the best restaurants in the region, and it’s now a standalone project that needs more of our time, requiring us to venture out of the valley more often.
Life is short, and we recognize how fortunate we are to have all these amazing opportunities in front of us, but we’ve been forced to make some tough decisions. Being hands on is very important to us, but our resources are limited, so some changes had to be made to enable us to continue our adventures and follow our passions.
We’ve also been quietly working on a project called the English Wine Shop for a while now. COVID thwarted our progress, but we were finally able to visit some of the vineyards and producers in 2024. With 1,000 vineyards and over 200 wineries, the wine scene there is exploding, with amazing wines being made using the same traditional methods used in Champagne. We’re excited to be launching this online wine store and bringing the very best of British to California in 2025. Again, we will be hosting tastings and events at venues both in the Santa Ynez Valley and Los Angeles.
The bar will close at the end of today, January 10th, and all wine tasting activity will relocate to the Arrowsmith winery facility in a couple of months, situated amongst the vibrant winemaking, brewing and tasting room scene on Industrial Way in Buellton. We’ve wanted to dedicate more time to our wine club members for some time now, and this move will enable us to host fun club events and pickup parties, and offer a more personalized tasting experience. Tastings will be by appointment initially, as we set things up and gradually move to a regular opening schedule in Spring 2025.
The Arrowsmith Wine Club will continue unaffected, and we will still be bringing you the same excellent selections of local and international wines alongside our own. We’ll also be contacting you all about an exciting program of Winemaker / Vintner Dinners that we’ve been secretly planning, to take place at our favorite local restaurants, the first of which will be announced in February.
A few of you still need to pick up the recent wine club shipment. We will be open from 10am-6pm Saturday the 11th and Sunday, 12th of January for you to come into the store and pick up. During these hours we are selling much of our bar and kitchen equipment and also small goods, such as glasses and cups. All beer will be 50% off for takeout tonight and on the weekend too!
Alternatively, you can choose to pick up your wine club shipment by appointment by emailing us first and we will arrange to meet you at the Buellton location. Lastly, if you would prefer us to post your shipment to you we are happy to do that too, just email us to let us know.
Lastly we want to thank you for all the great times, the wonderful friends we’ve made along the way. We leave this location with so many treasured memories, and blessed with friendships that made Solvang truly feel like our home. We hope you’ll join us as we embark on this new phase of our adventure, and that you will continue to drink the good stuff, and do good things.
All the best,
Anna and Tim Arrowsmith x x
