Cantara Cellars

Cantara is a great winery that makes great wines! The owners and workers here are all very nice and friendly, and the pours are generous. I’ve always had great experiences here and have never left disappointed. Parking is free, easy, and abundant.
I highly recommend their Malbec and their Mischievous wines, but really they all taste pretty damn good. I’ve never tasted a wine here that I didn’t enjoy. If you are a big wine drinker, or simply enjoy tasting, this is definitely a place to try. I highly recommend. Their wines have great flavor, and are excellent quality.

I haven’t seen Mike and Chris for awhile, but they are the real deal! Wonderful people, exceptional wine, fun atmosphere, and willing to share in their knowledge and passion of vino. Ask if you can help out with bottling, parties, punch downs, etc and join their winery family! You won’t regret it! I refer all my friends here and know they will have a positive experience and enjoy every second of their tasting/​experience.

I’ve been here twice already, and I enjoyed both times. The first time I went, it was with two of my girlfriends for a birthday, and this was our third and most likely our last stop of the day. The previous place we were at (San Vicente) recommended us coming by and checking the place out and we were glad we did. The place is a quaint little place. There is a couch and a few tables to wine and dine. They also serve cheese and crackers that go perfectly good when you’re doing the wine tasting. My friends and I had a great time. I forgot the gentleman’s name who worked there, but he was also funny and talked with us. He even gave the birthday girl a free glass of wine. Always a plus! Glad to say that she was done after she finished that glass.
The second visit was a little less enjoyable, but still good. We had arrived a little passed 3:30, and thought we’d have plenty of time to taste since I knew they closed at 6PM. Based off my experience from the first visit, I was fairly excited to come back. However, there was a private party going on at 4, and our time there was a little short, and I felt like the lady at the front counter was kind of rushing us, which I understand, but it made it less enjoyable.
Overall this place is cute and would definitely come here again wen bringing in new wine drinkers to get a little taste.

I love Cantara Cellars. All of the wines were fantastic plus the tasting room is very nice with tables and places to sit. Highly recommended.

Love this place! We are members and often stop here for a quick wine tasting on our way to Ventura or Carpinteria. I have to say, all of the wines have a great flavor. It’s not like you’re drinking the same wine with each pour. They’re expanding too, so we’re looking forward to more food options there in the near future.

Spent the afternoon at Cantara Cellars… we had a wonderful time! The wines, specifically the reds, were out of this world good! The atmosphere was comfortable and relaxing. The owner, Chris and family were extremely knowledgeable, helpful and most of all hospitable. The tasting room is filled with wine, wine gifts and trinkets. I wanted to buy it all! We can’t wait to take another trip to Cantara Cellars.

Favorite place to go wine tasting in Camarillo. Very casual and relaxing atmosphere and I love every thing that I try there. We are members and their wine pick parties are so fun!

Cantara Cellars started the newest destination for wine tasting in Ventura County. Now there is over a dozen wineries to visit, but Cantara still remains at the top.
Mike and Chris are what the wine industry is all about. Sourcing great fruit from some of the iconic Lodi vineyards, and bringing the passion and expertise from the couples love for wine into each bottle they produce. My personal goto is the Chardonnay which is sourced from Mike’s family vineyard in Lodi. Cheers to Cantara Cellars and keep up the good work!

Fantastic wines! Wait, that’s an understatement! Unbelievable wines! Thank you Sue for making our experience memorable. Your wine knowledge was extensive!

Really fun spot to come in for a glass of wine. The owners are really cool, and laid back. They aren’t super wine snobs that know every detail of viticulture, they just love making wine and drinking it. They can set you up with a nice cheese plate if you ask nicely, and its delicious. I also like the fact that they have a couple board games stashed in the tasting room, just in case you want to see how good you are at Spongebob Memory when you are working on your second or third glass.

We went here because of a Living Social deal and loved the place so much we signed up to be members. We loved their chardonnay and their reds. My favorite was the Intrepid, and their X dessert wine! We also shared a meat and cheese plate. Yum! What a deal! But be careful — most of their wines have an ABV of around 15%.

Had a blast talking to Chris and we became members!

There’s a lab puppy here while I drink wine.
Of all the wineries I went to on this wine tasting trip of a day, this one was the best. We even got to do some barrel tasting after making friends with a few regulars!

Stop here, esp with Unilocal deal. Delish and family owned, so, as the coaster says, drink up bitches!

(Tasted 10÷26÷13 SA @ 12:00pm): Whites go home… this is red territory!
Thanks to an outstanding Living Social offer (
), a coworker, her husband, her sister, and I were able to try several wineries in the Ventura County area — among them, Cantara Cellars.
The Living Social deal was a voucher for a «One Harvest Wine Passport» offered by the Ventura County Wineries Association and valid at eight wineries ($ 80.00 value for $ 40.00). Cantara Cellars was the home cellar where we redeemed our offer and the merriment of libations began. Here was how the tasting went (heavy on the reds), and please by no means am I an oenophile — just a simple fool who enjoyed wine
:
2011 Chardonnay, Ruth’s Vineyard, Mokelumne River: (ranked #4) I’m a white wine kind of guy (Pinot Grigio my favorite varietal) and this chardonnay seemed flat on my palate and didn’t leave much of a finish for me to ruminate upon.
2009 The Bride: (ranked #5) My palate was sensitive to the star anise and its licorice flavor, and sadly the raspberry and red currant flavors weren’t able to mask this.
2009 Tempranillo: (ranked #3) This was the first tempranillo that was agreeable with my nose and palate. The finish was much smoother than others I’ve tried.
2009 Cabernet Sauvignon: (ranked #6) The licorice was extremely powerful on my palate and simply ruined this one for me. I’m not a fan of licorice and every taste bud reacted to its presence.
2010 Merlot: (ranked #1) This was subtle on my palate yet had a clean full-​body finish. The nose made me salivate like Pavlov’s dog and wished I had some meat to eat.
2010 Intrepid: (ranked #2) I wanted to kick my feet up, light a pipe and chill with this one. This had some teeth to it and I think I’m still tasting the finish!
Service — We arrived and promptly produced our Living Social printouts to one of the proprietors, Chris Brown, who then gave us our passport and the lowdown of what to expect and set us up for our tasting at her establishment. She was very friendly and helpful and really everything went smoothly. She was also a big help to guide us to our next winery of choice. All was good here.
Parking — There was plenty of free parking on their private lot. «Nuff said.
Atmosphere, décor, ambience — The business was located in an industrial area so no actual vineyard here — simply a tasting facility with decent standing room (it got kind of crammed after ten patrons). There was plenty of souvenirs to purchase found on your right, and a separate seating area with couches, tables and chairs to your left, I guess if you chose to enjoy a glass or bottle at your leisure. The tasting menu and prices were posted on the wall directly across once you entered, plus, there was a handful of other informational and promotional literature to add to your wine experience. A cellar and pressing area was towards the back but not sure if tours were given.
I didn’t happen to notice anything hung on either walls inside or out, and there was plenty of both electric and natural lighting as the entire front area was a glass wall. I didn’t notice any TVs nor background music.
Attire — It was totally casual so I would normally be in a t-​shirt, boardshorts, and flip-​flops.
Overall, Cantara Cellars was a nice first winery of the day. I still can’t get used to the whole urban winery located in industrial areas as the whole romanticism of a vineyard view was reserved for those more conducive areas such as Napa, Santa Barbara, Sonoma, and Temecula — just to name a few in California. But as long as they produced a good product I guess it didn’t matter, right? It’s not like Ventura County lacks farmland, so I’m just saying… I found very good value based on the prices, service, and experience noted above (total experience was around $ 5.00 based on Living Social deal while tastings normally were $ 10.00; no tip required). I enjoyed that there were six tastings (I believed the norm was five). However, I wished there were complimentary crackers (cheese/​meat plates were available for $ 15.00) to aid with the tasting. However, I finally found a tempranillo I didn’t need to force down. And, although I didn’t purchase anything, they accepted my credit card of choice… AMEX!

My wife and I recently visited Cantara Cellers and had a very enjoyable time. Chris, the owner, was very nice and her wines were very good! When we arrived there was only one other couple enjoying the wines, but that soon changed (for the better) — shortly thereafter, the place was packed! Standing room only! Great atmosphere and a great time! Looking forward to visiting again very soon.

I haven’t really reached my age of enjoying red wines yet, but for some reason… I enjoyed most of the red wine offerings I had during my visit here.
Their chardonnay was the only white I sampled for the day and it was wonderfully crisp. I definitely enjoyed it and ended up having a glass of it after my tasting that came with my LivingSocial deal.
Their Project X, a dessert wine, was PHENOMENAL. You definitely can’t have a full glass of that and be okay afterwards with a 171 proof alcohol in it. Their red blends were great and I would consider getting a bottle to see how it pairs with food.
Great service, and a fun yet relaxing atmosphere.

Loved all of the reds that I tasted here. Owner, Chris was very pleasant, fun, and informative and the other «regulars» that were in there picking up their shipment and tasting were also fun and helpful. I definitely recommend stopping by if you are in the area.

Check into Unilocal and you score a deal for half off 2 people for wine tastin.
We found Cantara on our way up to Ojai for wine tasting. Not bad. The place is small and tucked in between some buildings and on a small street but it was a decent stop.
Cantara imports their grapes from Central California and does a pretty decent job in wine making. The two ladies in house were pretty cool and helped us with the wine description. Cantara also opens at 11am (an hour before the other wineries open).
Decent wine and very affordable when you check in with Unilocal

Solid effort in wine making but I thought that the tasting fee and the bottle price on the wine was a little high. Had the wine been priced in the $ 20 – 25 range instead of $ 25 – 40 then I might have thought the $ 10 tasting fee waived for purchase was worth it.
Very friendly staff and loved that there was a seating area with games and it seemed very kid and pet friendly as there was a dog there with some of the customers who had arrived before us.