In Lompoc, good wine is going ghetto.

In recent months, wineries have poured into an unassuming industrial park between 7th and 12th streets to open tasting rooms. They now number more than a dozen and form what’s billed as Lompoc’s “Wine Ghetto.” 
No one is quite sure where the name came from. But the wineries, most of them small, seem to have embraced the moniker as a shorthand for a scrappy, communal spirit and a focus on quality wine over pretense and opulent tasting rooms. They are drawing interest from across the country and a growing local following.

But up until a few months ago, there were only four tasting rooms in the ghetto. Then, city officials loosened some zoning rules to allow wineries without production facilities in the park to have tasting rooms there.

The full version of this article is only available in the print edition. To view everything the Business Times offers, see this week’s print version or SUBSCRIBE to the print edition for $49.99 today.