This is an updated version of our February 2007 Vintelligence newsletter.

By their very nature, even if they do not readily acknowledge it, wine collectors are control freaks.

That is certainly true when it comes to immersing themselves in wine knowledge by keeping close watch on harvest reports and pending releases, aggressively securing their allocations and absorbing the critics’ latest scores. Anyone who invests in wine is acutely aware, within a few hundred dollars, of the approximate value of their collections. And the projected value.

Collectors make it their business as well to know a lot about custom wine cellar design and climate control technology, and many debate well-researched opinions about optimal storage temperatures among themselves, usually over a fabulous bottle of wine.

For the uninitiated Santa Barbara County is an eye- and mind-opening experience. It opens your eyes to the reality that 100 miles north of Los Angeles might just as well be 1,000 miles. This truly is a get-away destination, whether you’re driving up from Long Beach or flying in from Chicago.

The Santa Barbara area opens your mind to a California “wine country” that is not yet overwhelmed by limousine tours and grandiose gated winery compounds (despite the enormous popularity of Hollywood’s take on wine fanaticism in the Santa Barbara-based film Sideways).  Sure, thanks to the movie it is nearly impossible to stroll into The Hitching Post restaurant in the town of Buellton without a reservation, and there are definitely crowded stops worth avoiding on the “Sideways Tours” that came into existence after the film.

Our roving wine, food and travel columnist checks in from the California desert. You’ll soon notice he never checks in from, oh, let’s say, North Dakota. Visit an archive of his work for HinsdaleCellars.com.

Bruce Schoenfeld in La Quinta, Calif.