(MunchiesVice) - There’s beauty in tasting wine in the land where the grapes are grown, crushed, and fermented. Words that are obnoxious in any other context—like “terroir” and “jammy”—flow naturally into conversation. Imaginary flavors (Toasted coriander! Woody tobacco!) seem to leap from your palate.

In Southern California, the laid-back Santa Ynez Valley is an easy place to get your wine legs in an unpretentious environment. As one of five American Viticultural Areas (AVA) in Santa Barbara County, the Santa Ynez Valley has more than 120 wineries, many of which are boutique, family-owned-and-operated venues. But somewhere between sipping subversive screw-top syrahs from Andrew Murray Vineyards, a reserve tasting at Fess Parker Winery & Vineyard, and estate-grown varietals among the grapevines of Beckman Vineyards, the biggest fallout of wine tasting—i.e., drinking—becomes painfully clear: the wine buzz creeps in slowly and it hits hard.

On the short ride from Buellton to the tasting rooms in downtown Solvang, I wax poetically about how much better wine tastes when you’re out in a vineyard.

“I can drive you out to a vineyard, you know,” our driver pipes up from the front.

“Yeah, but how do we get back?”

“I’ll just wait for you in the lot. We can go to as many as you want.”

“You’ll … what now?”

Enter UberWine. The transportation industry’s favorite disruptor saw an opportunity in California and launched its service, effectively helping wine swillers avoid drunken vineyard driving at a reasonable cost.

Depending on the size of the vehicles, it works out to about $35 to $45 an hour. Tasting room fees and meals aren’t included, essentially making it a no-frills, low-cost alternative to a traditional wine tour.

Unless you have a designated driver or pay $100 or more a head for an organized tour, the risk of tipsily driving back into town is a legitimate one. Although DUI statistics can’t be specifically pegged to wine tasting, logic dictates that daytime drinking in venues that don’t serve food (most are BYO picnic) and then getting behind a wheel on rural roads is a dangerous combination.