When the hurricanes seemed about to blow me away, I obeyed the famous advice to "go west, young man!" I went all the way to California, to the Central Coast region that runs from Contra Costa down to Santa Barbara, praised by experts for its tremendous forward strides in the quality of the wines. Cooler climate Santa Barbara already produces outstanding Chardonnay and Pinot Noir as we learned absorbing the wine lists of its outstanding restaurants and touring the Santa Barbara Winery, the oldest and first post-Prohibition producer in Santa Barbara County. Stella Mare's has the most outstanding wine list of Santa Barbara and Central Coast achievements, with such winning labels as Fess Parker and Firestone, Brander and Babcock, Sunstone and Zaca Mesa, Qupe and Byron, which the Mondavi team directed up to this year. Locally, I've found since my return an excellent fruit forward 2003 Wild Horse Chardonnay ($13.99) and equally fruity Bosc pear and green apple-2002 Echelon Chardonnay and a bit of fun, a "Free Range" Cabernet with an HRM Rex-Goliath label of a 47-pound Texas circus rooster.