Drink Riesling! There's no need to be scared of it (can you believe some people are?).

You Got This. It's Dry Riesling. It's made with fruit from the glorious Santa Barbara Riesling site – Kick On Ranch – in Los Alamos. We make 8 different passes through our 2-acre block during harvest, handpicking early in the morning and whole-bunch pressing each time. The juice is fermented long and cold in stainless steel to maximize freshness and pump up those beautiful clean smells. The wine tastes like you squeezed lime on a wet quartz crystal after using it to smash up white flowers. It's super quaffable, and just the slightest bit spritzy from short aging in stainless before bottling.

We make our rosé by hand-picking the fruit at night and then whole-bunch pressing the Grenache fruit after foot-stomping and a short maceration. The vineyard sourcing is from Rodney's Vineyard in Los Olivos.

Our Pale Pink Rosé is meant to be drunk now. Its appearance is a genuine reflection of its light, clear, and delicate flavors. The wine has cool strawberry mint aromas and lemony, tangy, juicy fresh acid. This is the ultimate lunch wine – lightweight and built for soaking up sunshine and company.

Our Pinot Noir is made from some of Santa Barbara County’s great cool-climate Pinot Noir vineyards. It’s a selection of barrels from Sanford & Benedict and Kick On Ranch. All the vineyard lots were fermented separately with as much as 100% whole clusters in a couple of the lots, to build in a little extra tannin and complexity. 

The wine is bright with ripe Bing cherries and notes of clove. Aromatically, it’s redolent of nutmeg and baking spice with a touch of tobacco and cranberry, while the palate has ocean breeze acidity and great energy to ride along with its light,  juicy, savory red fruit.

Whole clusters of Syrah are picked by hand into bins, rushed to the winery, and then dumped right into the tank. The whole mess goes in without being de-stemmed. We walk on the fruit to let some juice loose which naturally starts the fermentation. It's weird to think of fermenting with the whole bunches of grapes as an addition to the wine, but it's been pretty common practice in modern winemaking to completely remove the stems from the berries for fermentation. By including the stems in the wine, we see more perfume, complexity, spice, firmness, and age-iness.  

Bien Nacido is one of the greatest and most storied vineyards in America. The combination of the terroir of Bien Nacido Vineyards, the diligence of the people who manage it, and the close relationships they have developed with so many of the producers in our local wine industry are the components of what make it so special. 

The vineyard sits in the Santa Maria Valley which is heavily influenced by the nearby Pacific Ocean.  Pinot Noir, Chardonnay, and Syrah have found great expression here as the cool climate bestows fresh acidity, minerality, and delicious savoriness.  We have just under one acre block of organically farmed Estrella clone Syrah.

This bottling of Syrah was made by hand-picking late in the season, but due to the cool climate, the sugars remained low. The fruit was mostly destemmed, with about 15% whole clusters left in the tank.

We aged the wine for eighteen months in old French oak barrels 

The resulting Syrah is texturally, as fine a Syrah as we have ever produced. The tannins are long and fine, and the acidity is juicy and fresh.  This bottling is medium in weight, low in alcohol, and shows savory flavors of olive and earth with juicy black fruits and sage.

Demetria Estate is located above Foxen Canyon in the Santa Ynez Valley AVA. The property consists of 213 acres of rolling hills with 38 high-elevation hillside acres under vine. The vineyard was planted by Andrew Murray in phases from 1990 to 2000, exclusively to Rhone varietals, and has been farmed Biodynamically since its purchase by the Zahoudonis family in 2005.

Biodynamic viticulture stems from the ideas of Rudolf Steiner and is based on his spiritual/practical philosophy which includes understanding the ecological, the energetic, and the spiritual in nature. This type of viticulture views the farm as a cohesive, interconnected living system.

There is some debate as to the efficacy of biodynamic farming and whether it is hocus pocus or a real spiritual connection with the land. Undoubtedly, the additional commitment to following the practices and preparations of biodynamics forces the grower to spend more time and attention tending their crops.

In keeping with the spirit of the biodynamic farming practices, to make this wine, we hand harvested the fruit and left 100% of the whole clusters in the fermentation after stomping by foot. We let fermentation start spontaneously, and we foot stomped 1 time/day during a very long extended maceration of about 50 days on skins. The wine was pressed directly to neutral French oak and aged for 20 months.  

The result is exotic, floral and pretty with clove, red cherry, pomegranate, and herb aromas. The palate is plush and juicy cherry in the front with drying tannin, crushed red pepper, and a sturdy finish from all the stem contact.

Tierra Alta Vineyard is a dramatically steep site full of chalky white limestone. It’s because of this soil profile that these wines always carry a strong streak of minerality. The wide variation between the tops and bottoms of the slopes contributes to the energy in the wine — richness and power from lean soils at the top of the hill; juiciness and freshness from the heavier soils at the bottom.

Tierra Alta is perched at the northern end of Ballard Canyon. The fog pushes and pulls against it almost every day during the growing season, filling up the canyon in the morning and emptying out in the evening — keeping the wine fresh even as it ripens.

To make this wine, we hand harvested the fruit and left about 25% of the whole clusters in the fermentation. After crushing and foot stomping, the wine began fermentation naturally with ambient yeast. We pumped over the must once a day and pressed after an extended maceration of about 30 days on skins. The wine aged in neutral French oak puncheon and wasn’t racked until bottling.

The result is a cranberry-garnet wine that shows the fresh berry side of Grenache. Red cherries, cranberries, plums, spices, and new leather explode from the glass in a wine built on brightness. The 25% whole clusters give a savory edge that keeps all that fruit in check. Drink it in the next two to four years — it’s showing well now and the brightness won’t wait forever. Pairs naturally with lamb, roast chicken, or anything herb-forward off the grill. Charcuterie if you’re keeping it simple.