Appellations

Estate “Home Ranch”

IN ITS OWN WAY, ONE OF THE MOST EXCITING VINEYARDS IN CALIFORNIA

In 2017 we seized an exciting opportunity to resurrect our long-gone estate vineyard. This wasn’t just planting any vineyard, though; this was an opportunity to change the future of viticulture in California. Thanks to new grape varietals bred by Dr. Andy Walker at UC Davis, we have a new vineyard that can be organically farmed and remain bulletproof against Pierce's Disease. We were graciously offered cuttings of these vines to trial at the Tolmach’s ranch, and we planted them in August of 2017. There are four varietals—two white and two red—filling out 1.2 acres. That might not sound like much to work with, but the vines are densely planted at 5.5’x5’ and they’re super vigorous, so we have zero complaints about yield (and we thin the yields considerably).

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Camp 4

SUNNY CLIMES FOR SOUTHERN GRAPES

Camp 4 is a great home for Mediterranean grape varietals. This vineyard has provided the Carignane component of our rosé since 2015. We just started making the Vermentino in 2020, and we're completely enamoured with our first two releaeses. It's just west of the Happy Canyon area, within the sunny interior of the Santa Ynez Valley.

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Rancho Ontiveros

SHAPELY AND SCULPTED CHARDONNAY FROM THE SANTA MARIA VALLEY

Rancho Ontiveros is another cool, windswept site in the Santa Maria Valley. It’s roughly two miles inland from Presqu’ile, nestled amongst gently rolling hills in the southern pocket of the valley. The higher elevation (over 700’) makes this vineyard especially raked by coastal wind. The vines are challenged by the soil, too—the Garey series is a deep, well-drained sandy loam (Garey series) that provides little in the way of nutrients.

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Roll Ranch

EXUBERANCE & RICHNESS FROM THE OJAI VALLEY

Roll Ranch is located under the dramatic striated bluffs of Topa Topa mountain in Upper Ojai, and the roots of our vines there plunge deep into poor rocky soil that was once part of those bluffs. It’s a warm generous climate and the wines from this site are gutsy. So, over the years we’ve tinkered in the vineyard and the cellar to temper some of that opulence. And these days we’re finding no shortage of flavor when harvesting a bit earlier. The wines are better for it actually. They are fresher with more cut and intricacy than ever.

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Kessler-Haak

Vibrant Pinot Noir With Whole-Cluster Framework

Planted out in the Northwest corner of the Sta Rita Hills, Kessler-Haak is right next door to Clos Pepe vineyard, which we worked with from 1999-2008. This patch of the appellation, which is cool and dominated by sandy loam soils, produces pinot noir that is vibrantly fruity and high acid. Assuming a similar profile to Clos Pepe, I imagined that Kessler Haak could be a great site to toy with some hefty stem inclusion.

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Fe Ciega

NOW OJAI’S ESTATE-OWNED SITE FOR PINOT NOIR

Fe Ciega has been dear to Adam’s heart for years, so he leapt at the opportunity to purchase the property at the beginning of 2021. He’d been producing Fe Ciega Pinot Noir since 2003, when his fellow winemaker friend, Rick Longoria (of Longoria Wines), offered Adam some of the fruit. Fe Ciega provides a wild and distinct personality; it’s so well situated for growing profound Pinot Noir.

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Bien Nacido

Our oldest vines. Iconic american vineyard.

Bien Nacido Vineyard was planted by the Miller family in 1973, amidst the first wave of Santa Barbara County vineyard plantings, out in the eastern part of Santa Maria Valley where the foothills rise out of the coastal flood plain.

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Solomon Hills

Profound Syrah from the most coastal pocket of Santa Maria Valley

Solomon Hills Vineyard is the most coastal vineyard up in cool foggy Santa Maria Valley. It’s also the sister vineyard to Bien Nacido, so it too is farmed with same doting attention to detail. The site consists of a series of gently rolling hills of sand next to Highway 101, at the western edge of the appellation.

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Kick On

SEABREEZE SCOURED RIESLING GROWN ON ANCIENT SEABED SOILS

Kick On Ranch is a few miles West of Los Alamos, getting close to the ocean and Vandenberg Air Force Base. This vineyard is home to our Riesling. It’s located in a narrow East-West corridor that funnels the Pacific Westerlies inland, so the wind is near constant and you get goosebumps even when visiting the vineyard in summertime. The wind and fog challenge the vines, and the poor sandy soils temper vine vigor. Our Riesling is always our last white fruit to ripen (generally in October). So much abuse and deprivation seems like a bad thing, but it’s exactly what provides the intense character and fine balance that you’ll find in our dry Riesling.

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Puerta del Mar

COASTAL CHARDONNAY & PINOT NOIR

Puerta del Mar is our coldest vineyard. It’s a small and relatively new planting that’s way out by Lompoc—a stone’s throw east of Highway 1—actually West of the already chilly Sta. Rita Hills. There are six level acres, evenly split between Dijon clones of Pinot Noir and Chardonnay.

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Duravita

BIODYNAMIC & SUPER COOL-CLIMATE SYRAH

There’s much about Duvarita Vineyard that is unconventional. Probably foremost is the farming, where biodynamic practices are employed. This method—basically a mystic’s mash-up of organic farming, astrology, homeopathy, and Wiccan principles—produces fruit that is often compelling and highly expressive of terroir.

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Rich

Barbera lovingly grown in the Ojai Valley

Martin Ramirez planted Barbera clone 6 for me in this relatively new vineyard in Upper Ojai. 2014 was the first crop for the Barbera and it was obvious from the start that this varietal was a great match for this warm climate spot.

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McGinley

The Original Sauvignon Blanc since 1998

I’ve been making sauvignon blanc from McGinley Vineyard since 1998 (back when it was called Westerly) and we’ve farmed the same two little blocks since. The site provides an exceptionally gorgeous example of the varietal, thanks largely to soils that would be abysmal for just about any other crop. In some sections the topsoil is as shallow as a foot and a half, with serpentine rock and fractured shale hardpan underneath.

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White Hawk

Syrah & the brilliant newcomer: Sangiovese

White Hawk vineyard produced its first crop in 2000 and the wine we made from those grapes was so bizarre that I chose to blend it into our Santa Barbara County bottling. The unusualness of its expression of syrah scared me that year, but I began to understand it a bit better by 2001 when we begun bottling it as a single vineyard wine.

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John Sebastiano

SYRAH & GRENACHE FROM COOL WIND SCOURED SLOPES

John Sebastiano Vineyard was planted in 2007 and produced its first crop in 2010. It is located on the northeastern edge of the Sta. Rita Hills appellation way up in the hills so it catches the ferocious winds that come in from the ocean at Vandenberg Air Force Base. The vines were planted on steep southern slopes and the soil has quite a bit of clay with some shale-y bits that pop through here and there. The vines struggle to develop a full canopy of leaves and the fruit ripens late in October or early November.

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