Full Belly Files | Mountain Vineyards in Our Backyard

This edition of Full Belly Files was originally emailed to subscribers on December 1, 2023. To receive Matt Kettmann’s food newsletter in your inbox each Friday, sign up at independent.com/newsletters.

Santa Barbara County is blessed with a range of landscapes, soils, and microclimates that rival wine countries anywhere else in the world. We have the San Andreas Fault to thank for that, as it’s pushed (and is pushing) the Transverse Range into an east-west orientation, rather than the north-south lineup that dominates the rest of the West Coast of the Americas.

But despite the prominent peaks that such geologic tension creates, Santa Barbara is not home to many true “mountain vineyards.” This is not a defined viticultural category, but for me, anything proclaiming itself to be a mountain vineyard should sit at an elevation of at least 1,000 feet and then be obviously reflective of its mountainous setting, whether that’s being planted on precarious slopes or faced with excessive exposure to the elements. It’s usually all of the above, and the combination tends to create wines of intense structure and distinctive flavor. Good views tend to be a bonus part of the package.

Given those (admittedly arbitrary and somewhat subjective) parameters, I’d say that the higher elevation vineyards of the Sta. Rita Hills — like Rita’s Crown, which touches 900 feet, or Radian, at around 700 — do exhibit the mountain vibes, but just aren’t high enough. Meanwhile, the high-desert vineyards of Cuyama Valley — like Alta Mesa, at 2,300 feet — are plenty high, but they just don’t sport that mountain vibe. That could also be said for Zaca Mesa, whose 1,400-foot-high vines sit mostly on a tabletop.

I guarantee I’m missing something — please email me with ideas — but I can only think of a few Santa Barbara County vineyards that really fit my criteria.

The two most remote and wild are Joey Tensley’s Colson Canyon Vineyard, located at 1,400 feet in an extremely rugged saddle of the Sierra Madre Mountains above the Santa Maria; and the Paredon Vineyard, which located at about 1,200 feet on a ridgeline above Carpinteria and is managed and made by Ryan Carr of Carr Winery. He told me that the property was recently sold, split in two (losing half the vines), and the remaining half replanted under the name Wanderment Farms.

The mountain case could also be made for a few of the higher vineyards in Ballard Canyon. The Beckmen family’s Purisima Mountain Vineyard is exposed, steep, and exceeds 1,200 feet, as does Tierra Alta, and Piazza Family Wines tops 1,000 feet just across the hill from Purisima. There are probably others, but let’s just agree that, compared to certain wine countries of California, Santa Barbara is not really the land of mountain vineyards.

Could Ventura County pick up that mantle? After spending a recent day down there visitings two of the most dramatic and impressive mountain vineyards that I’ve ever seen, I certainly see that potential.

My first stop was high above the Ojai Valley on Sulphur Mountain, where the brand new Ojai Mountain Vineyard sits at 2,800 feet, sporting views from Point Mugu, the Oxnard plain, and Santa Paula to the entire length of Santa Cruz Island. The property is owned by Olga and Mikhail Chernova; he’s a UCLA finance professor, and she’s a finance executive/fintech entrepreneur who originally just wanted a small farm for her young family. But following advice that grapes might be the only thing that could grow in that hardscrabble environment, Olga found herself in charge of a much bigger beast.

In 2018, she hired the region’s veteran viticulturist Martin Ramirez to brave the cliffsides and plant more than seven acres, initially planning to sell the fruit to other wineries. But then, through a series of coincidences, the Chernovas enlisted Sonoma County superstar winemaker Erich Bradley and legendary vineyard expert Phil Coturri. Together, they kept the fruit and launched Ojai Mountain as an estate project.

Ojai Mountain’s first white and red wines | Credit: Matt Kettmann

There’s been some tweaking to the original varieties, and more are being planted, with an emphasis on Rhône reds and white. The first bottlings were just released to subscribers, and, like other true mountain vineyards, exhibit firm textures and flavors that feel unique to this site. I’m pretty fired up to see what becomes of this spot.  

As the afternoon fog started to roll off the coast and up the canyons toward Ojai Mountain, I took off for my next stop: Rincon Mountain Winery, which is technically in Ventura County but overlooks most of the southern flank of Santa Barbara County, from Carpinteria past Santa Barbara Harbor up toward Gaviota. I’ve been up there before to write about the Siple family’s Smoke Mountain Brewery, but it had been more than seven years, and much had changed.

There had once been a small, amateurish vineyard planted by Darren Siple’s late father, who developed the property as an avocado ranch in the 1970s. Those grapes were a tiny part of the family’s Rincon Mountain Winery brand, which is mostly made from grapes that they grow on their Paso Robles vineyard.

But Siple ripped out the original mountain vines and replaced them all in 2022 with 4.5 acres of pinot noir, syrah, cabernet sauvignon, and chasselas, a white wine grape rarely seen outside of Switzerland. The first commercial harvest is expected in 2024, and will certainly become a star at the tasting room that they opened three years ago on Carpinteria Avenue, where you can buy their other wines and beers while you wait a couple more years for that true mountain juice.

I’m sure those who’ve read this far must be even more curious about these estates. Rest assured, I am working on more extensive articles about both of them, so there will be more to learn in the weeks to come.

From Our Table

Here are some stories of mine you may have missed:

• I had some non-wine fun writing a review of Grimm’s Bluff olive oil.

• I’ve been following Will Henry’s Wild King Vineyard saga for a couple years now, and was finally forced into writing this piece since there is a tasting event this weekend at Pico in Los Alamos that I am moderating.

• Putting on my Wine Enthusiast cap, I wrote this ode to how well seafood goes with SLO Coast wines.

• And I tapped people even more in tune with the Paso Robles scene than me to suggest some fun tasting rooms to visit right now. This is what we came up with.