I've always been a dreamer, a believer and a seeker.
One of my beliefs is that anything is possible. I think I’ve proven that in my life. I believe in the magic of the moon, in the beauty and healing of Mother Nature, in the cycles and the seasons, and that a good day consists of laughter, authentic connection and sunshine on your face.
In my travels throughout my twenties & thirties
I learned that a great bottle of wine can be found anywhere, at any price. That sharing it with a stranger can turn them quickly to a friend and that this can be the catalyst to some of the best memories you will ever have to look back on. That’s about when I stumbled down the rabbit hole. That’s when, even though I didn’t know it yet, I had found my second dream.
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MY OWN WAY
Later I saw a movie called Red Obsession and in it is Lalou Bize-Leroy. And here’s this quirky magnificent woman doing things her way. What a bad ass. And I started to daydream. I started online courses at WSET and UCLA. I would jump off stage sweating and shaking from adrenaline, and hurry to my computer to take my tests.
I made pilgrimages to wine regions all over the world
Bordeaux, Australia, Napa, South Africa, Paso Robles, the Central Coast. I would study a single varietal or style each trip: in Bordeaux, Cheval Blanc and Pontet-Canet…Alfred and his mules and the hand-sorting. Learning about Cabernet Franc at Clos Rougeard from Charly Foulcault… May he rest in peace.
So, after years and years of fantasizing
and making terrible carboys of wine in my closets, we took our baby girl and left the city, and plunked ourselves down on an organic vineyard in Santa Barbara County. I immediately signed us up for classes at Allan Hancock College, and we started making wine in the garage.
It was the farming that I most looked forward to.
Pruning is one of my favorite things to do in the world, and the best way to listen to a new album, start to finish. Do me a favor though, put sunscreen on your butt where your shirt rides up. No one told me that. I wish they would’ve.
explore our vineyard
WE WERE TRUE GARAGISTES.
It was the hardest labor I have ever done outside of a concert…and I was hooked. From the beginning, I always knew that I knew just enough to be dangerous. And I think that gives me a fresh perspective and a willingness to experiment, because when you don’t yet know all the rules, anything is possible.
What a beautiful place to be.
I have the most incredible mentors and the most incredible team. For the last six years I’ve been surrounded by passionate, smart, capable and experienced women and men, helping me along and stopping me right before I tear out a wall with a forklift (they’re like drifter cars!!!)
The more I met people in this industry…
the more I realized that these were people that could teach you much more about life than about wine. They could teach you about the seasons, about the soil, about the bumble bees, about family, and hard work, and passion, and the sharing and giving of information and experience. About helpfulness, about community, about food. About quiet. And about the moon. Oh the moon. How happy I was to know she had such a part in all of this.
10 years ago…
It was 2015. Obama was president, my son wasn’t born yet. We had just planted seven acres of vines and our winery wasn’t yet completed.
We were still garagistes. Alison and I had just started our wine journey together and the plague was our only idea of a pandemic. Oh, and also, we didn’t wear glasses.
We also couldn’t know then…
that our vineyard would be so magical as it is now, that our team would grow to comprise of five incredible women. Our first wine dinner would be with Chef Dominique Crenn, and we would go on to make her Sémillon.
We would be intentionally placed in restaurants that we personally love with chefs we respect.
And our kids would be good friends.
We would go through heartache
and triumph, evacuations and fires, droughts and the passing of loved ones. But what remains and has grown deeper, is our love for this earth, the soil, this toil, and the bond we have forged together and with all of you.
Your notes over the years of who you’re going to drink this wine with and who you’re going to save it for and who beat cancer, and who’s coming home. This is the stuff that dreams are made of.
We’re also very proud
When we open a bottle of 2015 together and think about where we started and where we’ve come and where we have yet to go. It’s all very delicious and it keeps getting better.
This is my mantra
This is my gratitude
This is 2025
Onwards and upwards
Always grateful