![]() The latter’s site covers a hillside with 360-degree views.īetween the three vineyards, team Peake Ranch oversees 250 acres. Only a creek - no fence - divides Peake Ranch from the Alma Rosa property, Anderson said.Īlma Rosa’s vineyards line the hills that lie parallel to Peake. When he sold his namesake winery to the Terlato Wine Group in 2005, Sanford retained El Jabali vineyard for Alma Rosa Winery. Peake Ranch Vineyard encompasses 48 acres of vines on 105 acres - part of the 1,600-acre parcel first owned by the artist Channing Peake (hence the name), and then, in part, by industry pioneer Richard Sanford, who purchased 400 acres.Ĭhanning Peake, who died in 1989 at age 79, married Catherine “Katy” Schott in 1938, a union with a prominent family that afforded him the financial freedom to pursue his art.Īn accomplished horsewoman with a passion for ranch life, Schott used part of her inheritance to buy 1,600 acres in Buellton where she and her husband established Rancho Jabili, Spanish for “wild boar.”ĭecades later, Sanford would christen the acreage fronting Santa Rosa Road as “El Jabali” in a nod to the site’s ranching history. Today, that site is the popular John Sebastiano Vineyard, a source for Peake Ranch and many other winemakers. He earned both bachelor and master’s degrees in physics at UCLA and works in the financial sector.įollowing their Sierra Madre investment, the Wagners partnered with friend Sebastian Sterpa to plant grapes on the hillsides of Sterpa’s cattle ranch along West Highway 246. John Wagner grew up in Ventura County, where - like Anderson - he was an early student of agriculture while laboring in his family’s avocado and lemon orchards. While Gallo purchased Sierra Madre from founder and longtime strawberry famer Doug Circle in 2018, the Wagners partnered into the site as well. ![]() On the road to Peake Ranch’s tasting room is the property’s historic adobe, prominently featured in the 2004 film Sideways. Gill and John Wagner, owners of Peake Ranch, first met Anderson when they delved into winemaking classes at UC Davis.Īround 2000, the couple invested in their first vineyard, the 150-acre Sierra Madre Vineyard, one of Santa Barbara County’s oldest vineyards, Solomon told me. ![]() He also managed the university’s Oakville Station Vineyard in Napa.Īnderson attributes early years working in his family’s grape nursery as the driving force behind his lifetime interest in viticulture. In 2018, she landed her first estate winemaking gig at Peake Ranch Winery just four years after its first vintage, working alongside founding winemaker Paul Lato during the 2019 vintage.Īt Peake, located at 7290 Santa Rosa Road in Buellton, Solomon has continued her focus on chardonnay and pinot noir.Īlso key to the winery team is general manager/vineyard manager Mike Anderson, who started at Peake in 2017 after more than 30 years as a researcher, author and educator at his alma mater, UC Davis. She recalled growing up with a passion for cooking - and chemistry, a key component of winemaking.Īfter graduating from Cal Poly, San Luis Obispo, Wynne worked in San Luis Obispo County’s Edna Valley, both for Stephen Dooley of Stephen Ross Wine Cellars, “who taught me pinot noir and chardonnay winemaking,” and then for Ryan Deovlet, who sourced those same grapes from vineyards in Santa Barbara County, she noted.įrom San Luis Obispo County, Solomon relocated to Melville Winery, where she learned estate winemaking from owner/winemaker Chad Melville. Wynne Solomon, a native of the Sonoma County town of Windsor, has been Peake Ranch’s winemaker since 2018. “I learned how to ride a bike in a nearby vineyard,” she told Noozhawk. Winemaker Wynne Solomon grew up around vineyards in the Sonoma County community of Windsor.
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