Brick Barn Wine Estate, which opened its new hospitality center in April, has announced a management team led by general manager and industry veteran Tom O’Higgins.

Brick Barn Wine Estate features a 35-acre vineyard with a focus on pinot noir, grenache, cabernet franc, chardonnay and aromatic whites.

The label’s first wines were released earlier this year. The new hospitality center adjoins the winery in a red brick barn that features a tasting room, indoor event spaces, a wedding garden, and an outdoor guest lounge.

The winery, on a historic, 1,100-acre ranch, is locally owned by Norman and Kathy Williams.

O’Higgins is a wine industry executive with 30 years of experience in France, the Napa Valley, Sonoma and the Central Coast. Before joining Brick Barn, he was general manager of nearby Alma Rosa Winery & Vineyards.

At Brick Barn, O’Higgins has steered construction of the winery and hospitality center, and now oversees all operations including wine production, viticulture, marketing, hospitality, and sales.

The winemaker is Rob DaFoe, a Santa Barbara native and former professional snowboarder who produced the winemaking documentary “From Ground to Glass.” He paid his dues at local wineries before co-founding his own label, Tanner DaFoe.

His wines led the Wine Spectator’s James Laube to call Tanner DaFoe one of four “rising stars in California cabernet.”

Sonja Walker, the tasting room and events manager, studied art history in Germany through the University of Maryland and began her hospitality career in Dallas as an art gallery events director.

Pursuing her dual passions for events and wine, she moved in 2014 to the Central Coast, where she became the event manager at Sanford Winery & Vineyards. She now heads up both the tasting room and special events at Brick Barn.

Channing Jones, the wine club manager, grew up in Ojai, where she and her siblings helped her grandfather on their family vineyard and winery. She studied entrepreneurship at SBCC and launched a wine-marketing consultancy with her sister.

Prior to joining Brick Barn, she was the direct-sales and membership manager at Sunstone Vineyards and Winery in the Santa Ynez Valley.

For more information, visit BrickBarnWineEstate.com.

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Staff report

Crown Point Vineyards, known for producing Bordeaux-style wines from its estate vineyards in the Happy Canyon AVA, has announced the addition of famed winemaker Philippe Melka as consulting winemaker.

Crown Point Vineyards

Melka, a native of Bordeaux, France, has worked at renowned wineries in Bordeaux and throughout Italy, Australia and Napa Valley. With a master’s degree in agronomy and enology, he’s trained with some of the most notable personalities in the wine business.

In recent years, he has served as winemaking consultant for some of Napa’s highly regarded properties, establishing a reputation that has led Robert Parker of The Wine Advocate to call him one of the top wine consultants in the world.

Melka’s partnership with Crown Point marks his first venture in Santa Barbara County. He joins winemaker Adam Henkel, who started with Crown Point in 2013 after eight vintages at Napa’s famed Harlan Estate.

“I have known Philippe since my time in the Napa Valley and have been enjoying wines that he has made for almost 20 years,” Henkel said. “I am honored to have the opportunity to collaborate with Philippe, and am looking forward to working with his entire team at Atelier Melka to help craft the best wines possible from this very special estate.”

Henkel and vineyard manager Juve Buenrostro will work closely with Melka and his team to further explore and expand upon the potential of the vineyard.

“Adam’s strong integrity and dedication to quality coupled with Philippe’s expertise will surely propel Crown Point to the next level,” owner Roger Bower said.

“The pursuit of excellence in this field is what I’m passionate about, and the potential to create extraordinary wines is what drew me to Crown Point specifically,” Melka said. “Crown Point is a special place that is blessed with distinct topography, climatic conditions, and soil types – the perfect combination for making extremely unique wine.”

Founded by Bower in 2012, Crown Point focuses exclusively on growing Bordeaux grape varieties. For more information, visit www.crownpointvineyards.com.

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Star Staff Report

Singer-songwriter Matt Sucich was brought up in a well-adjusted household in Queens, N.Y., with a family that never gave him a reason to run, gave him room to figure things out, and supported most of his ambitions.

This, he says, might explain why it took him so long to write something worthwhile.

He also says he hasn’t changed his “hard to pronounce” last name or erased his catalogue to try to convince anyone that his latest work is some wildly impressive “debut.”

Sucich will be performing at 7 p.m. on June 23 at Standing Sun Live in Buellton, where he will go through his history and set list with an entertaining show in his folk-acoustic style.

He made his debut at the Bonnaroo Music and Arts Festival in Tennessee, receiving praise especially for his love songs.

His influences range from Bob Dylan to Paul Simon, Bruce Springsteen and My Morning Jacket.

Standing Sun Live is the brain child of John Wright, who blends his wine with live music and good food.

“My intention is not to have a bar. I want this to be a place where people pay attention to the music and where people of all ages can come and get some culture from all over,” he said.

The winery at the eastern end of Second Street in Buellton has an open parking lot where food trucks park and patrons can sit outside to eat and listen to music. Kids also love coloring with sidewalk chalk or dancing to the music.

Standing Sun is at 92 Second St. off the Avenue of Flags in Buellton. The tasting room is open from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. Thursdays through Mondays.

For more information on live music and the art gallery, log onto www.standingsunwines.com or call 805-904-8072.

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Twenty years ago, brothers-in-law Adam Firestone and David Walker launched a tiny brewery on the back-forty of the family vineyard in the Santa Ynez Valley. Their first beer was Double Barrel Ale (DBA), and it was available only on the Central Coast under the rallying cry “It’s what we drink around here”.

While much has changed over the past two decades, much has also remained the same, including the fact that DBA is still brewed right here on the Central Coast.

“Although we have grown over the last 20 years and now welcome visitors from all over the world, we are still stubbornly tied to the Central Coast and California,” David Walker said. “The majority of our beers are still enjoyed within 200 miles of the brewery, and that makes us smile because  the sweetest beer to drink is the one closest to the brewhouse.”

And that brewhouse isn’t going anywhere—in fact, it is currently undergoing a major expansion in Paso Robles. The Buellton location has expanded in the last several years with the Taproom and then the tasting room Barrelworks.

“The expanded brewhouse will solve our current capacity constraints and set the table for our next 20 years and beyond here in Paso Robles and on the Central Coast,” Adam Firestone said. “We are committed the community that raised and supported us faithfully all these years.”

To mark the brewery’s 20^th anniversary, Firestone Walker is set to release XX—a barrel-aged strong ale blended from five component beers with input from local winemakers. Individually boxed bottles of XX ($23.99) will be available at the main brewery in Paso Robles and Firestone Walker’s Barrelworks in Buellton starting on October 29, and will find its way to local shelves shortly thereafter.

A total of 17 local winemakers attended the XX blending session last August. The anniversary ale blending session has become an annual late-summer rite, revolving around a reliable team of friendly vintners who come for the challenge and the camaraderie.

“Our winemaker friends are practicing experts in the art of blending,” said Brewmaster Matt Brynildson. “Their input is invaluable when it comes to blending a seamless beer from widely varied components.”

Meantime, Firestone Walker’s brewhouse expansion is taking shape, with still beams now going up after the recent completion of the foundation along with pipefitting and related underground work. Brewing vessels are complete and shipping from Germany, with a target arrival of late November. 

The expanded brewhouse will feature state-of-the-art brewing technologies as well as new energy and water recovery systems.

Numerous local contractors are helming the brewhouse expansion architecture and construction, including Harris & Associates (architecture and design), GTC Construction (concrete), Rarig Construction (structural), Tyson Heer and Hank’s Welding Services (pipefitting and assembly) among others. The goal is for the expanded brewhouse to be operational in the spring of 2017.

The contributing winemakers were Sherman Thacher and Daniel Callan – Thacher Winery; Matt Trevisan – Linne Calodo; Connor McMahon and Kyle Jury  – Booker; Terry and Natalie Hoage –TH Estate Wines; Russell From and Philip Muzzy – Herman Story; Molly Lonborg and Kevin Sass– Halter Ranch; Brock Waterman – Brochelle Vineyards; Justin Smith – Saxum Vineyards; Mark Adams – Ledge Vineyards; Neil Collins and Chelsea Franchi – Tablas Creek Vineyard and Scott Hawley – Torrin (Winning Blend).

For more information on Firestone Walker log onto www.firestonebeer.com.

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The band Fort Frances will headline at 7 p.m. Oct. 29 at Standing Sun LIVE in Buellton.

“The band has a personal connection to Buellton. When we played SXSW in 2014, we were honored to play The Outlaw Roadshow. The Roadshow is curated by one of our favorite songwriters, Adam Duritz of the Counting Crows. We didn’t just meet Adam when we were in Austin; we also met John Wright, the owner of Standing Sun. John was one of the sponsors of the Roadshow, and we all had a great hang in Austin fueled by six hours of music and a few bottles of Standing Sun syrah,” said lead singer David McMillin.

Three years ago, the Chicago-based trio parted ways with their indie rock roots to record their own take on the hip-hop classic “Summertime.” The song made the rounds on lists of must-download summer songs and landed the band on Comedy Central’s “Tosh.0.”

But the American reception to the song paled in comparison to an unlikely spot on the map in Lithuania. While the band continued to wage the American DIY-band battle for attention at small club shows around the U.S., the situation was much different in the country that is a former member of the USSR. There, the band had become a household name, and the song’s accompanying video had racked up more than one million views.

“We started to get all these messages from fans in Eastern Europe about how much they loved the song,” McMillin said. “We really didn’t think that we were catching on somewhere halfway around the world.”

In 2015, the U.S. Embassy in Lithuania offered to bring Fort Frances to Vilnius, the Lithuanian capital, to headline one of the city’s biggest summer festivals, Loftas Fest. The lineup included Mercury Prize-winning Young Fathers and XL/Terrible Records rapper Le1f.

“Here we are, this unknown band, with our name alongside some of these huge artists from around the world,” bassist Jeff Piper said. “I didn’t even believe we were going until we were on the plane.”

The band’s name was plastered on billboards and street signs. They appeared on “Good Morning, Lithuania.” They headlined the sold-out opening night of the festival. It was clear the band had found a second home.

When it came time to choose a title for the band’s album, the choice was clear. “Alio” — pronounced ah-low —  is Lithuanian for hello.

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By: Gina Potthoff

Over objections from those in the wine industry as well as neighbors irked by existing Santa Ynez Valley tasting rooms, the Santa Barbara County Planning Commission on Monday approved proposed revisions to the county’s decade-old winery ordinance.

The commission voted 4-1 during its Santa Barbara meeting to back county staff recommendations and to certify an environmental impact report, which will be forwarded on to the County Board of Supervisors for final approval.

While planning commissioners touted the rules as a blueprint for orderly development of wineries throughout Santa Barbara County, many winemakers likened the regulations to barriers preventing proliferation of their brands with a one-size-fits-all model.

John Hilliard of Hilliard Bruce vineyards in Lompoc’s Santa Rita Hills tried to paint a proper picture for commissioners, sharing his own by-appointment tasting experiences.

“It’s as if you had friends come over to look at your new home,” Hilliard said. “If we were lucky, we’d have three, four to five cars a day. These little visits are essential for us to survive. We need to be able to explain to people who we are and what makes our product special.”

Speakers on both sides acknowledged by-appointment basis tasting was a compromise to lessen traffic and to keep mom-and-pop wineries from having to deal with profit-eating distributors.

At the conclusion of four heated hearings, winemakers did find one silver lining — commissioners’ willingness to allow conditional use permits for small, rural county vineyards of at least 10 acres to operate wine tasting rooms on a by-appointment only basis.

Tasting rooms were previously only attainable for winemakers with at least 20 rural acres.

As the lone dissenting vote, Commissioner Cecilia Brown called the decision to allow low-intensity tasting rooms a “slippery slope.” She refused to lend support without more mitigations for residents worried about traffic, water and quality of life impacts.

Existing County Land-use and Development Code sets standards for winery use and development, which includes wine-tasting, food service and events. Projects are considered on a case-by-case basis — requiring permits and potential county code amendments — and fall into a three-tier system based on acreage, zoning and wine production.

Commissioner Daniel Blough negotiated the sole modification to approval, which altered the size of low-intensity “Tier A” wine tasting rooms from 200 square feet to 300 square feet.

The new rule would exclude inner rural (Ag-1 zone) properties and limit visitors to 20 at a time.

Local vintners pushed for 400 square-foot tasting rooms and inclusion of rural and inner rural properties near urban areas, according to Morgen McLaughlin, executive director of Santa Barbara County Vintners’ Association.

County planner Jessica Metzger said allowing Tier A wineries with tasting rooms in inner-rural areas would’ve required re-circulation of a final EIR due to significant traffic impacts.

With the changes, the commission eliminated language that would’ve required at least 20 percent of case production from grapes grown on the same lot as the winery.

The ordinance update also adds a “Tier D” winery, which allows the commission to determine limits for the number of winery visitors and special events with a final development plan or conditional use permit.

County planners once again found themselves trying to balance the needs of residents, small business owners and the increasing number of visitors to Santa Barbara County’s wine country.

Twenty-eight public speakers were split on the issue, with many opponents residing along or near Ballard Canyon Road.

Visit Santa Barbara President and CEO Kathy Janega-Dykes said the Santa Ynez Valley stands out from other wine regions because of its small, boutique wineries.

Ballard Canyon Preservation representatives urged for more mitigations, while others suggested wineries were preservers of space and culture. Just as farmers wish to pass on their estates, so do winemakers, said Katie Grassini of Grassini Family Vineyards, who cited years of contributions to local charities.

“We don’t want bachelorette parties or big groups,” she said. “We’ve got grandkids running around out there.”

Michael Larner of Larner Vineyard & Winery in Ballard Canyon said he worried only billionaires will be able to afford tasting rooms in the valley. He said he’s spent six years and every last penny trying to get a wine-tasting permit for his 134-acre ranch.

Commissioners briefly considered trying to limit the future number of wine tasting rooms on the curvy Ballard Canyon Road, but officials backed off when county counsel cited conflicted comments from County Public Works about exactly how dangerous the road is.

To read the complete staff report log onto http://sbcountyplanning.org/PDF/boards/CntyPC/09-19-2016/14ORD-00000-00006/PC%20Memorandum%20September%2019%202016%20hearing.pdf

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