Lafond Winery

California
, the most populous state of the United States, located on the Pacific coast of NorthAmerica is bordered by Oregon, Nevada, Arizona and Mexico. The four largest cities are Los Angeles, San Diego, San Jose and San Francisco. California is also the home of and wine producing regions such as Santa Barbara and Northern California's Wine Country.

Santa Barbara Winery was started in 1962 by Pierre Lafond. It was the first winery in Santa Barbara County since the end of prohibition in the early 1930s. At that time no vineyards existed in the area and grapes were trucked in from San Luis ObispoCounty some distance away. Santa Barbara Winery planted its first vineyard, the Lafond Vineyard, in 1972. It is now just under 100 acres. It was not, however, until the arrival of winemaker Bruce McGuire in 1981 that the winery achieved its present status and recognition.

Over the years Bruce has crafted many excellent wines and today embracing the latest and finest technology the wines are even better. An example is the new Triage technology used to process red grapes where leaves, stems and any other debris is removed from the must prior to fermentation. Everything starts in the vineyards and today they have a program replacing, gradually, the old wines with clones that have preformed well in their vineyard or in one of their neighbors’ vineyards.

In 2001, they opened the Lafond Winery at the vineyards to process and produce only red wines while continuing to make white wines at Santa Barbara Winery. The equipment, the tanks, everything is different for red and white wines. It was a natural and positive step. It also permitted them to create some very special small lot wines under the Lafond label. The main plantings are Pinot Noir, Chardonnay and Syrah in that order with smaller blocks of Riesling and Grenache. Wines produced by Lafond Winery and Vineyards are Pinot Noir, Chardonnay and Syrah. Wines produced by Santa Barbara Winery Chardonnay, Sauvignon Blanc, Riesling, Rose of Syrah, Pinot Noir, and Syrah.

There are many wonderful famous as well as some not so well known areas in California Wine Country that are just right for an enjoyable day of wine tasting. It’s always best to get off the beaten track and find the other gold that still exists and enjoy the beautiful scenery along these wine trails in this beautiful State.