Very early this year, viticulturist Alex Milholland drove me to a small vineyard he planted and manages behind a home off Fredensborg Canyon Road in Solvang. Up the steep drive we drove, and Milholland parked his truck. We then climbed higher up wide steps leading to the backyard vineyard.
The 1-acre vineyard is planted on a hillside so steep I knew that any misstep would send me head over heels down the slope all the way to the bottom fence line.
“We had to design and plant this entire vineyard by hand, without any tractor, because of the steep driveway up and steps to the vineyard,” Milholland said.
Three-foot-deep “earth anchors” wired to each of the trellis’ end posts keep it stable. The site is three-quarters of an acre of grenache and one-quarter of picpoul blanc.
Today the two-year vineyard displays so much healthy growth that “it looks older than it is.” This fall, Milholland hopes to make a rosé of grenache for the owners of the home and vineyard.
This vineyard is one of five Milholland manages under his Ox Vineyard/Property Development business. Two others are on Refugio Road in Santa Ynez, the fourth on Dove Meadow Road, and the fifth is the 500-vine pinot noir vineyard behind his parents’ home on Lompoc’s southwestern edge.
Late in February, Milholland contracted for a sixth site: 20 acres off Figueroa Mountain Road. “It’s virgin land, and I will be starting on it as soon as possible.”
As winter fades into spring, growers accelerate their pace. Soils still moist from rains get boosted with amendments. Vine rows are tilled. Weeds grow — and then grow some more, as all gardeners can attest.
At one of the Refugio Road vineyards he manages, Milholland keeps a menagerie: three miniature cows (Karen, Martha and Hank, the bull), a handful of several ducks and even more chickens, who have a deluxe coop he built. This site is 5 acres with 2 1/2 currently planted to sangiovese, barbera, nebbiolo and cabernet sauvignon grapevines.
Milholland hopes to craft a “Super Tuscan” blend from those four red grapes — that hearty Italian classic would join his Ox Wine Co. lineup of syrah, grenache and cabernet sauvignon, all vintage 2019.
His current production is about 500 cases per year, and — like sole proprietors who handle most of the labor alone — “my hope is to stay below 1,000 cases per year.”
Milholland’s current vintages are rich, balanced reds “made with minimal intervention, where you can taste the terroir. My goal is to show how the (various) vineyards speak out in each wine.”
For his vineyard development and management business, Milholland said he employs 10 people, evenly split between full and part-time. Since he’s a veteran of the U.S. Army, which he entered immediately after his 2007 graduation from Lompoc High School, he’s now returning the favor. “I hire vets to do the hard labor in a vineyard.”
When he was 19 years old — “before I could legally buy beer” — Milholland opted to brew his own. He crafted a coffee stout and an Irish red ale, both of which caught the eye (and palate) of the then-winemaker for Dierberg/Starlane Vineyards, where Milholland worked a harvest in 2010.
“He loved it and suggested I segue into winemaking,” Milholland recalled.
With the 2024 harvest, Milholland said he’s worked 15 harvests, including stints at other wineries, among them Sunstone, Babcock, Dierberg and Lafond.