Longtime winemaker Kris Curran loved sharing bear hugs and was known for greeting nearly everyone with “sweetheart.”

She was “stunningly smart” and outspoken with a soft spot for dogs, especially those that needed homes.

Curran and Bruno D’Alfonso, her husband and winemaking partner, never traveled far without “the pack” — their team of three or four imposing German shepherds.

Curran, who would have turned 58 on Jan. 19, succumbed Dec. 11 to pancreatic cancer after being diagnosed in May. Per her wishes, no services will be held, D’Alfonso said.

“Be sure to raise a glass in remembrance of Kris,” a Dec. 26 email from D’Alfonso-Curran Wines stated in sharing news of Curran’s passing with friends and wine club members. “We will continue to honor Kris and her wine legacy through the continuity of wine craft style, passion and integrity.”

Together, Curran and D’Alfonso produced four labels: Curran, founded in 1997; Di Bruno, founded in 1995; BADGE, launched in 2003; and D’Alfonso-Curran, with a first vintage in 2007. Total annual case production is between 5,000 and 6,000, D’Alfonso said.

The Curran label includes grenache blanc, grenache gris, grenache and tempranillo; Di Bruno showcases Italian varietals; BADGE encompasses affordable red and white blends, D’Alfonso said; and the D’Alfonso-Curran wines are single vineyard-designated wines. 

On Christmas Eve morning, I met D’Alfonso at the couple’s winery on Santa Rosa Road. When we sat, one of the couple’s three German shepherds laid under a desk near his feet.

“The dogs keep waiting for Kris to come back home,” he said.

As he recalled his life with “Blondie” — Curran’s longtime nickname — D’Alfonso frequently stopped talking to compose himself.

The couple, together for more than three decades, were a winemaking team for 27 years. Curran handled winemaking and administration, and D’Alfonso the production.

“Losing my wife … is like losing my right arm,” he said.

Curran was born in Los Angeles but grew up in the Santa Ynez Valley, and D’Alfonso in Glendale.

In 1991, D’Alfonso first met Curran, then 24, as she was leaving a gym located near the former production site for Sanford Winery, where he was the winemaker with founders Richard and Thekla Sanford.

Curran’s innate love for animals led to her first degree — a bachelor’s in animal science, pre-vet, from Cal Poly, San Luis Obispo. D’Alfonso earned his first degree in soil science from the same university, intending to work for the Forest Service, he said. However, one summer working as a hot-shot firefighter dissuaded him: “It was too much like the military.”

Curran knew Alison Green Doran, then the winemaker for Firestone Winery and another pioneer in the Santa Barbara County wine industry, D’Alfonso said; Green Doran convinced Curran that one needn’t be born into a winemaking family to pursue wine as a career.

Having switched gears, Curran in 1996 earned her second degree from California State University, Fresno, in winemaking, and D’Alfonso pursued the same from the University of California, Davis.

He recounted how Curran annoyed college instructors by frequently skipping their classes but acing the exams.

“She made things look really easy,” he said.

Curran also had a reputation for getting things done, be it in business or life in general.

Curran’s longtime friend, fellow winemaker Morgan Clendenen, recounted a tale of obstinate skunks stalking the Curran-D’Alfonso home on Rancho La Vina Vineyard.

“Kris and Bruno had been having problems with skunks spraying the dogs,” Clendenen said, “and anyone who knew Kris knew she loved her dogs more than most people love their own children.”

The dogs had encountered a skunk and all got sprayed, but one dog — Scout — took a direct hit in the mouth, Clendenen said. Scout then returned to the house and threw up in the bedroom closet, filling the entire home with the stench of skunk.

Curran hunted down the skunk and shot it twice with a revolver to “make sure it was dead.”

Clendenen described Curran as “stunningly smart” with a science-oriented mind that valued logic.

“It was one of my favorite things about her — she didn’t let emotion cloud her mind,” Clendenen said.

In 1997, Curran started her career as an assistant winemaker at Cambria Wines, then joined Koehler as a founding winemaker. From there, she worked seven vintages as the first winemaker at Sea Smoke before relocating to Foley Wines, where she remained until 2006.

D’Alfonso left Sanford when the Terlato family became majority owners in 2005. Instead of financial compensation, he left Sanford with “80% of what we needed for a functioning winery,” including a bottling line, nine tanks, valves and other cellar equipment.

“All we needed was a crusher de-stemmer and a press,” and the two had the winery that Curran had always wanted — one where she could make her own wines, D’Alfonso recalled.

The longtime owners of Rancho La Vina, growers of organic walnuts, heirloom tomatoes and pinot noir on a 2,700-acre site that dates back to the 1860s, offered to build a 20,000-square-foot winemaking facility for D’Alfonso and Curran. In 2006, the couple moved in, and 2007 was their first vintage of the D’Alfonso-Curran label.

Noẽ Marin, for two decades the associate winemaker for D’Alfonso-Curran, described himself as “privileged and lucky to have had Kris in my life for more than 20 years. She gave me the opportunity to learn with two of the best winemakers in the industry,” he said.

Lisa Christensen, longtime director of marketing and sales for the winery, recalled first meeting Curran, D’Alfonso and Roland and Gunner — two of their first Shepherds — when she worked as a specialty surgical nurse at a 24-hour small animal hospital in Santa Barbara.

“Like Kris, I had been a pre-vet student. She was a client of mine before she became a friend,” Christensen said.

Years later, while living in Lompoc, “I bumped into Kris at the grocery store. She was working at Foley and offered me a job there. That’s when our professional relationship began,” said Christensen, who had studied enology and viticulture at Allan Hancock College and worked as Curran’s enologist at Foley. When Curran left Foley, so did Christensen.

“She was my best friend of 24 years and like a big sister to me. It was a privilege to be her friend and employee, and she was a bigger gift in my life than anything. The void now is indescribable and will never be filled … she was the embodiment of kindness and generosity, which will be the legacy that I will try to continue in her honor,” Christensen said.

After lengthy teaching careers at Santa Ynez Valley Union High School, which Curran attended, Dave and Mary Lou Kuehn retired to Brookings, Ore., nearly a decade ago. Dave Kuehn, who majored in marine biology, taught science and math and coached baseball, and Mary Lou taught French and math.

Dave Kuehn recalled telling students — including Curran — that his name was pronounced “Keen — as in ‘peachy keen,’” he said. “In class, she’d address me as Mr. Kuehn,” but outside, and henceforth, Kuehn was forever “Peachy Keen” to Curran.

He remembers her as being “very smart and good at science.”

The Kuehns got their start in the wine industry by pouring wine at Firestone Winery.

“We were hired as ‘weekend warriors,’ and it was really fun, since we like people,” he said.

When Foley Wines purchased Firestone in 2007, the Kuehns left and helped Curran and D’Alfonso pour wine for special events at the Lompoc winery. They later worked at the D’Alfonso-Curran Solvang tasting room, located where The Gathering Table now exists.

“We hung out a lot, for barbecues and dinners, and have lots of great memories,” Dave Kuehn said.