Lompoc winemaker Kris Beverly came of age making blackberry wine in 5-gallon glass containers with his father in the 1990s, as did his father’s father before him.

“Distillation and fermentation runs in my family, and I still have some of the equipment that my family used,” he told Noozhawk.

Beverly recounted literary master William Faulkner’s quote that “civilization begins with distillation.”

Faulkner emphasized how the farmer’s hand, or his/her role in winemaking, is key, Beverly explained.

“I’m a third-generation distiller, which is so poignant to my story now,” he said — and that’s how Beverly christened his wine brand Civilization Wine Company.

Back in 2008, while studying for the California Bar Exam, a “chance encounter” with Santa Barbara County’s then-burgeoning wine industry caught Beverly’s attention.

He met winemakers and vineyard owners and learned the harvest ropes by working in others’ cellars.

Early last month, Beverly and I tasted through his current releases. The trio includes a 2020 grenache blanc from Camp 4 Vineyard, and a 2019 pinot noir and 2018 syrah, both from Ampelos Vineyard in the Santa Rita Hills.

Both reds initially were sourced for a brand Beverly previously co-owned before he launched Civilization Wine Company in 2021.

The grenache blanc spent 22 months sur lees, (French for “on the lees”), aging on the sediment that develops in the barrel. The result is a white wine with more structure and heft.

Beverly plans to continue utilizing sur lees aging for his white wines, though perhaps for a shorter duration, he noted.

Ampelos Vineyard is a biodynamic vineyard — one of the nation’s first to be certified sustainable, organic and biodynamic.

Beverly made his pinot noir vintage organically, only adding sulfur dioxide immediately before bottling, and said he utilized just 25% new French oak. The wine is light in color and on the palette with an expansive finish.

The 2018 syrah spent a hefty four years in barrel and, like the pinot noir, has a long finish but highlights layers of fruit hidden just below the surface.

Beverly produced just 100 cases of each of these wines, and pours them from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. Friday through Sunday out of his shared cellar facility, Lompoc Wine Factory, at 321 N. D St.

Aging in barrel are two 2021 red wines: A pinot noir from Quinta Santa Rosa, a 3½-acre family-owned vineyard on Santa Rosa Road in the Santa Rita Hills, and a cabernet sauvignon from Vincent Vineyards in Santa Ynez. Beverly will bottle the 2021 pinot noir next spring.

Civilization Wine Company’s current annual production is about 400 cases, but Beverly hopes to double that by 2024.

“My ultimate goal is to produce 4,000 cases, but I’ll need my own space to do that,” he said.

I often ask winemakers what they’d craft if cost or grape availability were no object: Beverly said he’d produce a Super Tuscan — a hearty red wine that originated in Tuscany, Italy.

“That’s my goal wine, if I could get even a ton of sangiovese” from the esteemed Stolpman Vineyards, he said.

Like most small producers, Beverly relishes the hands-on work required during harvest and fermentation, especially “the shoulder strength I gain during punch downs” as red wines ferment.

On the flip side, selling one’s craft on the open market is challenging. Connections are vital.

Beverly’s longtime roots in greater Los Angeles, where he was raised, have paid off: Just this month, he solidified a deal to produce a house wine for Mirabelle Wine Bar in Burbank, he told me.

That accomplishment aside, “the tough aspect is the struggle of meeting people to sell my wine, and being on the road,” said Beverly, a single father to a 5-year-old son, Lucius.

Beverly, 42, who said he opted for law school “for the challenge,” graduated from USC following his undergrad studies at UC Irvine in environmental land use and urban planning.