Kathy Joseph, one of Santa Barbara County’s pioneering winemakers, has sold her vineyard to a team headed by Justin Willett, owner/winemaker of Tyler Winery in Lompoc.
Joseph is the longtime proprietor and winemaker of Fiddlehead Cellars in Lompoc, and her vineyard, Fiddlestix, helped define the borders of Santa Barbara County’s famed Sta. Rita Hills AVA.
Joseph said she plans to retain Fiddlehead Cellars and continue to source grapes from other vineyards, among them sites in the Happy Canyon of Santa Barbara AVA and in Oregon’s Willamette Valley.
The new owners of the 100-acre Fiddlestix Vineyard are Willett, Erik Mallea and Todd Gray of Willett-Mallea Farming and William Borgers, CEO of Ventura Coastal LLC.
Willett, a native of Santa Barbara, also owns a vineyard on Highway 246 near Hapgood Road and is co-owner of Lompoc’s Lieu Dit Wines with his friend Eric Railsback.
The Willett team plans to convert Fiddlestix from sustainable to organic farming and to plant more chardonnay, according to reports.
Willett has sourced Fiddlestix grapes for his Tyler label, as have several other area winemakers, among them Dragonette Cellars, Hitching Post Wines, Ancien and Bonaccorsi, according to a news release on Tuesday from Elizabeth Glenn of Vieux Communications.
She noted that Fiddlehead Cellars’ current case production is about 4,000 cases of grüner veltliner, sauvignon blanc and pinot noir, all produced at the winery on Chestnut Avenue in Lompoc’s Wine Ghetto.
In 1996, Joseph purchased the land that would become Fiddlestix — a flower farm located at mile marker 7.28 on Santa Rosa Road — and planted it to vines in 1998, turning it into a prominent pinot noir site for both her label and many other winemakers, according to Glenn. Her initial plan was to use about 15 acres for Fiddlehead Cellars and sell the rest to other winemakers.
Joseph worked with fellow pioneering winemakers Bryan Babcock, Richard Longoria and Richard Sanford, among others, to draw the boundaries of the Sta. Rita Hills AVA, formalized in 2001.
“There were only a few vineyards in the region at the time, so I was taking a big risk purchasing the property,” Joseph said. But, the site was in “just the right spot to avoid extremes, and offered a perfect protected pocket for vines. I also recognized that the area’s soils consisted of clay loam laden with Monterey shale and chert, which were ideal for producing pinot noirs with exciting structure.”
While the 100-acre vineyard is planted primarily to pinot noir, Joseph was one of the first in Santa Barbara County to plant grüner veltliner, and today several other producers purchase that popular grape varietal from Fiddlestix.
“Having overseen the Fiddlestix Vineyard in the Sta. Rita Hills for 25 years as a one-woman show, I feel I have made my mark in the arena,” Joseph said. “I’m so proud of the recognition that Fiddlestix Vineyard has brought to not just California but the wine industry as a whole.”
Joseph’s 2021 vintage will be the last to feature fruit from Fiddlestix Vineyard, she said.
She believes that Fiddlehead’s best wines “are yet to come,” as she plans to continue producing “place-driven wines, sharing memorable experiences with my customers, and now also exploring opportunities to make wines from new vineyard sites. I remain fully committed to bringing Fiddlehead Cellars into the future.”
Visitors to fiddleheadcellars.com were advised that the Chestnut Avenue tasting room in Lompoc’s Wine Ghetto would be closed during December and January except for private tasting appointments booked by email or phone.
— Laurie Jervis tweets at @lauriejervis and can be reached via winecountrywriter@gmail.com. The opinions expressed are her own. She would happily take the wheel of a Ferrari if given the chance.