Drive far enough up Foxen Canyon Road and the pavement narrows, the oaks close in, and you arrive at a working ranch where wine has been made since 1985. Foxen Vineyard and Winery is the longtime project of Bill Wathen and Dick Dore, two friends known locally as the Foxen Boys, who built a cult following in the Santa Maria Valley on small lots of Pinot Noir, Chardonnay, and a quietly brilliant roster of Bordeaux, Rhone, and Cal-Italian wines.

The story

The name reaches back a long way. Foxen honors William Benjamin Foxen, an English sea captain who came to the Santa Barbara coast in the early 1800s and, in 1837, bought Rancho Tinaquaic, a Mexican land grant of nearly 9,000 acres that takes in most of what is now Foxen Canyon. In his blacksmith shop the captain forged his own plows, horseshoes, and a branding iron stamped with an anchor, a nod to his years at sea. That anchor became the ranch cattle brand, and generations later it became the winery’s trademark. Dick Dore is his great-great-grandson, which means the ground under Foxen has been in one family for the better part of two centuries.

The wine chapter began in 1985, when Dore teamed up with Bill Wathen. Wathen was raised in San Luis Obispo, studied fruit science and vineyard management at Cal Poly, and learned Old World winemaking at Chalone under Dick Graff, where he fell hard for the wines of Burgundy and the Rhone. The two made their first vintage in the old blacksmith shop on the ranch, the same building, now affectionately called the Shack, that served as Foxen’s winery and tasting room for more than twenty years.

For four decades the philosophy has not wavered: very small production, sustainably farmed, vineyard-driven wines made with a minimalist hand in the cellar. Foxen helped write the early story of Central Coast wine, and it still feels handmade, still feels like a ranch where the people who own the name also walk the rows.

The place

Foxen sits in the Santa Maria Valley, one of the coolest and most singular winegrowing regions in California. The valley runs east to west, an opening in the coastal mountains that lets the Pacific pour its fog and afternoon wind straight inland. Mornings start gray and damp, the sun burns through by midday, and by late afternoon the marine air comes back through and drops the temperature like a switch. That daily swing is the whole secret. It lets the grapes ripen slowly and hold onto their acidity, which is why the valley’s Pinot Noir and Chardonnay taste bright and alive rather than heavy.

The soils along the Santa Maria Bench are sandy and well drained over older clay and ancient seabed, the kind of lean ground that makes vines work and keeps yields low and flavors concentrated. This is the home of legendary vineyards like Bien Nacido, and the broader region anchors the wines of Santa Barbara County, a place that has earned its name as one of the great cool-climate frontiers in the New World.

What they grow and make

Foxen is best known for its Pinot Noir and Chardonnay, and the range goes deeper than most. The Pinot Noirs are sourced from prized Santa Maria Valley sites, lean and red-fruited and built around acidity rather than weight, the kind of bottle you want with food rather than on its own. The Chardonnays show the same instinct for restraint. The Tinaquaic Vineyard Chardonnay comes off the estate ranch, and the Bien Nacido bottlings, including the famous Block UU, are textbook cool-climate Chardonnay: citrus, white flowers, and a long mineral spine.

Beyond Burgundy varieties, Foxen has always been wonderfully unpredictable. There is Syrah and other Rhone wines, an old-vine Chenin Blanc from the Ernesto Wickenden Vineyard in the heart of the Santa Maria Bench, hand-harvested, whole-cluster pressed, and fermented slowly in stainless steel, a wine of taut citrus and quiet depth. There is Cabernet Franc from old, dry-farmed vines high on the Tinaquaic ranch, part of the Heritage Collection and made in tiny quantities, all structure and savory dark fruit. Bordeaux and Italian varieties carry their own label, Foxen 7200, named for the address of the original Shack.

Farming

The work centers on sustainable farming and a deliberately light touch. The grapes are grown sustainably, the estate Cabernet Franc is dry-farmed from old vines, and the cellar follows what Foxen calls a minimalist approach, letting the vineyard and the vintage speak rather than the winemaker. In 2009 the partners completed a solar-powered winery and tasting room on the ranch, a serious investment in energy that matched their long-running care for the land. The result is wine that tastes like a specific place in a specific year, which is the entire point.

Visiting

Foxen offers two distinct tasting experiences on the same stretch of Foxen Canyon Road, a few minutes apart. The modern solar-powered tasting room at 7600 pours the Pinot Noir, Chardonnay, and Rhone-style wines under the FOXEN label. Just down the road, the original Shack, now called foxen 7200, is the rustic, beloved canyon room where the Bordeaux and Italian wines shine. Reservations are recommended, and the foxen 7200 experience runs as a guided seated tasting in a true ranch setting. Both rooms close in the late afternoon, so plan an unhurried lunch hour rather than a sunset stop.

Food pairing

These wines were built for the table, and pairing them is easy once you read their structure. The Santa Maria Valley Pinot Noir, with its bright acidity and red fruit, loves seared duck breast with a cherry pan sauce. The acid in the wine cuts the richness of the duck and resets your palate for the next bite, while the wine and the fruit echo each other, a congruent match that feels inevitable. Roasted mushrooms and earthy dishes work too, since Pinot and mushroom share the same savory, forest-floor notes.

The cool-climate Chardonnay, especially the leaner Tinaquaic or a stainless-aged style, is gorgeous with grilled halibut, oysters, or a roast chicken with lemon and herbs. The wine’s citrus and mineral edge slices through butter and salt and lifts delicate fish rather than burying it. Reach for the old-vine Chenin Blanc with anything bright and salty, from goat cheese to a plate of fresh shellfish. The Cabernet Franc, with its firm tannin and savory dark fruit, wants protein and fat: a grilled lamb chop or a peppercorn steak, where the tannin binds to the protein and turns silky. Not sure where to start, our wine pairing generator will match a Foxen bottle to whatever is on your stove tonight.

To go deeper on the region and the grapes, explore the Santa Maria Valley and the wider world of Santa Barbara wine, read up on California Pinot Noir and California Chardonnay, and let the wine pairing generator build your menu.