Hitching Post Wines is the kind of story that could only happen in Santa Barbara. Frank Ostini, the chef behind the legendary Hitching Post II steakhouse, and Gray Hartley, an Alaskan salmon fisherman, started making wine together as a backyard hobby in 1979. More than four decades later their Pinot Noir is among the most beloved in the county, their flagship became a character in an Oscar-winning film, and you can taste it all in a room right next to the restaurant that built the legend.

A chef, a fisherman, and a backyard hobby

Frank Ostini and Gray Hartley were old friends who started fooling around with winemaking in 1979, more for the love of it than anything else. Frank ran the kitchen at the Hitching Post, the Santa Maria-style barbecue restaurant his family built, and understood better than almost anyone what wine is supposed to do at a table. Gray spent his summers thousands of miles north, working the Alaskan salmon fishery, a job he did for 28 years.

In 1981 they discovered what Santa Barbara County could do with Pinot Noir, and that settled it. Pinot became their focus and has stayed there ever since. The backyard hobby grew into one of the most respected small labels in the region, made by two men who never lost the sense that wine is meant to be fun and shared over a good meal.

The Highliner and Sideways

Their flagship wine is the Hitching Post Highliner, a Pinot Noir named for the highest honor in commercial fishing. A highliner is the best fisherman in the fleet, the boat that comes back fullest, and the name is Gray tribute to the great men he worked beside in Alaska for nearly three decades. It is a wine with a story in its very name.

Then Hollywood came calling. The 2004 film Sideways, set in this exact stretch of wine country, turned the Hitching Post and its Highliner into something close to icons. A generation of wine lovers came looking for the Pinot Noir from the movie, and found that the real thing more than lives up to the legend. Few bottles in California carry this much genuine history and this much pure fun at the same time.

The wines and the table

Pinot Noir is the heart of the Hitching Post range, sourced from some of the best vineyards in the Sta. Rita Hills and the Santa Maria Valley, made in a style that is generous, food-loving, and built to be drunk rather than worshipped. There are bigger and smaller bottlings, single-vineyard wines and blends, but the through-line is balance and drinkability.

It is no accident that these wines taste so right with food. They were created by a chef, for the table, alongside one of the great live-fire restaurants in California. The wine and the cooking grew up together.

What to put on the table

This is grill wine in the best sense. Hitching Post Pinot Noir was made next to a Santa Maria-style barbecue pit, and it shines with exactly that kind of cooking: red oak-grilled tri-tip, smoked steaks, grilled quail, anything kissed by live fire. The wine bright acidity cuts through the char and fat while its red fruit and gentle tannin keep pace with the smoke, a complementary pairing that practically defines Central Coast dining.

It is just as happy with duck, salmon, mushrooms, and roast chicken, where Pinot savory side meets the earthiness on the plate. Pour it a touch cool, around 60 degrees, salt the meat well, and you have the meal this wine was born for.

Hitching Post Wines: common questions