Lafond Winery & Vineyards
The estate of Pierre Lafond, the man who restarted Santa Barbara County’s wine industry in 1962 and planted the Sta. Rita Hills a decade before almost anyone else.
Every wine region has a founder, the person who went first when there was nothing to follow. In Santa Barbara County, that person is Pierre Lafond. The estate that bears his name in the Sta. Rita Hills grows on some of the oldest vines in the appellation.
The man who restarted Santa Barbara wine
In 1962, Pierre Lafond founded Santa Barbara Winery, the first commercial winery in the county since Prohibition wiped the slate clean decades earlier. Ten years later, in 1972, he planted the Lafond Vineyard along Santa Rosa Road, in cold ground that would not become the Sta. Rita Hills AVA for another three decades. He was, in other words, decades early, and right. Today the Lafond estate in the Sta. Rita Hills makes its own wines under the longtime hand of winemaker Bruce McGuire, part of a family of Santa Barbara institutions that still includes Santa Barbara Winery and the beloved Pierre Lafond Market.
He planted the Sta. Rita Hills in 1972, when the rest of the world had never heard of it.
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Start the quizThe wines
Lafond is an estate Pinot Noir, Chardonnay, and Syrah house, drawing on the cool, wind-swept fruit of one of the appellation’s original vineyards. The Pinot Noirs are bright and savory in the classic Sta. Rita Hills mold, the Chardonnays taut and mineral, and the Syrah cool-climate and peppery. There is a directness to these wines that comes from old vines and long experience.
What to drink it with
The estate Pinot Noir is a natural with grilled salmon, seared duck, or a mushroom risotto, where the wine’s earthy side meets the fungi. The Chardonnay, fresh and stony, loves Dungeness crab in butter or a roast chicken, its acidity cutting the richness, and the cool-climate Syrah is made for Santa Maria style tri-tip and grilled lamb.
Plan your visit
Lafond pours at its winery and tasting room on Santa Rosa Road in the heart of the Sta. Rita Hills, right among the historic vines. It is an easy, scenic stop on a Santa Rosa Road wine day, often paired with neighbors like Sanford and Alma Rosa.
Taste where it all restarted
Book a tasting at Lafond and drink Sta. Rita Hills wine from one of its oldest and most historic vineyards.
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