Spear Vineyards & Winery is a family-owned, herbicide-free estate in the heart of the Sta. Rita Hills, built by a winemaker who believes a wine should taste like its ground and nothing else. Ofer Shepher chased that idea for the better part of a decade before he found the right hillside. The wines that come off it, poured in a tasting room carved out of a century-old dairy barn, are some of the most honest in the appellation.

From a kibbutz to the Sta. Rita Hills

Ofer Shepher spent his childhood summers on the kibbutz in Israel where his mother grew up, working the communal farm and absorbing a way of thinking where every part of the system matters and everyone pulls together. That ethic never left him. Weekend camping trips to the Santa Ynez Valley turned a curiosity about wine into something closer to a calling.

He began his winemaking studies at UC Davis in 2004, then moved to the historic Gnesa Ranch in 2005 to be surrounded by the Sta. Rita Hills. From that point his focus narrowed to a single place. He spent seven patient years searching for the ideal site to plant and build his own vineyard and winery, unwilling to settle for less than the right ground.

Herbicide-free, soil to glass

Spear is farmed sustainably and without herbicides, and the philosophy runs deeper than a label. Ofer treats every stage of growing and making wine as equally important, a whole system where the soil, the vines, the people, and the wine all support one another. The motto says it plainly: wine that tastes like where it came from.

That is why a visit here is built around the vineyard itself. You taste from soil to glass, walking the same ground that shapes the wine in your hand, which is the most honest way to understand a place.

The wines

Spear works with the three grapes the Sta. Rita Hills does best. The Chardonnays, including the Estate and the Gnesa bottlings, range from bright stainless-fermented versions to richer barrel-aged wines, all carrying the cool-climate acidity that defines this corner of California. The Pinot Noirs, among them single-block wines like Block 13, are perfumed and red-fruited with real structure. And the Syrahs, led by Block 19, show the savory, peppery side of the appellation, dark and spice-driven without losing freshness.

These are small-lot wines made to express site rather than a house style, which means each bottling tells you something specific about the ground it grew on.

What to pour it with

Spear range covers a whole dinner. Start the Chardonnay with anything in butter or cream, roast chicken, scallops, crab, or a wedge of aged cheese, where a richer barrel-aged bottling matches weight for weight and a crisp stainless version cuts the fat with bright acid.

Bring out the Pinot Noir for duck, salmon, pork, and mushrooms, where its acidity slices through fat and its savory side echoes the earthiness on the plate. Save the Block 19 Syrah for the grill: lamb, peppered steak, smoked brisket, or sausages, where the wine dark fruit and black-pepper bite meet the char head-on. A little salt on any of these plates rounds the wine and lifts its fruit, the simplest trick in pairing.

Spear Vineyards & Winery: common questions