Walk into the row of roll-up doors on Industrial Way in Buellton and you find a tasting room that thinks like a film set. Tomi Cellars is the project of Boyd Shermis and Denise Davis, two veterans of the movie business who traded one craft of light and patience for another, and now pour seventeen small-lot wines named for the language of cinema.

The story

Tomi Cellars grew out of a habit two people kept for more than twenty years. Long before there was a label, Boyd Shermis and Denise Davis were keeping notes on every bottle that moved them, a running profile of more than a thousand wines they loved. That archive, the wines we have liked, became the compass for everything they would eventually make. Davis is the owner, creative director, and the inspiration behind the project. Shermis is the winemaker and strategist, a man who spent a career in film and then spent two decades studying wine with the same seriousness.

The turn came in 2019, when Shermis joined winemaker Ross Rankin of Imagine Wine to learn the cellar from the inside. The first Tomi bottlings followed in 2021, and the lineup grew quickly, more than a dozen wines drawn from the 2019 through 2022 vintages. The names give the founders away. HDR, Z-Depth, Ambient Light, Persistence of Vision, White Balance, Chroma, Reflection. These are the terms of cinematography and visual effects, and they read like a quiet love letter to the work the couple left behind.

It is a garagiste story in the truest sense, a small operation built on borrowed time, sourced fruit, and an obsessive palate. There is no sprawling estate here, no marble visitor center. There is a working space at the Industrial Wine Garden, a couple who answer their own questions, and a long list of wines made the way they would want to drink them.

The place

The tasting room sits in Buellton, the unpretentious crossroads town at the western mouth of the Santa Ynez Valley. This is one of the great cool-climate corners of California, shaped by the transverse ranges that run east to west and funnel Pacific fog straight inland. Mornings here can sit grey and damp while afternoons turn warm and bright, and that daily swing is the whole secret. Grapes hold their acid through the long hang, and the wines come out lively rather than heavy.

Tomi does not farm its own ground, so the sense of place comes through the vineyards it chooses. The reach is wide across Santa Barbara County. Pinot Noir and Chardonnay arrive from the fog-soaked benches of the Sta. Rita Hills, names like La Encantada and Bentrock that read as a who is who of the region. Syrah comes from the limestone spine of Ballard Canyon. Albarino and Pinot Meunier come up from Riverbench in the Santa Maria Valley, and Barbera from Alisos Canyon. Each site is picked for what it does best, then handled with a light hand in the cellar.

What they grow and make

Tomi makes a remarkable spread for a winery this size, around seventeen wines pouring at any given time, with a clear bias toward the unusual. Alongside the expected Pinot Noir and Chardonnay you will find Albarino, Barbera, Grenache, Grenache Blanc, Merlot, Roussanne, Tempranillo, and Viognier, plus rose. It is a list built by people who have tasted everything and want to share the corners most tasting rooms skip.

The reds carry the most ambition. The HDR Pinot Noir from La Encantada in the Sta. Rita Hills shows the cool, red-fruited, forest-floor side of the grape that the fog makes possible. The Z-Depth Syrah Reserve from Ballard Canyon is the dark, peppery, structured counterpoint, a wine for cold nights. The D-Max Tempranillo from Stanger Vineyard leans Spanish and savory, while the Chroma Barbera from Alisos Canyon keeps the high acid and bright cherry that make Barbera such a friend at the table.

Among the whites, the Ambient Light Albarino from Riverbench is the standout, a coastal, saline, citrus-driven white that tastes like it was built for oysters. The White Balance blend of Grenache Blanc and Roussanne adds weight and texture, and the Reflection Viognier from Alta Colina brings the perfumed stone-fruit lift the grape is loved for. These are wines with a point of view, made in tiny quantities, and meant to be opened with food and people.

Sourcing

Because Tomi owns no vineyards, the work begins with relationships and ends with restraint. The fruit comes from a roster of respected Central Coast sites chosen grape by grape. Watch Hill and Tierra Alta for Syrah, La Encantada and Bentrock for Pinot Noir, Riverbench for Albarino and Pinot Meunier, Thompson for Grenache Blanc, Stanger for Tempranillo, Alta Colina for Grenache and Viognier, La Presa for Roussanne and Petite Sirah, and Estelle for Merlot. Buying ultra premium fruit from growers who farm it well lets a two-person operation punch far above its size, and it keeps the focus where Shermis wants it, on choices in the cellar rather than chores in the field.

Visiting

The Tomi tasting room is part of the Industrial Wine Garden cluster on Industrial Way, a friendly, low-key Buellton scene where the people pouring are often the people who made the wine. Appointments are recommended, walk-ins are welcome, and the flight is the easiest way to taste your way through the cinematic lineup.

Food pairing

Tomi makes the kind of wines that come alive at the table. Pour the Ambient Light Albarino with raw oysters or grilled white fish and watch the saline edge and bright citrus cut straight through the brine, a complementary match where the wine acid resets your palate for the next bite. The HDR Pinot Noir wants something earthy and savory, seared duck breast with a cherry pan sauce, where the wine and the dish meet on shared notes of red fruit and forest floor.

For the Z-Depth Syrah, reach for lamb chops off the grill or a peppered ribeye. The tannin binds to the protein and fat, softening the wine and scrubbing the richness from the meat at the same time. The Chroma Barbera, all high acid and tart cherry, is the classic foil for tomato and red sauce, the reason Barbera was built for the Italian table. If you want help thinking it through, run your dish through the pairing tool and let it suggest a bottle.

To go deeper, explore the Santa Ynez Valley and the wider world of Santa Barbara wine, read up on California Pinot Noir and California Chardonnay to understand the cool-climate grapes behind Tomi, or jump straight to the wine pairing generator to plan dinner around your next bottle.

For a tasting day that needs no designated driver, the Funk Zone urban wine trail gathers dozens of Santa Barbara County producers into a walkable grid of converted warehouses near the harbor.